Can a Shoe Box Change the World?

*Yes, this same post will be on both my blogs, just to make sure you read it! :)*

Yesterday marked the "2 months until Christmas" mark.  If you're one of my Type-A friends, you probably already have your list typed and your budget set.  You might even already have some gifts purchased.  If you're like me, you've probably thought about what to buy for whom, maybe you've discussed it with your spouse or other family members.  Or maybe you're a last-minute kind of shopper, who hopes to find some great deal on Christmas Eve.  But no matter who you are, chances are that whatever you buy, no matter how great a bargain you get, those gifts are not going to change the life of the recipient.  Two months from now, on December 26, we and our children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews/friends will resume our normal activities after the Christmas festivities are over.  We might be excited over a new toy or book or purse or shoes.  But we will simply add them to the already excessive collection of things in our lives, and continue with life as usual. But for a child in a poverty-stricken country, a shoe box full of gifts, full of hope, can change their life.  And by changing the life of a child, you can change the world.  And it doesn't take much!  Through Operation Christmas Child (OCC), you can bless a child with gifts they would never otherwise receive.  They may have never even had a Christmas present before.  But what costs so little on our part, gives so much to those who have less than nothing.  Besides the gifts you send, OCC also includes a kid-friendly booklet explaining the Gospel in each box.  Entire families can receive Christ and have their lives changed by the power of the Gospel, all because of a shoe box.
So how does it work? 
It's so easy!  Just decide what age and gender child you want to bless, get a shoe box (or like-sized plastic container) and fill it with age appropriate gifts; things like school supplies, toothbrush and toothpaste, stickers, small toys, socks, hair bow/clips, soap, play doh, crayons, etc.  Pack it all up, (you can include a letter and picture of your family!) decorate it if you want, attach the OCC label marked with age and gender, and take it and $7 to your local collection site.  This is a great family activity that can easily become a favorite tradition.  Let your kids decide age/gender, take them shopping and let them choose some of the gifts.  OCC is a great way to teach kids about poverty, compassion, and generosity.  The Bible commands us to care for the poor, the orphans, and the widows.  If we are going to teach our children to follow Christ, this must be part of the lesson.  I encourage you, I challenge you, I beg you!!!!  Open your eyes to the world, open your hearts to the command of the Lord, and open your wallets to bless a child.  Visit samaritanspurse.org.  Read the stories.  Watch the videos.  Get a shoe box.    Change the world.

Confessions

Well, it's been awhile!  And just in case you've missed it on facebook, I have a second blog about our adoption: heartswideopen-merissayusko.  Please check it out if you haven't already.  Anyway, back to this post...
This is not really the kind of blog I prefer to write.  You see, I do not like to admit when I am wrong.  I don't actually know anyone who does, but I really, REALLY despise it.  And that, my friends, is the very heart of the problem.  Today someone kindly (and I do mean that!) drew my attention to a glaring sin in my life.  I knew it was there, of course, and I have tried to curb it in other areas, but not in this one.  See, I have this giant character flaw that thinks that the way I would do something is naturally better than the way anyone else would do it.  It's hard for me to let someone else do something, because they might not do it the way I would, i.e. do as good of a job as I would.  In every situation, I seem to think that I can always do a better job, even if that's not necessarily true.  So I find myself picking apart everything, thinking about how I would do it, what's wrong with the way the other person did it, and how much better it would be if they just agreed with me, or did it my way.  And most of the time, no one ever knows.  No one but me and Jesus.  So to those of you I have mentally judged or criticized, I am sorry.  (Now I know that if I were you, reading this, I'd be thinking, "Oh, has she ever done that to me??" and get all paranoid.  So please don't do that.  If you really want to know, ask me, and I will be humble enough to answer honestly.)  Because humility is the answer to pride, which needs to be destroyed in me before it destroys me.

Suffering and Comfort

So I know I haven't written anything in ages, much to your great disappointment I'm sure. :)  But today is the day you've been waiting for! 
I am currently reading the New Testament backwards.  Don't ask me why, I just am.  Today began 2 Corinthians... 1:3-11

The God of All Comfort

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

I just want to share with you some thoughts from this passage.  Nothing earth-shatteringly profound, but reminders that someone may need to hear today.
1.  Christ suffered.  I made a list of everything I could think of that we see Christ suffer in the Gospels: temptation, discomfort (hunger, heat, cold, fatigue, etc.) rejection, homesickness (for heaven!), betrayal, humiliation, being misunderstood, homelessness, personal attacks, death threats, etc.  And of course, the ultimate suffering of crucifixion and death.  This is obviously not an exhaustive list, and I'm sure you could add your own ideas.
2. We suffer.  Paul writes that Christ's sufferings flow over into our lives.  Don't we experience many of these things as well??  Certainly some more than others, and it seems, some people suffer more than other people too.  But now comes the good part!!!
3. Christ comforts us in our sufferings!!!  In fact, verse 5 says that our comfort "overflows."  Not just a little bandaid, or slight relief.  But overflowing comfort.  Notice that nowhere does it promise that our suffering ends, only that we will be comforted by Christ himself in our suffering.  Hallelujah!
4. We must use that comfort to comfort others.
5.  Our sufferings must produce a dependence on God, who alone is able to deliver us from death should he so choose.  Take another look at verses 8 and 9.  First, let me just say that this verse right here proves that the statement 'God never gives you more than you can handle.' is a pack of lies.  You might have heard me say this before, if you've ever said that statement in my presence. If we could handle life on our own, we would have no need of God!  So yes, folks, sorry to disappoint you, but sometimes you will experience more than your "ability to endure."  But there is good news too!  Being in that place of overwhelming ___________________ (you fill in the blank) leads you to depend solely on God, who can DO ALL THINGS.  Amen and amen!
6. God will be glorified and praised.  When we put our hope and trust in the Lord, He will do what He has promised, thus bringing glory to Himself and to Jesus Christ, and many people will praise Him for his good works and faithfulness. 

If this is you today, if you find yourself in the midst of suffering, whether great or small, take comfort in Christ, and in God's Word to you.  He loves you more than you can imagine and is doing everything He can to draw you to Himself.  Trust Him, believe Him.  He will not disappoint you.

clean carpets, clean heart

You may find this strange, but I love to vacuum.  I just feel like the house is so much cleaner once the vacuum has been run.  Perhaps that's because it requires the kids to pick up all their stuffed that is scattered from one end of the house to the other.  Or perhaps it's because it removes all the visible dirt and debris that two children and a dog create.  Either way...I love to vacuum.  Today I vacuumed on a deeper level...I used a steam cleaner to try and rid my dining room of the dog stench that greets me every morning.  The first time I cleaned the offending area, I did not notice that the switch was set to Rinse, instead of Wash/Rinse.  Imagine my surprise when I realized the soap resevoir was still full after several minutes of scrubbing, and the carpet did not look any cleaner.  But the water was still brown!  So even just the plain hot water removed more grime than my surface vacuum alone.  Then, after switching to the correct mode, I did that section again and then moved on to the living room.  Even though the living room does not generally serve as Swiper's "territory," I figured that while I have the cleaner I might as well do it all. 
So as I vacuumed and watched the tank fill up with nasty black water, I thought about how I am like my carpet.  You see, after vacuuming with my plain vacuum, my carpet looks clean: no crumbs, no dirt clods, no hunks of dog hair.  But it's not until I start looking deeper that I see what's really inside.  And it's not pretty.  I think you know where I'm going with this, right?  I can clean myself up on the outside quite nicely: no cursing, no questionable entertainment on my TV, no gossiping.  I go to church multiple times a week; I sing in the choir; I coach Bible Quiz; and the list goes on... Looks great on the surface.  But when I take an honest look on the inside, it's not so pretty.  You might even look at my life and think I've got it all together all of the time.  Because that's what I want you to think.  "But the Lord looks at the heart."  He sees my dirt, my debris, my hunks of dog hair, if you will.  And he is making it abundantly clear to me that it's time for some deep cleaning, time for some serious change.  But the good news is that I'm not on my own in my quest for cleanliness.  It's the Holy Spirit who does the scrubbing, the steaming, and the vacuuming in my heart and in my life.  I'm just a willing carpet.
What about you?  Are you only vacuumed, or are you steam cleaned by the Holy Spirit?

sick on Sunday

I missed church today.  My whole family did, in fact, because we were actually already at church when I got sick and had to leave before the service started.  So bummed.  Liana was especially sad because she LOVES Sunday school and looks forward to it all week.  But anyway...seeing just a few statuses (stati??) and twitters with quotes from the morning makes me think I missed a really good sermon, one that seems to go right along with what I wrote in my last blog.  (If you haven't read it yet, please do.  it's kinda long, though, just to warn you.)  So I can't wait to listen to the podcast later this week.
Ok.  Now on to what I really want to discuss today.  I've been reading this novel called Babylon Rising, written by one of the same authors that wrote the Left Behind series.  It's a little too complicated to explain it, but it has to do with Biblical prophecy, specifically from the book of Daniel.  So I decided to start reading the book of Daniel.  Daniel is not a book I have much knowledge about, except for the well-known stories of Daniel and the lions' den and Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego and the fiery furnace.  And those are the two stories I read this afternoon, since they come right at the beginning of the book. 
A little background, in case you are unfamiliar: Daniel and his 3 friends were taken captive from Judah to Babylon when King Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem in 586 BC.  God blessed them and they found favor with King N.  He made Daniel ruler over all of Babylon, and made S, M, and A administrators under Daniel.  Here's where the fiery furnace comes in.  King N made this giant gold statue, presumably of himself, and ordered that all people bow down and worship this statue when they heard music play.  This presents a problem for S, M, and A because they serve God, who commands that we worship no other god or idol.  Thus, they refused to bow and worship the statue. N is outraged and orders them brought before him, where he gives them one last change to bow; to conform to the world, as it were.  Listen to their reply: "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If we are thrown into the fiery furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."  Of course, you probably know the rest of the story.  The irate king orders the furnace to be made seven times hotter, killing even the guards who threw them into the fire.  But God did indeed rescue S, M, and A, without so much as the smell of smoke being on their clothes.  When they are brought out of the furnace, the king says, "Praise be to the God of S, M, and A, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants!  They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God...."
Wow.  I told you, the Bible is full of some crazy stuff!!  But seriously, some things are pretty clear to me about these men.  First, knowing that God can, is different from knowing that God will.  They knew God could save them.  How did they know?  Israel's history is full of God's mighty hand working on behalf of his people.  They knew God could simply because he had in the past.  However, they did not know for sure whether God would or not.  "But even if he does not..."  What a powerful statement!  We like to say things like, "God, if you will just do this for me, I'll serve you," or, "God, if you give me a sign, I'll believe/obey."  What God does determines what we do, how we respond to him.  But Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego had already decided that they would obey the Lord regardless of how he chose to act in that moment.  That's incredible.  And it's not something that they just decided at that moment.  Clearly they had made the choice to honor God no matter the cost, well before this moment.
I know I'm kinda weird in this way, but I often imagine terrible things happening to me, or to my family.  In my mind I play out exactly what I would say or do, or feel.  I even think about how I would respond to God in that imaginary situation.  I've been through some pretty difficult things in my life, and I've responded both by choosing to continue trusting and serving God, and, I'm ashamed to admit, by blaming him and deciding not to trust him.  I don't think I need to tell you which choice I would make again.  But the point is, we have to decide to trust God no matter what the circumstances in our lives.  It's not always easy.  In fact, it may seem impossible at times; but it's always worth it in the end.
I know this is really long, but bear with me a little while longer while we talk about the king's response.  He told everyone that S, M, A "were willing to give up their own lives rather than worship or serve any god except their own God."  What are we willing to give up?  Here in America we aren't yet required to make the choice between our very lives and obedience to God.  But we do have to choose; perhaps between God and our reputation, our popularity, our money, our comfort, etc.  Are we really willing to serve and worship only God, no matter the cost to us??  I like to say yes, because it's the answer I should give.  But does my life reflect that willingness in my everyday choices?  Let's just say that I will be much more mindful of this from now on, and I hope you will be too.
Thanks for reading.

Blessings

When I first heard this song a few weeks ago on K-Love, I thought it was nice but I didn't really pay attention to the words.  When I heard it a second time, I made sure to actually listen.  And I knew I wanted to write about it.  But I put it off, as I tend to do.  Until today.  In my Bible reading over the last few days I have been reading the beginning of Exodus and the Israelites escape from Egypt and all the wonders the Lord did.  (I could write another whole blog about the first 12 chapters; I just might, too.)  You know what's so cool about the Bible? (side note here!) You can read the same story or passage a hundred times, but on the hundred-and-first time, something jumps out at you, and you know God is saying something.  Today was one of those times.

Exodus 13:17-8  "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that way was shorter.  For God said, 'If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.'  So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea...."


I am terrible at directions and distances.  Jason will always ask me which way I think it faster, and my way ends up being the longer way.  I don't know why he keeps asking my opinion!  Even when I'm driving by myself and I have to decide which way is best, I either second guess myself or realize in a few short minutes that I chose the scenic route.  And that bugs me.  I think that if the Israelites knew their geography, it probably bugged them too.  After all, wouldn't you want to get as far away from Pharaoh, as fast as possible??  But God knew what awaited them in Philistine country, and he knew it wasn't pleasant.  So instead he led them on the desert road.  If you've ever been to the desert, you're probably imagining sand, sun, and dehydration.  Walking through the desert is not pleasant.  Thankfully for the Israelites, though, God knew the alternative.  And he knew which was the best route. 
Whether we believe it or not, God alone knows the best route for our lives too.  What can seem like the long, more difficult way around is actually God's protection over his beloved - you.  Me.  But we often choose not to see it that way.  We look at the situations and circumstances around us and we question; we blame; we complain; we accuse the Maker of the universe of being clueless, or worse, cruel.  Of course, he is neither of those things.  But he does have a plan.  We get upset when that plan is not our plan, or when that plan brings us pain. 
If you continue reading into chapter 14, you'll see the Lord giving more instructions to Moses, telling him what's about to happen: "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth... Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.'  And I will harder Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them.  But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD."
We are so like the Israelites sometimes.  Instead of trusting the Lord, who had already done such miraculous signs in Egypt, they were terrified and suddenly decided that their life of slavery in Egypt was preferable to their present situation.  They questioned Moses, asking why he had done such a thing to them.  We say the same thing to God, don't we?  "Why are you doing this to me?"  But God wasn't doing anything to his people; he was doing something for them.  He was rescuing them.  But more than that, he was bringing glory to himself, and revealing himself to a nation that desperately needed a living God. 
Sometimes our situation feels overwhelming, or like a punishment.  And we have to audacity to question, blame, complain, or accuse.  But most, if not all of the time, our situation is not about us.  It's about bringing glory to the One True God, and revealing him to a desperate world.  (And if our situation is about us, it's about bringing us closer to the One True God, and about transforming us into his likeness.  And it's about bringing God glory!) 
Somewhere along the way, we've gotten the notion that our lives should be easy, free from trouble or suffering, and that only things that make us happy are things God wants for us.  How sadly mistaken we are!  We somehow believe we are entitled to only good, pleasant things, and that God must be mean, cruel, or nonexistent when life brings us pain, suffering, and hardship.  But we forget that most of the world lives in a constant state of pain, hunger, disease, and struggle.  Yet if you ever have the privilege of meeting a brother or sister in Christ from a country other than America, you will see in them fullness of joy, complete trust, and a distinct lack of the self-pity that often characterizes our attitudes when things go wrong.  When you always have nothing, you understand clearly that God is always everything.  And that "his ways are higher than our ways."  And that "he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us, will graciously give us all things."  Christ himself suffered the ultimate suffering, made the ultimate sacrifice.  Who are we to think that we are exempt from suffering??  No, but "in all things, God works for the good of those who love him."  And that working is based on knowledge of things we cannot see, on the ultimate goal of bringing glory to the Lord and revealing Jesus Christ to the world.
The next time you're tempted to complain about your life, remember the Israelites.  Remember Jesus.  And remember that God's ultimate goal for your life is not happiness.  Rather, it is for him to be glorified and for you to become more like him.

$3.59 a gallon

We drive a LOT.  Therefore, we buy a LOT of gas.  And unfortunately that also means we spend a LOT of money on gas.  Probably more than we spend on groceries.  It's really sad that it costs more to transport our family than it does to feed our family.  Anyway...it does not seem like there is any relief from these prices to come in the near future, which has me thinking about how we're going to afford to continue traveling to work, school, and church.  Jason and I have a had a few (albeit very brief) conversations about what we could cut from our budget to make room for inflated gas prices.  Very few things in our budget are non-essential items that must be paid; they include TV, internet, and cell phones.  And our Y membership.  And frankly, that would probably be the first to go.  However, we spend a LOT more on TV and internet than we do on the Y.  So I've been thinking, which would I prefer to do without?  TV would be the logical choice, because we can watch some of our shows online.  Not all of them, mind you, and not Sports Center.  Not that I care one lick about that, but Jason does.  So then, would we give up the internet?  That would mean no email, no blog, no Words with Friends, and *gasp* no more facebook.  Whatever would we (I) do??!!!! 
I was talking this over with a good friend yesterday, and she pointed out how much we are (willingly) trapped by the things of this world.  And suddenly I felt like I should give these things up simply because they do consume so much of my time.  Time that I could/should spend in God's Word and in God's presence.  Time that I could spend playing with my children or talking with my husband, instead of us parking ourselves in front of one or more screens for the evening.  After all, I grew up (as did anyone over the age of 25) without high speed (or any) internet access, cable/satellite/fios TV, and certainly I survived many years without a cell phone.  So should the need arise, I could and would willingly do it again.  But instead of seeing it as such a dreadful hardship, I might actually welcome the release from those things I consider so important, yet in the grand scheme of things actually count for nothing.