I've missed a deadline, fallen asleep on the couch with dishes still in the sink and kids not tucked into bed, and I've felt like I botch everything, mess everything up, and I've had to say it right out loud. "Praise not Perfection. He wants my praise not my perfection."
And when I have just had to take a deep breath and take captive every thought by counting gifts. 'Thank you Lord, for sun lining clouds and hot water to soak these pots, and that my identity is in what Christ did for me, not in what anyone thinks of me, and that your love never lets me go."
Ann Voskamp, A Holy Experience
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Unexpected Gift
#171 – A laying hen
Never did I think a laying hen would be the most significant gift I would ever receive. And not only that, but never did I think the lesson that gift taught me would come from a 3 year old who demonstrated what it means to be truly courageous.
Courage finds its greatest expression in love and sacrifice. That is the Reader’s Digest version of 1 John 3. In The Message, Eugene Peterson writes about love and sacrifice in this way…
For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other. 1 John 11
This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for each other, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. 1 John 16-17
I believe Pastor Dale would say the Reader’s Digest version of this verse is “Loving and sacrificing with our EVERYTHINGNESS”.
Angel demonstrated that kind of love to me. Not just with the gift of a laying hen, but in the way she goes around her village convincing the young and old that they should love and trust the Mzungu (white foreigner/missionary) by telling them, “Do not be afraid. She is my friend”. I don’t know if Angel knows Christ, but she understands how to live like Christ. I believe her family must be believers, because in their physical “poorness”, they seem to have become completely dependent on God and are spiritually “wealthy”. When you are spiritually “wealthy”, you can give out of your nothingness because you have trust that Christ is taking care of everything.
Ann VosKamp writes about a different, yet similar, kind of courage.
“Jesus calls me to surrender and there’s nothing like releasing fears and falling into peace. It terrifies, true. But it exhilarates. This, this is what I’ve always wanted and never knew; this utter trust, this enlivening fall of surrender into the safe hands.”
Ann understands what it means to be courageous. Angel demonstrates it. I am learning it and I pray each of you will experience this kind of courageous, sacrificial love as well.
Kelly Huenink
Never did I think a laying hen would be the most significant gift I would ever receive. And not only that, but never did I think the lesson that gift taught me would come from a 3 year old who demonstrated what it means to be truly courageous.
Courage finds its greatest expression in love and sacrifice. That is the Reader’s Digest version of 1 John 3. In The Message, Eugene Peterson writes about love and sacrifice in this way…
For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other. 1 John 11
This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for each other, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. 1 John 16-17
I believe Pastor Dale would say the Reader’s Digest version of this verse is “Loving and sacrificing with our EVERYTHINGNESS”.
Angel demonstrated that kind of love to me. Not just with the gift of a laying hen, but in the way she goes around her village convincing the young and old that they should love and trust the Mzungu (white foreigner/missionary) by telling them, “Do not be afraid. She is my friend”. I don’t know if Angel knows Christ, but she understands how to live like Christ. I believe her family must be believers, because in their physical “poorness”, they seem to have become completely dependent on God and are spiritually “wealthy”. When you are spiritually “wealthy”, you can give out of your nothingness because you have trust that Christ is taking care of everything.
Ann VosKamp writes about a different, yet similar, kind of courage.
“Jesus calls me to surrender and there’s nothing like releasing fears and falling into peace. It terrifies, true. But it exhilarates. This, this is what I’ve always wanted and never knew; this utter trust, this enlivening fall of surrender into the safe hands.”
Ann understands what it means to be courageous. Angel demonstrates it. I am learning it and I pray each of you will experience this kind of courageous, sacrificial love as well.
Kelly Huenink
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