He saves, I complain.

"Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death!" Psalms 68:20

"If we fought for our rights, we'd be in hell tonight." LeCrae

He saves us, and we don't even know it. What we think is best for ourselves is not always what really is best for us. The American suburban dream degenerates to fat materialism and environmentally destructive piggish behavior. Spiritual and religious fervor turns in to self-righteousness. Service becomes people-pleasing. Growth becomes pride.

The way God saves, molds, or purifies me is rarely ever what I expect, know, or even want. I can only trust in His goodness--and even with that, I need His help! And even when I'm in the thick of the process, I will most likely not know it or thank Him for it.

Where would I be without His grace?

Time to Give Up

I've been reading through some old coordinator binders, and in one of them is an excerpt from this guy's book, Time to Give Up by David Henderson. There's multiple stories about time and time management and busyness and Sabbath, but here's the first one (which I liked a lot)...

"A light drizzle fell as I pulled out of the parking lot and head for home. We were trying to squeeze in a family dinner between my work commitments, my daughters' friend time, and my son's soccer practice. As often happens, we were shy a few ingredients for the meal, so I made a hurried run to the grocery store after work, painfully aware of how close we were cutting the time. As i merged into traffic and flipped on my windhsield wipers, I caught sight of an older man walking slowly down the slick sidewalk. A plastic grocery bag dangled at his wrist as he tried to wipe the mist from his glasses. His drooped shoulders were darkened with rain.

In the half-second after I passed him, I realized I knew him; he was a new member of my congregation. In the next half-second, I calculated that it would take me no more than 4 minutes to turn around, pick him up, and deliver him to his doorstep.

But I didn't. I drove right past him.

Lord, have mercy."

I like this story because it reminds me of a time (or multiple times) in my own life, where I don't do the thing I feel is right because of time issues (needing to go somewhere), awkwardness, or convenience. Oftentimes, the moment can pass away quickly, allowing me to have an excuse for not doing something, as long as I wait a little bit.

The most vivid memory I have that is similar to this story is a time when I was in Taiwan (a year ago for winter break), and there was a poor, blind man and his wife singing for money. I wanted to give them some of the pocket money that my dad had given me to go around Taiwan to buy things with, but my family was already moving away when I was trying to decide about all of this, and in a second, I felt like the opportunity was gone. I think there are a lot of opportunities that I just let slip me by...but God has mercy on us. He will make me more faithful!