Ministry in the Midst

Let's face it. We live in the midst of a hurting and broken world. Every day there are people trying to pick up the pieces of their broken lives. We cannot escape the reality of a fallen world. However, we can realize that a fallen world cannot overcome us! What does that mean for us...empowerment! God can work through us to foster healing and restoration in the lives of others.

I would like to have the answers to the questions. I would like to help hurting people. Sometimes, I wish I could be Mr. "fix-it" man and put the pieces back together. But, maybe that is not my purpose. Instead of focusing on a ministry of "doing," (although that is part of it) maybe I would be better suited to focus on a ministry of "being." After all, I am not a doctor, a savior, or superman! Therefore, my purpose, our purpose might be better understood in terms of Henri Nouwen's idea of a "wounded healer."

"No minister can save anyone. He can only offer himself as a guide to fearful people. Yet, paradoxically, it is precisely in this guidance that the first signs of hope become visible. This is so because a shared pain is no longer paralyzing but mobilizing, when understood as a way to liberation. When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.

Through this common search, hospitality becomes community. Hospitality becomes community as it creates a unity based on the shared confession of our basic brokenness and on a shared hope...A Christian community is therefore a healing community not because wounds are cured and pains are alleviated, but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for new vision. Mutual confession then becomes a mutual deepening of hope, and sharing weakness becomes a reminder to one and all of the coming strength."

My purpose is not necessarily to "do" but to "be"--a listener, a fellow sufferer, an image of the love of God in Christ, a wounded healer!

"Even when we know that we are called to be wounded healers, it is still very difficult to acknowledge that healing has to take place today. Because we are living in days when our wounds have become all too visible. Our loneliness and isolation has become so much a part of our daily experience, that we cry out for a Liberator who will take us away from our misery and bring us justice and peace.

To announce, however, that the Liberator is sitting among the poor and that the wounds are signs of hope and that today is the day of liberation, is a step very few can take. But this is exactly the announcement of the wounded healer. 'The master is coming--not tomorrow, but today, not next year, but this year, not after all our misery is passed, but in the middle of it, not in another place but right here where we are standing.'"

The One who came to us in the midst in the form of Jesus Christ, calls and empowers us to minister in the midst! In all things, may the Great Physician use his healing power to work through the lives of us who are wounded healers in a broken world!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any comfort with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5

(Quotes from Henri Nouwen's, "The Wounded Healer")

Been a Long Time...

I know it's been a long time since I've updated the blog and that disappoints me. I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much time. But, no excuses, right? Sara and I are heading to Fredricksburg this weekend so she can run in a 10k race. She has been excited about it, so it should be a fun time.

I am really excited that the semester is coming to an end. Don't get me wrong, I love the learning but sometimes I long for the rest that comes from summer vacation. I'm taking one class--Revelation--in June so I am looking forward to some downtime and some extra curricular reading.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I will take a small moment to divulge some of those happenings. We went to Oklahoma for Easter weekend to spend some time with the Siner family. It was a great weekend and a blessing to be with family. I am so thankful that we celebrate together with a Risen Lord! We also got to celebrate a few birthdays as some of them fall within a month of each other. All together it was a great time of celebration. I wanted to post specifically for Easter but I guess it will have to wait for another time.

I also got a second job with the bookstore on campus. It is a great opportunity even though it adds to my workload so I am looking forward to having fun with it.

Lately, I've been thinking about a few things which I will hope to address in blog format pretty soon, at least if I have anything to say about it. Here they are:

1) I've reflected quite a lot this semester on what it means to participate in a "ministry in the midst." This reflection has been sparked by some intense involvement in the lives of those with chronic illness and I guess it helps that I suffer from something as well but I hope to reflect more in depth about what I consider that to mean.

2) A secondary issue, in regard to the above, is about the issue of identity. It is easy to confuse our identity with what the world calls us to be but I believe that we have a higher calling and a greater identity in Christ.

3) Finally, I got to listen to Luke Timothy Johnson and he mentioned something that sparked some thoughts which I hope to address later. "You can find Christians everywhere, but it is difficult to find church." The quote was in reference to the people of God living in community. Think about it and we can dialogue later.

Until we meet again...May the Lord bless and keep you!

A Hope Worth Living For

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
--Romans 5:1-5

Life is a journey. No one ever claimed it would be easy. Pain and suffering pervade our very existence. Many times we feel as if we have no control when life is spiraling downward. You've probably been there. I've been there. It is a reality of this life...a reality of our existence on this earth. We all experience difficulties in different degrees, some more than others. There are times in life when we can't explain our circumstances. We don't have the answers for the "why's." We don't understand why one person, one family, one people suffers over another. I cannot tell you why one man dies of cancer at the age of 35 while another lives to the ripe old age of 85 able to enjoy the "fruits of his labor." Nor can I explain why one child is left abandoned in the street to grow up parent-less while another grows up in a happy home without a care in the world. Yet, there is hope!

Even though we don't understand the "why's" we can understand the "who." In the midst of the mess...God is still God! He cares for the fatherless and is close to the broken-hearted. He is God who is not afraid to reach down into the dirty state of our existence. He walks beside us along the journey in good times and bad. He is our Creator and Sustainer...in Him we place our Hope! And what is our hope...

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
--Romans 5:6-11

We can't escape the reality that there are hurting people all around. What we can do is realize that we all participate in a ministry to hurting people--sometimes it is for others around us and other times it is for you and me. Our ministry is one of healing, one of rest for the weary, restoration for the broken...a message of hope for us all. Hurting people must be provided with hope to continue. Sometimes we must be able to redefine for them that hope which already exists...that is the hope we have in God through Jesus Christ.

Consider this quote from a book entitled, "Don't Waste Your Sorrows:"

"God never would send the darkness if he felt you could bear the light
But you would not cling to His guiding hand--if the way were always bright
And you would not care to walk by faith, could you always walk by sight!"

So, when darkness falls and things happen in this life that we cannot comprehend try not to worry about the "why" but take comfort and refuge in the "who"--the Great I AM, the one who has shown his love to us through his son Jesus. Receive his rest and rejoice in the restoration He brings!

That my friends...Is a HOPE worth living for!

In My Weakness...

He is STRONG!

I've been volunteering one day a week with the H.E.R.O. program which is a rehabilitation program involving the use of horses. I work with two young boys, one is 4 or 5 and the other is 7. Both boys experience some form of autism and my time with them has compelled me to reflect on the lives of the "weak." I can't help but wonder what life is like for those with mental disabilities such as autism. At first glance it would seem that kind of life would be miserable. It rules your life forcing you to adapt to its fluxuating whims. A chronic illness not only wears on the bearer of the illness but on the family surrounding that individual. I would assume if they had a choice they would choose to lead a "normal, healthy life." Yet, there is joy. Joy which springs forth from broken cisterns. You can see it in their eyes...and in their infectious smiles! Somehow it seems they know the truth that...

In their weakness...He is strong!

I know how they feel...I know life isn't always a celebration. Though I don't live with a mental or cognitive disability, I do live with a physical one. I know what its like to live most days in pain. Medical treatment can only help so much. Arthritis controls my life...at least to an extent, it impacts the way in which I live. Sure, there are times when I question why. There are points when weakness challenges my faith. There are days when I wish I had a choice in the matter. But, though the darkness may last for the night, joy comes in the morning!

In my weakness...I remember He is strong!

However, it is not just people like these boys or myself who experience lives of disability. No, the reality is that we all find ourselves to be broken vessels. We all are weak in many different ways. The beauty of the mystery is that His power is made perfect in our weakness! God takes the simple things of this world, that which is considered to be weak and with His strength works through them for His glory! What might be considered one man's "trash," in the hands of God becomes "treasure!" I may be a "broken cistern" but this cistern will spring forth with joy for in my weakness, I am strong when I am in the hand of my Creator! I will boast in Him alone!

Praise God whose power is made perfect in my weakness! May the "broken cisterns" of the world say so!

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." --I Corinthians 1:25-31


I came across a manuscript by Leonard Sweet along the same lines. It is worth the read if you would like to. Here is the link -- "Trash Cans or Treasure Chests" Enjoy!