Stay
Let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of faithHebrews 12:1-2
What I'm listening to: 24 by Switchfoot
See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
After listening to this song for over a decade, I still can't listen without tearing up. Jon Foreman remains one of the kindest people I've met and knowing who he is makes this song ring even truer.
GO!
It's an exciting word, isn't it? It's full of possibility and adventure and action. It stirs something inside us. A longing to do something. To engage. To take charge. It speaks of mission and purpose.
But what about when the calling is to stay?
I grew up with the stories of Jim Elliot and Loren Cunningham, the apostle Paul and my personal hero Gladys Alyward. Go! is built into the very essence of who I am.
And I went. I built a house in the slums of Tijuana. I visited youth in detention centers. I ministered to orphans in Cairo. I baked under the Southern California sun while teaching youth not much younger than me to go forth and save the world.
Go! is easy for me. Go! is a life without the pain of commitments and the agony of monotony. Go! is a life of faith and living in the moment. It's a life of miracles and unearned provision. It's the bonds of deeply diving into work with someone and then parting ways when the assignment is over. Go! holds lightly to everything.
But stay? Stay is ordinary. Stay is paying bills on time and making 180 peanut butter sandwiches over the course of a school year. It's remembering to take out the trash and show up to Cub Scouts and pray when nothing ever seems to change.
Stay feels less holy, less committed. But it's not.
Some of the most faithful people I know have stayed. They volunteer in their schools. They treat their work as something holy. They care for their homes and their neighbors with joy. They send Trader Joe's gift cards in the mail when someone is between jobs. They leave flowers on front steps. They offer to take children to give couples a night out or a single mom a chance to breathe. They pick up travelers from the airport or drop patients at appointments.
Stay is hard. But necessary. Stay is costly because it requires us to hold two ideas at once - whole-hearted commitment to God and staying present in the lives He's given us. It's so much easier to separate those idea - to segregate the sacred from the secular. But it's all one. The way you serve your boss or your customer or the cable technician trying to fix your wifi is all a reflection of how you serve God.
The kind of quiet faithfulness required by stay is cultivated in the pressure-cooker of homework and work deadlines and dead car batteries on cold mornings.
There will always be people called to go. But there will also those called to stay and change the world in seemingly smaller ways. Whatever you find yourself doing, do it for God and it will be the holy work of building His kingdom here on earth.
It's an exciting word, isn't it? It's full of possibility and adventure and action. It stirs something inside us. A longing to do something. To engage. To take charge. It speaks of mission and purpose.
But what about when the calling is to stay?
I grew up with the stories of Jim Elliot and Loren Cunningham, the apostle Paul and my personal hero Gladys Alyward. Go! is built into the very essence of who I am.
And I went. I built a house in the slums of Tijuana. I visited youth in detention centers. I ministered to orphans in Cairo. I baked under the Southern California sun while teaching youth not much younger than me to go forth and save the world.
Go! is easy for me. Go! is a life without the pain of commitments and the agony of monotony. Go! is a life of faith and living in the moment. It's a life of miracles and unearned provision. It's the bonds of deeply diving into work with someone and then parting ways when the assignment is over. Go! holds lightly to everything.
But stay? Stay is ordinary. Stay is paying bills on time and making 180 peanut butter sandwiches over the course of a school year. It's remembering to take out the trash and show up to Cub Scouts and pray when nothing ever seems to change.
Stay feels less holy, less committed. But it's not.
Some of the most faithful people I know have stayed. They volunteer in their schools. They treat their work as something holy. They care for their homes and their neighbors with joy. They send Trader Joe's gift cards in the mail when someone is between jobs. They leave flowers on front steps. They offer to take children to give couples a night out or a single mom a chance to breathe. They pick up travelers from the airport or drop patients at appointments.
Stay is hard. But necessary. Stay is costly because it requires us to hold two ideas at once - whole-hearted commitment to God and staying present in the lives He's given us. It's so much easier to separate those idea - to segregate the sacred from the secular. But it's all one. The way you serve your boss or your customer or the cable technician trying to fix your wifi is all a reflection of how you serve God.
The kind of quiet faithfulness required by stay is cultivated in the pressure-cooker of homework and work deadlines and dead car batteries on cold mornings.
There will always be people called to go. But there will also those called to stay and change the world in seemingly smaller ways. Whatever you find yourself doing, do it for God and it will be the holy work of building His kingdom here on earth.
When You're raising the dead in me
After listening to this song for over a decade, I still can't listen without tearing up. Jon Foreman remains one of the kindest people I've met and knowing who he is makes this song ring even truer.
What I'm reading: The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine Aron
...being sensitive to the discomfort, disapproval, or anger of others probably made you quick to follow every rule as perfectly as possible, afraid to make a mistake.
...being sensitive to the discomfort, disapproval, or anger of others probably made you quick to follow every rule as perfectly as possible, afraid to make a mistake.
I've just started reading this one, but I'm already confronting a lot of things within myself. I cringe at the label of "highly sensitive" because it feels like an excuse for poor coping skills. My hope is to gain some deeper insight into how I'm wired and acceptance that it's not all some moral failing on my part!
What I'm watching: The Day After Tomorrow
This Bible is the first book ever printed. It represents the dawn of the Age of Reason. As far as I'm concerned, the written word is mankind's greatest achievement. You can laugh, but if Western Civilization is finished, I'm gonna' save at least one little piece of it.
The kids saw the cover of the DVD and wanted to watch it, so we figured we rewatching it ourselves to make sure it was okay. How did I forget how intense this movie is?! Definitely not for kiddos, but I still love it.
This Bible is the first book ever printed. It represents the dawn of the Age of Reason. As far as I'm concerned, the written word is mankind's greatest achievement. You can laugh, but if Western Civilization is finished, I'm gonna' save at least one little piece of it.
The kids saw the cover of the DVD and wanted to watch it, so we figured we rewatching it ourselves to make sure it was okay. How did I forget how intense this movie is?! Definitely not for kiddos, but I still love it.
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