Be all here.

Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Now for those of you who may not know, Jim Elliot, a missionary to Ecuador who gave his life for the cause of Christ. A quote maybe less well known, yet has always been close to my heart is this, "Wherever you are, be all there." Jim Elliot was "all there." He knew the work that he was called to do and he did it (along with the four others) to the point of giving his life.

Earlier tonight in class, I felt a prayer answered. I have been praying and desiring for God to reveal His will for me more clearly. My answer came when I mentioned this quote that has been with me for so long. The answer wasn't a clear cut path for my next step or a new, crisp, revised and updated road map for life. No, simply the peace of knowing that I am where I am and I am where I need to be so, I need to be all here.

So many people, especially at the stage I am in my life are asking the question about their future and the plan that God has in store for them. But if they are like me, they don't know very many details of that plan. I am coming to learn and accept that it really is okay! I am where I am and I am where I should be. C.S. Lewis says, "To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere." But I think, even more than that, to walk out of His will, even into something "good" would be walking into sin. Not because what I might do is inherently "bad" but because I could be disregarding what God has placed me here to do.

James 4:13-17 says, "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins."

Who am I to plan out my future? Who am I to plan even tomorrow? My life is nothing. My will is nothing. All I know is what and where I am at this very moment. If I am so focused on what the future may hold I will not see all the good I can do right where I am (verse 17).

So, what good can you do right where you are? How can you be all there?

Jesus Across Cultures Pt. 2

You may want to go here first:
Jesus Across Culture Pt. 1

I am an Intercultural Studies major. This means that I'm not sure what I want to do with my life following graduation besides throwing a nice little party for myself. Maybe graduate school. Maybe straight into a new job (Sorry, Liz, makes me sad too). But who knows.

I chose this major because after years of dreaming of travel and new places and cultures I have never encountered before I knew that it was more than just a daydream, this is a calling. A calling God has placed on my heart to see His creation. To experience the hearts of His people across the world. I need to know not just through the television or internet or the stories of others, that there is a whole world out there that experiences the same God I do in ways that are completely foreign to me.

You see, we get into this rut thinking that "the church" is just our building with out sign out front, with our pews, with our pastor, with our sanctuary. You see, that's just not it.  You see, the church is so much more than just a building or a few certain people that we associate with. It's not just one denomination who sings similar songs or preaches similar messages. NO. The church is so much greater. So much larger. So much more beautiful than a steeple or a freshly carpeted sanctuary.

The church is God's children. His children who worship Him with unity only found in Jesus Christ who is our salvation. A unity found not in the color of our skin or the language that we speak, but the same love that flows down from heaven and fills the hearts of those who know God as their Father and Redeemer. The true church knows no boundaries. No walls, no confines to keep it from growing and loving.

The church loves the broken and wounded.
The lost and abandoned.
The scared and the scarred.
The poor and the rich.
Those in darkness who need the true Light of Life.
Those who seem so unlovable, they need the church the most.

These needs know no cultural boundaries. But neither does the love that cures them all.