Extraordinary in the Midst of Ordinary

Can I just say that the past three days following my Mega Sports Camp experience have been quite interesting. It seems like everywhere I go now, I am seeing some of my dance girls. Friday at Meijer I saw 2 of the girls. Then last night at Wal-Mart I got to see three more, and their families...very cool! Then today, one of the little girls and her family came to a picnic our church held to celebrate and honor those who serve our country. I can't even tell you how many times she ran back to me to give me just one more hug.

I love the fact that church and community are overlapping. I love that my interaction with these children and their families isn't limited to the three days of sports camp, but that I am being given opportunities to see them and be seen in every-day life kind of ways. I think that it's in the every-day way we live that we have the greatest impact on those who have taken notice of us. They may know us from a certain event or encounter or moment. But it's that introduction that causes them to observe us more carefully to see how we are every day.

Not long ago, in prayer, I was seeking God for some direction and that sort of thing regarding my own life, as well as for my family as a whole. He spoke something very simple to me: 'Live extraordinary in the midst of ordinary.' Then He immediately listed off Biblical examples for me - some of whose stories I had never read, so I had to go searching. Moses. Ester. Ruth. David. Peter. Paul.

Ruth was one of the stories I had to go looking for. I even had to read it a few times over to understand what exactly it was that she did so extraordinarily, because she appears to be quite ordinary. But I realized that she loved extraordinarily. She responded to Naomi with an extraordinary love and loyalty. A selflessness that goes above and beyond. She responded this way simply because it was her nature, not because she expected great things to come of it. But in doing so, she not only secured her family situation - a situation that had been quite shaky and worrisome for a time - but she also established herself as a member of the lineage of Jesus Christ. Her life was very ordinary, but she lived extraordinarily. She impacted the lives of others around her for the better. She shaped the course of her life, and of generations to follow. Ruth's extraordinary responses to ordinary circumstances impacted, shaped, changed the world forever. Her life became a layer upon which our lives have been built so many seemingly countless years later. That is the kind of life that God can use.

As I read through stories like Ruth's, and as I realize that in my own life my actions and responses to circumstances - every day ordinary circumstances - are being observed, and are shaping the ideas and attitudes of those observing me, I am challenged to press into Jesus more than I ever have before, so that His ways become mine. So that my natural manner of responding is one that will accurately reflect Him and that will please Him and honor Him. So that when others are watching, even when I am unaware or unsuspecting, they will see a life lived extraordinarily, no matter how ordinary the circumstances may be, and God will receive the glory for it. I want my life to be one that God can use.

Mega Sports Camp

Just wanted to give God some praise!!

It's been a busy week. Busy but good...VERY good! This week was our church's Mega Sports Camp outreach. It's a free sports camp open to the community, for kids ages 6-12. This year, the sports offered were soccer, baseball, and dance. Because my good friend was overseeing the organization of the camp, and because there was a need for coaches, I agreed to be a dance coach, which somehow then evolved into a 'head' dance coach. I'll be honest, I was pretty reluctant to do it. Not for any particular reason. I simply underestimated how awesome the experience would be. Now I can't wait to do it again next year!

I was continually blown away by the love these little children were so ready and willing to express, and were so desperately wanting to receive. Children I hardly knew, or didn't know at all, were gravitating to me and following me wherever I went. They were walking up to me and randomly hugging me - the biggest squeezes imaginable. It was so completely cool to see the smiles on their faces just because I gave them a hug, or a high five, or a little compliment.

I was also consistently amazed at the depth of the issues that these little girls are facing day-to-day. In our small group times, the things they were saying were not the kind of things I expected them to bring up. There were issues of death, violence, divorces, custody battles, physical illnesses, money issues, and on and on. I was heartbroken to get a glimpse into the messes that some of them are immersed in. I felt privileged, and rather humbled really, to have a chance to pray for these girls, to pray over them, to pray for their families, and even to pray with a few of them to ask Jesus into their lives. AWESOME!

As I was praying tonight in preparation for tonight's camp session, I really felt led to pray that this event, and that these moments and encounters would be a catalyst for real life change for these kids & for their families - and as families are changing, our community would also begin to change. I know it just looked like a sports camp on the outside, but at the root of this event is an element of God's great plan. I've seen before how God can enter into a closed-off family through the open heart of a child. I'm excited to see how He uses this camp to carry out His plan for us! What awesome potential we just experienced over the past three nights! He is amazing!

Unbroken Communion

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for and insistently require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord (in His presence) all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to meditate, consider and inquire in His temple. You have said, Seek My face - inquire for and require My presence as your vital need. My heart says to You, Your face, Your presence, Lord will I seek, inquire for, and require of necessity and on the authority of Your Word. (Psalm 27: 4, 8)

I know I've referenced these verses more than once before. They are some of my favorites, and I come back to them for strength and perspective pretty regularly. Since the first time I heard this passage of scripture, I was intrigued. There is a depth to it that seems to draw me in. It has served as many things to me. It has been a challenge to me - is God's presence my first priority? It has served as encouragement to me. It has given me perspective and helped me to refocus on God when life tries to take His place in my heart.

But for the past several months, it has been a point of pondering for me. I am captivated by David's heart for the Lord. I adore the passion that is at the root of the life he lived for God. I have often wondered at a young man standing in the fields spinning and dancing for the Lord. Although he was not spotless in life, his heart amazes me. And every time I would read this Psalm (27) again, the language he used in these particular verses stirred something in me. It is language that describes adamant, intentional, unbroken communion with God. Unbroken. Continual. Unceasing.

And without being fully aware of it at first, in my spirit, I began to wonder if this was a possibility. I began to recognize that I have only begun to skim the surface of what is possible in a relationship with God. Even before my awareness caught up with my heart, I had began to pray that I would remain in the presence of God; continue in His presence; be always aware of Him; to not for a moment to lose sight of Him or to turn away from Him. Because I was loving the times that I would worship or pray and I would feel Him with me, but I was frustrated at other times when I would try to pray and feel like I couldn't find Him. How could I feel so close to Him and so sure of Him one moment, and in the same day struggle to feel anything but complete separation? For me, His presence sometimes was good, but not enough. So I continue to pray that He would continually remind me to think of Him, continually prompt me to pray, until I have developed a habit in my life that is so ingrained in me that I can't do anything else.

About two weeks ago, I was reading a book and I came across a few excerpts of a journal that was kept by a man named Frank Laubach. As I read, his words took my breath away. He had put into words exactly all that I had been feeling and trying to formulate in my heart for the past six months or so. This man was born in the late 1800's, and dedicated his life to teaching the illiterate to read. At the age of 45, he was dissatisfied with his spiritual life, and so determined that he would either spend every moment in continuous communion with God, or he would spend the rest of his life trying. The following are a few excerpts from his journal:

January 26, 1930: "Can we have that contact with God all the time? All the time awake, fall asleep in His arms, and awake in His presence? Can we attain that? Can we do His will all the time? Can we think His thoughts all the time?...Can I bring the Lord back in my mind-flow every few seconds so that God shall always be in my mind? I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering this question."

March 1, 1930: "This sense of being led by an unseen hand which takes mine while another hand reaches ahead and prepares the way, grows upon me daily...sometimes it requires a long time early in the morning. I determine not to get out of bed until that mind set upon the Lord is settled."

June 1, 1930: "Ah, God, what a new nearness this brings for Thee and me, to realize that Thou alone canst understand me, for Thou alone knowest all! Thou art no longer a stranger, God! Thou are the only being in the universe who is not partly a stranger! Thou art all the way inside with me - here...I mean to struggle tonight and tomorrow as never before, not once to dismiss thee. For when I lose Thee for an hour I lose. The thing Thou wouldst do can only be done when Thous hast full sway all the time."

"For when I lose Thee for an hour I lose." I've felt like that so many times. The stark contrast between the satisfaction I feel when I sit in His presence and I am focused on Him compared to the withered feeling I feel when I am away too long. It makes me wonder why I stay away. If God is always present, why would I not pay attention to Him every moment of every day? Why would I not include Him in everything I do? Why would I not talk to Him about everything and in everything?

David says, I will seek You and insistently require You. Your presence will I require as my vital need. God's presence was not something David fell into on occasion, or at certain times of the week. He sought after God's presence. He actively looked for God, continually. A vital need is not a casual element of life. It is something we cannot be without. Like air to breath, it must be constant, and we must be continually breathing it in. It cannot cease to exist for even a moment, or we will cease to exist. It is vital. It is continuous. And we must actively take it.

God's presence, like the air we breath, is everywhere around us; it is readily available. But if we stubbornly hold our breath and refuse to take it in, it will be of little use to us. Like Frank Laubach, I am convinced that there is more than glimpsing the presence of God on occasion. What God wants from us, and what we need from Him is continued, unbroken communion. Sometimes talking; sometimes listening; or worshiping; or praising. But always aware of His presence, and always acknowledging Him in one way or another, so as never to lose sight of Him, not even for a moment. For when we lose Him for a moment, we lose. And all that He wants to do in and through us cannot be done until He has our everything, all the time.

Above all things, this is my heart's desire, and I will spend the rest of my life learning to never lose sight of Him and to remain continually in His presence.