The Louisville Conference--My Pictures

Since I live in Kentucky, I went to the first Rebelution conference with some friends last week. It was definitely worth waking up at 4:30, the three hour car trip, and painfully eating a sandwich with a mouth recently deprived of wisdom teeth that no longer opens wide enough to eat a sandwich. I will spare you the gory details. Better things: I took pictures!

A Life to Die For

I read Do Hard Things for the first time one year ago. I thought "This is great! This is what was missing in my life! This will give me the passion and purpose I want! Life is going to be different from now on." What I thought was wrong.

It did not give me the kind of life that I longed for.

It did not give me an all-consuming passion.

I was focused on the wrong things. Even though Alex and Brett say that the point of doing hard things is to glorify God, I was really a Rebelutionary because it brought glory to me. And that was wrong, and that is why it did not give me purpose. I thought that we were created to do hard things, but that is an error. We are created to glorify God, which might involve doing hard things.

What was missing was a passion for God. No amount of doing very hard things can replace a passion for the living God.

Q: What is the chief end [purpose] of Man?
A: To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

This is the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It is memorized by tots who just learned to talk. I have known the words for years, but I didn't really understand what it meant to glorify God, or what the word actually means. It sounds like something only angels can do, doesn't it? John Piper explained this in his book Don't Waste Your Life. I am so thankful that my church gave this book to me as a graduation gift last week. Piper writes that:

"Enjoying God supremely is one way to glorify him. Enjoying God makes him look supremely valuable."

"God's purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God's glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion. "

"The world [or even DHT] is no longer our treasure. It's not the source of our life or our satisfaction or our joy. Christ is."

Furthermore:

"God created me--and you--to live with a single, all-transforming passion--namely a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life."

Piper explains that to glorify God is like to magnify God, but not like a microscope making something small look big, but like a telescope making something huge and beautiful look the way it really is.

Read Don't Waste Your Life. It is possible to be a Rebelutionary and still waste your life, no matter how many hard things you do. It is meaningless to be focused on what we can do for Christ. It is fully satisfying to be so focused on the cross and passionate about God that that love and passion transforms everything we do. Then, God is glorified. That is a life to die for.

"... If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." Mark 8, 34-35

I am only one, but I am one.

I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And what I can do I ought to do.
And what I ought to do, by the grace of God,
I shall do.

-E. E. Hale

Bloom!: When Bigger Isn't Better

Isn't it great how sometimes you're thinking or praying about something, and you find someone else who is going through the exact same thing? I found an excellent post from Bloom! blog. The first two paragraphs almost exactly describe my life and the way I feel right now; small, useless, wanting "big things" instead of "little things." Megan points out that, for the first thirty years of His life, Jesus did not do big things. So who am I to be impatient and discontent with my lot?

Bloom!'s purpose is to "encourage, inspire, and support girls on their journey towards a radical, gospel-centered, world-altering, Biblical womanhood." These Rebelutionaries publish an excellent magazine besides their blog, which I love reading. If you aren't already reading Bloom!, I highly recommend subscribing.

An Update, and a Thank-You

I feel terrible for not having sent out updates or blogged about what's been happening...Life has been crazy.

First off, I really want to thank everyone for praying for my three year old sister Mercy, who went into the hospital with pneumonia last month. We've literally had people from the farthest reaches of the earth praying for her--even someone in India! God has really blessed us with the support of believers--even people we don't know have called and encouraged us.

The update is this: Mercy was taken off the ventilator about two weeks ago. At that point, she no longer had pneumonia. She was taken off the sedative, which brought her out of the induced coma. She was alert and awake. She had a chest tube inserted to drain the cavity around her lungs, because they had filled up with fluid. Then, her bad lung collapsed, but they were able to stabilize everything. Two days later, her good lung collapsed, but they were able to stabilize again. The chest tube was draining fluid like crazy; at that point her kidneys started shutting down, but it was to be expected. There was talk of putting her on dialysis, but she got a blood transfusion and her kidneys started working again. Everything was coming along, and there was talk of letting her out in two or three weeks. She was getting physical therepy (because she hadn't walked around it three weeks), and her oxygen levels were so good that she didn't have to sleep with the oxygen tube at night. They would take her for walks in the wheelchair all around the hospital--she got a kick out of seeing the fishtank and stuff like that.

Five days ago, the doctors did a procedure to remove half of one of Mercy's lungs--the bad lung. The doctor said the lung was so dead, it looked like blackened chop meat... (Nice mental picture, right?) The moment the dead part of the lung was removed, the lung started functioning more normally, so it was all good.

On Sunday, the bad (half) lung collapsed. They reinserted the chest tube, and I think she's back on sedation. We really don't know what's going to happen beyond this...it's the kind of thing you have to take a day at a time. We don't think this is going to have any lasting effect on Mercy for the rest of her life, but we really don't know. God is merciful in all, and we have so much to be thankful for.

Monday was Mercy's fourth birthday. The staff on the floor bought her a cake, and she was sitting up and eating, and even joking. :-D

Thank you all again for praying. It's really humbling the response of the saints to all of this. I felt like I owed you all an update, so there you have it. Really, though, the bottom line through it all is that God is good...But you already knew that... :0)

Red Envelope Day

We all want to stop abortion. Some of us have tried in many different ways. Pregnancy care centers, abstinence promotion, walks-for-life, speaking out, are a few courses of action. I have found a new way to make our voices heard, so simple and easy that there is no excuse to not do it. Here's how to get involved:

1. Get red envelopes or postcards and mail them on March 31st to the White House
2. On the front, address it to

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington , D.C. 20500

3. On the back, write the following message.

This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion.
It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world.

Will this change the President's mind? I don't know. But I do know that if we do nothing, nothing will change.

The Story

Boston, MA, February 27, 2009—Thousands have joined a grassroots campaign to change Obama abortion policy by sending red envelopes to the White House. The effort has gained momentum by promoting Red Envelope Day on March 31, 2009. More than a quarter of a million envelopes have been sent and over 150,000 have joined groups on Facebook committed to Red Envelope Day.

The effort began in late January when Christ (rhymes with ‘wrist’) Otto sent an email to his 120 ministry supporters. In the email he suggested sending red envelopes symbolizing a child who died in abortion. He also suggested forwarding the email to friends who might be sympathetic to the idea. The email closed with “wouldn’t it be great if we could send 50 million envelopes for every child who was aborted since 1973. Maybe we can change the heart of the president.” Otto says that the idea came during his daily prayer time, when he saw a mental image of millions of red envelopes going to Washington.

Within two weeks the email went “viral,” as men and women created web pages, Youtube videos, and blog entries promoting the idea. At least six independent web pages were created. Three of these have combined their efforts in the Red Envelope Project website [http://www.redenvelopeproject.org]. By far, the largest single effort was started Brian Potter of Houston, TX. His idea to coordinate efforts in a national Red Envelope Day has largely grown on Facebook. [http://www.redenvelopeday.com] Otto has since joined Potter’s effort to encourage the March 31, 2009 event.

In your patience posses ye your souls.

Have any of you ever see the movie That Thing You Do? It's a movie about the one hit Wonders, a rock and roll band from the sixties that gets discovered, signed to a record label, goes on tour and eventually makes it to L.A. only to run into major troubles. It's on my list of top five movies of all time. Yes, it's that good. If you have seen it you get cool points and you already know how that movie relates to this post.

For those of you who have not had the privilege of seeing this most excellent movie, there is a scene where the band cuts their first record in a church because they haven't yet been signed to a label. After they finish recording they ask the pastor when their records will be ready and pastor replies "Luke 21:19". All the band members look around kind of confused, then the bass player pipes up with "In your patience posses ye your souls."

This is an excerpt of my journal from several months ago:
I have no idea what it is that I'm supposed to be doing. It seems like God knows and won't tell me what's going on. It's like everything in my life is about to come to a head and something has to happen, but I have no idea what. - October 18, 2008

I can't help, when looking back on what I wrote then, thinking that I should have been more patient. As those of you who know me know, something did, indeed, happen. In fact, lots of somethings have happened. God has made many things clear to me since that time. He has given me present task and a glimpse of the future. And I ask myself, why was I so impatient again?

In your patience posses ye your souls.

*Makes note*

Update on Mercy

Family in Christ,
Thank you for your prayers. I'm posting here to ask you to continue to pray for my sister Mercy. She's not doing as well as she should be...she's actually taken a step backwards. They've put her on a heavier ventilator, because she wasn't taking in enough oxygen. They're talking about transfering her to Columbia Presbyterian in the city (NYC).

My parents have already come to grips with the fact that we might lose her if Jesus decides to take her... My six other little siblings aren't exactly doing as well...which is understandable...

Please continue to lift Mercy up in your prayers--we cannot thank you enough. She's in the God's hands now...

Prayer Request from Chelsey

My little sister Mercy was taken to the hospital yesterday (she is three). She had the flu which turned into pneumonia; one of her lungs is completely filled with fluid, and it permeated into the cavity around the lungs and the heart. She's in critical condition in ICU, knocked out on antibiotics and morphine. She is on a ventilator. They're hoping they don't have to do surgery to drain the fluid from her; hopefully the antibiotics will take care of that.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. I'm actually really concerned about my siblings; my parents let slip something about "if Jesus takes Mercy", and they all freaked out. I'm kind of mad at my 'rents for scaring the kids with that. I have faith that it's not as bad as that, and that Jesus is going to heal her.

Please pray, and thank you in advance. The last person I posted about for prayer, my cousin Cassie, is doing much better, and will hopefully be coming home soon. Again, James 5:16.

Peace.

Kent Hovind, Crook

The name "Kent Hovind" conjures up memories of interesting but questionable creationist arguments and spurious conspiracy theories. I'm not saying he's all wrong, and maybe God has used his ministry in spite of his many failures.

Hovind is now in prison for fraud. He failed to pay almost a half-million dollars in taxes and was sentenced to ten years in jail and three years probation. The case seems simple enough; he broke the law, now he pays the penalty.

But some of his supporters do not see it that way. Someone has set up a website and started a petition to free Hovind, which more than 6,000 people have signed.

What?

Why should he be pardoned? And why are Christians signing the petition? Not only did he break the law, he sinned by breaking it. His punishment is just and he should serve his time. Even if it wasn't just, and even though income tax is awful, Christians are told to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's--especially money.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.  Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.  For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,  for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.  Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.  For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
-Romans 13:1-7, (ESV)