Monday, May 7, 2012

A conversation with a friend...


Oh, I have to tell you! After I hung up with you, I got the girls out of the pool and told them to shampoo/condition their hair in the pool bathroom. While they were in the shower, I sat under the umbrella with one of the neighbors. She asked me if I would teach her son swimming lessons again this summer. Her son has some special needs and I asked how he was doing. She said, he's okay, but I'm really struggling with one of my daughters. I asked how old she was. She said, 11. I said, how long have you been struggling? She said, 2 years and it's getting worse. With tears in her eyes she said, "I'm really scared Michele". I sat there and talked with her for an hour. I shared with her the things I've been learning and some of the struggles I've had with my own kids. I told her that you and I were just on the phone talking about this very thing. She opened up to me and we had an amazing conversation. She seemed so thirsty for hope, like the woman at the well. She thanked me for the things I shared with her and seemed to feel relief that someone could relate to her and give her hope. I'm dropping off a book in her mailbox today and hopefully we'll get together for coffee soon. These are some of the "real" needs that I'm beginning to see are all around me. People who look like they have it together on the outside, but inside they're tortured. Their needs may not be as obvious as those in the 3rd world countries because they have food, clothes, and a roof over their heads, but they are people filled with pain. They are lost and hopeless like sheep without a shepherd...

I love what Wayne Jacobson says, "He likes to have real conversations about things that matter with people who care." I was thinking about how my neighbor and I got into such a meaningful conversation at the pool. It seemed so out of the blue. It wasn't something I had planned that day. She has lived in this neighborhood as long as I have (about 8 years) and we've always been neighborly. Then last summer she asked me to give her son lessons, and then in the fall she asked me to help her decorate her family room. Those 2 times we spent together opened the door for us to have some meaningful conversations. 

Sometimes I wonder if we could really see what goes on behind the scenes... Would we see God looking at all the pain in the world and hearing all the desperate cries for help and then sending his children to be his hands, feet, and voice to bring hope and healing to one another? Maybe he has specific tasks for each of us, and as we each follow where he leads, the world gets healed piece by piece. Maybe he intersected the lives of me and my neighbor so that I could share with her some of the resources that God led me to that brought me and my family healing. We don't have to understand all that he's doing, he's the orchestrator and will accomplish his will. Our job is just to love who he puts in front of us and follow where he leads, then watch his plans unfold as he heals the world through us. I think Jesus showed us how to do that in his ministry. 

Last Sunday, we talked about that with the small group that meets in our home. One of the guys said, "Sometimes I think we should be doing something great for God, but then I think maybe that comes more from my old religious background rather than coming from God." I said, I guess I don't feel that so much anymore. I feel called to love my neighbor; to reflect God's love to those I come in contact with everyday." I do think that God sometimes calls us to love our neighbor on the other side of the world, but I think if we follow where he leads us everyday, one thing will lead to another and we'll find ourselves on the other side of the world. Our flesh is tempted to want to point to the things we accomplish for God, so we can validate our faith before God and man. But I have a feeling sometimes it's the quietest lives that have the most profound consequences.

When I look at how differently we were all created (different passions, desires, talents...), I think, surely God doesn't have the same tasks for all of us. I was thinking about another guy in our group (a teacher/head coach). He was talking about one of the programs he's trying to get implemented in his school. He sees a lot of kids that are overweight and worries about childhood obesity. These kids don't fit in the "jock" category and would never play sports at school, so he wants to create a frisbee golf coarse so each kid could play at their own pace. He just got it approved and is raising $5,000.00 to create the coarse and will be doing a lot of the work himself. I think maybe that's what it looks like when we follow the promptings of the spirit, rather than try to come up with a plan to save the world and then invite God in on it. When I look at the example Jesus set for us, I see him engaged with his father and following where he leads and simply loving those he comes in contact with and offering them kindness, compassion, and healing. Even though each of us may feel like our part is small, I think as each part of the body does it's work, the mustard seed affect will be tremendous.

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