For the Love of God

Love.

Why this topic?  Again, really?  It’s not even close to February.  I’m single, but I’m not desperate (but perhaps longing).  So why this topic?

1.  Recent relevant events:  I went to a purse party recently (that’s what the boredom of having very few friends around for the summer will do to someone like me).  The theme was Proverbs 31, which is the proverb that describes a “wife of noble character.”  It got me thinking about love, marriage and godliness.  I was also recently asked to play piano in a wedding that will happen next Saturday.  The bride-to-be is my first friend to get married and I’m not gonna lie, it feels a bit strange.  Processing the fact that she will be married is like re-processing what marriage is and what love means.

2.  Human nature.  We are created to be in relationship with other people.  The love I’m thinking about, although it can be applied to marriage, should also be applied to every relationship.

Something you should know about me, if you don’t already, is that I am a music person.  If I’m not listening to music, I’m playing it.  And if I’m not playing it, I’m singing it.  If I’m not singing it, I’m humming it.  If I’m not humming it for some far-out, bizarre, reason, then I’m definitely hearing it in my head.  So when the topic of love was on my brain and I listened to the song “For the Love of God,” by Andrew Peterson, it struck a chord with me (pun fully intended).

These lyrics are what struck me (but please read the rest too!):

“Now, love is not a feeling in your chest
It is bending down to wash another’s feet
It is faithful when the sun is in the west
And in the east

It can hurt you as it holds you
In its overwhelming flood
Till only the unshakeable is left
“This new command I give you,” He said,
“Love as I have loved”
So brother, love her better than yourself
And give her your heart

For the love of God
In the name of Jesus
The groom who gave his life
To love his bride.”

Mmmmm so good!  Do I even need to say more?  I want to love my future husband (Lord willing) because I love God, because Christ gave his life to love the church, and in the name of Jesus.  I’m not even close to marriage, or even necessarily knowing what a fully functional dating relationship looks like, but I long for this.  For a love rooted in Christ, for a love that is deeper than butterflies and is clearly faithful through Christ-like actions.  I want a love that isn’t always easy, and that requires sacrifice and self-denial for the good of someone else.

And in the mean time, the beauty of this love is that it is for everyone.  It makes a life-long marriage relationship even sweeter, but the command to love like Christ loved does not just direct me how to love my husband.  It drives me (or should, anyway) in every relationship with every coupon-hoarding customer, pickup-driving road hog, illegal immigrant, sibling, beggar, friend, roommate, etc.

So now that that’s out in the open, why do I feel like I will have a few customers tonight who are hard to love?  Lord, may I fully learn what it means to love as you have loved.

 

Summer Pictures

You think the dog is innocent..until...

I love these summer greens!

And browns!

And maybe even this sweet spider!

And a final picture of our guest for the week, Cricket (AKA Mr. Round).

 

Your Love’s Like A Hurricane

“How He Loves Us” by Kim Walker is my inspiration for the evening.

The following are the lyrics for the first verse:

“He is jealous for me
Love’s like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.”

I started thinking about hurricanes and wind. The way you can tell there is wind is by the way the trees move.  If there’s a hurricane, let me tell you that the trees are moving violently!  You cannot miss it!

Tonight at GIFT (Growing in Faith Together) we sang this song and it hit me like a brick that faith is like the wind.  No one will know you have it unless your actions show it.  If I was a palm tree in a storm right now, my leaves may or may not be blowing.  I want, however, for my faith to show in me as much as the wind does in this tree:

And can you imagine what would happen if there was a tree like this in the middle of a whole bunch of calm trees?  People would point and stare and not help but be drawn in.  They’d ask questions and be amazed by the answers!  I want faith like that.  I want God’s love to be like a hurricane, with me bending beneath his wind and mercy.

Also, the second verse pretty much speaks for itself, but I couldn’t not add it, because it is so delicious!

Verse 2:

“So we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean we’re all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

That he loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves “

As I was moved because I was feeling like a failure, not responding to God’s love like I ought, we started singing this verse.  I mess up every day and will continue to do so until I die, but God’s grace is so big we sink in it!  How wonderful is that?! 

Just some food for thought!  Thank you, Lord!

 

Then Sings My Soul

“Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee!  How great thou art!”

This evening Dordt College presented a choir concert of music by Dale Grotenhuis.  Grotenhuis was the first choir director at Dordt and really helped spread Dordt’s name when the college was in its infancy.  He was planning on coming out and conducting one of the songs, but he is getting up there in age and, unfortunately, was not able to make it.

When you sing a whole bunch of songs from one composer/arranger, you get to learn about them and their style.  It was an absolute pleasure to sing his arrangements of hymns and songs he wrote for specific occasions.

Although was music was not hard or really that impressive for the most part, I enjoyed this concert more than any other.  Dale Grotenhuis’ faith was so evident in his music and it was a pleasure to praise God for an hour and a half straight.  His son, Jack was a promising musician who died in a car accident.  God allowed Dale to turn that event around and out of it came a very moving song about God’s faithfulness and just character.  He also wrote a song dedicated to two of his former students after their daughter died.  Unknown to us until today, our concert marked the thirteenth anniversary of her passing.

We also sang Dordt’s alma mater, which he wrote, and one other song with about 30 alumni.  One of the lines spoke of seeing God’s faithfulness from generation to generation, which was very meaningful in the context of all the alumni (I just wish my mom could have been there).

Thank you, God, for allowing and using your servant to serve so many people.

P.S.  I don’t know what he looks like now, but in this picture his hair is fantastic.

 

Service

Well, friends and strangers, it’s been a while.  I just haven’t gotten around to blogging.

In chapel we have been going through different spiritual disciplines.  Today we discussed service as a discipline.  When we serve, we place ourselves below others and we are blessed.  In John 13, Jesus, Lord of all washes his disciples feet.  When we put ourselves above others, it is a lie because our only worth is found in being children of God, and if others are children of God, how can we be better than them?  Jesus, the only man with any and all of the right to place himself above others, washed his disciples feet!  And not only did he wash their feet, but he came down from heaven and immersed himself in sin.

I find it a bit hard to hear this in the context of the academic community of college.  We are here to get a degree, ultimately to move up in the world.  But I guess that really isn’t the purpose.  Yes, we are getting degrees, but it is still so much more important to be a part of the community, become who God wants us to be, and love others as ourselves (which means wanting for others what we want for ourselves).  I believe we can use our intellect to serve others and the knowledge we attain through getting a degree is not to move us up in the world, but to make us responsible citizens…if we use it correctly.

Also, a common question we ask (and I’ve asked it a lot this semester) is, “Lord, when we look around and see how many needs there are and we try and try to fill them our whole lives and give up everything, how will we have enough to help ourselves?”  Pastor Bart reminded us that when we ask that, God’s answer is, “I AM.”  God is there to fill all our needs in ways that we cannot even imagine.  I have a feeling this will be a lifelong journey (it has been so far), but this was a good reminder to move out of my self-centered world.  Will you come with me?

 

Resolutions?

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  – Romans 12:1-3

I have never really been one to make New Years Resolutions.  Even now, it is already the 13th and I am just now thinking about what resolutions I would make if I were to make them.  I have decided to exercise more and not snack just because I’m bored, but I don’t consider those resolutions, really (not sure why not…).

More importantly, however, I have decided to really focus on loving others.  I have come to realize how much I lack a gentle spirit.  I am loud and rambunctious and usually speak my mind before thinking, but rarely am I gentle.  I would like to work on this this coming year (or semester at least).  Also, somehow along the way I have got it in my head that expressing my appreciation and love for others is hard (maybe because it makes me vulnerable?).  I really want to learn how to love without hindrance, with God always in my front and peripheral vision.  I know that this will cause me to grow weary and I may lose heart because people are challenging sometimes, but that’s why I love the verse above!

This verse also encourages me to fix my eyes on Jesus.  I am now single and, like most girls, I am not without my crushes (well only one, really).  During praise and worship this evening, however, I was really encouraged to focus on Christ, as the things of this world will grow strangely dim.  When I am ready, God will provide the right man for me who shares my heart for Christ.  In the mean time, I expect a lot of growth and repeated submission to Who I really should be focusing on.

P.S.  The rest of Hebrews 12 goes on to talk about discipline, which just happens to be the topic of our chapel series for the rest of the semester.  I am extremely excited about this because I will also be attempting to be more spiritually disciplined this semester.

 

Does Your Family….?

have a dance party to 80s music?

give a round of applause after opening stockings?

make truffles for every one in the church?

sit around, each one to their own ipod?

pray together before bed each night?

eat a snack before dinner?

Ya, mine neither…

 

Thanksgivings

Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal.  It’s a way to live. ~Attributed to Jacqueline Winspear

O Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness. ~William Shakespeare

It is delightfully easy to thank God for the grace we ourselves have received, but it requires great grace to thank God always for the grace given to others. ~James Smith

Psalm 100-  A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

To keep the list shorter, I will only list what I am thankful for from Thanksgiving Break:

The blessing of laughter and love

The sound of a baby with hiccups

Matt, Mike and Laura’s presence

Black Friday shopping

Not getting pulled over by the police

Having more than enough food to feed people on Thanksgiving day

Justin, Matt, Phil, Wendy, Joanna, Laura, Josh and Mike (people who blessed me with their presence for Thanksgiving dinner)

Warm beds, buildings, vehicles, clothes

Staying and waking up late

Good movies

Hand turkeys

Unexpected encouragement

Pranks

A quiet room

Steinway pianos, sarcasm and stuffing

Good health and fairly capable brain

Hot drinks

Grace and good music

Covenant CRC and pastor Herm

Christmas, Christmas music, and Christ

Forts to build

Hospitality

Cell phones, communication and community

Reading for fun

Furry animals and family

What were you most thankful for the past week?

P.S.  I’ve never been here, but I am thankful that God has created it.  Before I die, I want to go here:

Waterfalls of Iguaza, Argentina

 

Black Friday Shopping

For those of you who are Canadian, Black Friday is like Boxing day except right after American Thanksgiving.  People line up in front of store for days, sometimes more than a week.  Then at 5AM all the stores open and people shop till they drop (which isn’t that long because they haven’t slept in a week).  There are usually amazing deals and there is usually also a lot of buying of just stuff in general because people assume that everything is on sale even though it isn’t.  It is called Black Friday because this is usually the day when stores finally get out of the red zone as far as sales go.

I got about an hour and a half of sleep last night and then got up at 2:45 to drive to Sioux Falls, the closest shopping center.  I wanted to get Christmas shopping done and I had never had a “Black Friday experience,” so I decided to go with a few people who stayed here for break.  We waited in line at Best Buy for about half an hour until the store opened and then stampeded in with everyone else.  Actually, the getting in the store went very smoothly, but the amount of people in the store and, consequently, the length of the lines kind of made for a little chaos.  We ended up not buying anything, but it sure was an experience!

Then, at about 5:30 we went to the mall and shopped there till about 10 (I think).  I didn’t get any Christmas shopping done because there weren’t any deals on what I wanted to buy.  Anyways, we got back in time for lunch and then I took a two hour nap.

Anyways, I was struck by something today.  I went just for the experience and I was with a really fun group of people.  Although I was so tired I felt sick and it was an “unsuccessful” shopping trip, it was really fun because of the people around me.  I was struck by the people around me though.  There were lines of people that sometimes went around the entire store twice before ending at the cash register.  And do you know how many of those people were enjoying themselves?  Do you know how many of them were so stressed they were about to cry?  And how many of them would fight someone else for something silly like a TV?  Do you know how many of them were not able to buy happiness?  It was just another example of consumer America and how unhappy it was.  I could almost see the stars in people’s glazed-over eyes.  They thought that if they could just get in the store first, then they could get a good deal on something they didn’t need and couldn’t afford, and then they would be happy!  I hope they learned that that’s not quite how it works.  I mean, I hope they’re happy (and maybe they just seemed unhappy because it was an unearthly time of day)…but I also hope that they are happy because of the things that count, not the crock pot they bought for $9.

 

Cherokee and God

Today I went with the psych club I am part of to the Cherokee Mental Health Institute. It was a very large campus but the most intriguing part for me was the Civil Commitment for Sexual Offenders (CCUSO).    This wing of the institute was a “secure, long-term, and highly-structured setting to treat sexually violent predators who have served their prison terms, but who, in a separate civil trial, have been found likely to commit further violent sexual offenses.”  The first patient was admitted in 1999 and he is still there.  Their program is set up so that it takes 5 years to “graduate” if you do everything correctly.  You are released once you are deemed and prove that you are less than likely to commit another offense.  The people that are admitted are the worst of the worst.  No one has “graduated” from the program, which is discouraging.

It was somewhat frightening to be there.  We could not go on to any wards, even for the patients with mental illnesses.  We saw the control room which was fascinating.  None of the doors in the sexual offender ward could be opened without someone in the control room unlocking it.  There was constant communication between the control room (which was away from the ward) and the people who worked directly with the patients.  I was also impressed with the level of communication within the staff.  They have a very good system and very qualified workers.

As we were getting a tour we stopped to talk with a therapist who worked there.  As he spoke, my fear turned to a feeling of despair.  These men are the worst of the worst.  Some of them have been there for 10 years without hardly changing.  How do you work with people who don’t even want to change?  How do you handle the manipulation and bitterness these men show towards you?  Then the feelings of despair turned into heartbreak.  How could these men be so far from the truth?  How can love become so twisted?  None of the people we talked to seemed to be Christians and I started to wonder how they could do it.  I am having trouble seeing God presence in Cherokee.  How can these people who seem to have no hope in God come to work every morning?  There seemed to be little reward from being a therapist at this institution.

It was a wonderful, eye-opening field trip.  I heard and felt things I never thought I would.

On a side note, we hit a big deer with antlers on the way back.  No one was hurt and there was little damage to the van (especially considering the size of the deer).  Oh, and we had an amazing driver!