Caring for the Poor

I'm watching the nightly news on NBC as I write this.  The opening story tonight was about poverty in America.  It was heartbreaking.  About 43 million people in America are living in poverty.  20% of children live in poverty.  It's a problem that is sweeping our nation, and taking victims right and left.  Therefore it's a hot topic on how much involvement (if any) government should have in solving this problem.  I'm not going to write about that tonight, although, as many of you know, I sure could.  I, of course, have an opinion on government roles, but that's not where I'm going tonight.

I'm ready for the day when the nightly news reports that poverty is at an all-time low, due to the evangelical church's involvement.  I'm ready for the day when the report shows how unity amongst evangelicals has led to less arguing, and more problem solving and action.  I'm ready for the day when that report turns people to Jesus inadvertently because no one can see these statistics and not turn to Him.

So, how can that happen?  Am I just an idealist who needs a reality check?  I don't think so.  I think the church has to get back to the foundation of faith.  We need to care more about Jesus's gospel agenda then the Tea Party's anti-government agenda.  We need to care more about the gospel agenda then the Democratic Party's more government agenda.  Because, in the end, both fail.  Neither one can give lasting, eternal hope.  Sure, both boast that they can solve the problem in the here and now, but that's not the end of it.  But the Church, through Jesus, can offer the eternal answer.

Proverbs 31:8-9 says, "Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy."  I don't see conditions in there.  Like, only support the poor if they are actively trying to find a job.  Or, only support those who have graduated from high school.  Or only help those that are legal.  Or, only support those who haven't made poor life choices.  I see a pretty broad, and pointed, command to Christians to defend those in need.  Now, I'm not advocating hand-outs, but I am advocating active, life-long support to those who are in need.  Without condition.  Because the grace of God has no conditions.  We are poor and needy, and without our Savior, we have nothing.  We can't make judgements that keep people out- we have to fight for everyone.

One of my favorite quotes is from Tim Keller, when he said, "When a Christian sees prostitutes, alcoholics, prisoners, drug addicts, unwed mothers, the homeless, the refugees, he knows that he is looking in the mirror.  He thinks, 'spiritually I was just like these people, even though physically and socially I was never where they are now.  They are outcasts.  I was an outcast."

Let's stop pitting us against them.  Let's stop crippling the love of Christ.  Let's stop following a Mormon, and follow Jesus Christ, whose lasting, eternal hope can literally change the world.

God is Sovereign

Do you really believe that God is sovereign?  I do, but sometimes I think I only partially do.  I find most people are like that too.  We believe that God is always in control, and that He knows everything, but often we battle with the idea that God is fully in control- meaning we have no control.  That's where I think it gets tricky.  We take up arms about the idea that God would purpose certain events to happen, and that God would choose and plan one's life.

But when we look at the Bible, we're confronted with our disbelief.  In the Old Testament we see a vast amount of examples of God choosing particular people, and causing events to happen.  The biggest example of this is the nation of Israel.  God clearly chooses them as His people.  Even calling them His chosen people.  And I don't know many Christians that take issue with this idea.  God chose Israel.  Got it, no problem.  But have you ever considered the flip side?  It means He didn't choose the Philistines, or the Assyrians, or the Babylonians.  We don't get it, and we never will.  However, it's clear that this is the way of God in the Old Testament.

We see it again in the New Testament.  The disciples are specifically chosen and called by Jesus.  Again, the flip side of this is that other men were not chosen.  He chose Saul to change into Paul, and he became one of the greatest missionaries of our faith.  Again, this means God did not choose other persecutors of The Way, as Acts calls it.

So why do we fight the idea that God is sovereign, even in salvation?  God chooses us, we don't choose Him.  We see it in the Bible over and over again.  So why the argument?  Why the bickering?  Why do we hate this idea?

I think it's two-fold.  One- pride.  That's a big obstacle for me.  Pride keeps me from thinking that God could choose someone or some event over another.  Two- control.  I want to control, and I want to think that I'm in control.  Salvation coming from God and God alone, and that He chooses who and when to give it takes away control from me.  I can't manipulate situations, I can't convince, I can't control.  Even typing that is difficult.  But the reality is, it's true.

"And those He foreknew, He also predestined..."

Thoughts?  Anyone else out there struggle with this idea?  Disagree? Agree?  Let's hear it.

The Story My Life is Writing

Those of you that follow my blog know that I've been blogging about my new endeavors in running. I haven't been running as much lately because of vacation, but I'll continue that soon.

I wanted to blog today about the story I want to write with my life. Some of you know that back in January I read the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. After reading that I started to follow his blog, and recently he posted about a contest he's having. Basically you have to write a blog explaining the story you want to write with your life. So, I'm doing just that. If I win, I'll get to attend his seminar on writing a better story with my life (www.donmilleris.com/conference) in Portland later this year. And they foot the bill. Which is great, considering that my husband is a student and I'm a teacher. We have no money. So, if I win, I can go! So, here's hoping right?

This year has been challenging. Moving wasn't as easy as I thought, and I really started to question what I'm doing with my life. I know, sounds serious, and I guess it was, but it wasn't like this debilitating conundrum where I just sat in the dark for hours on end pondering my purpose. It was more this small feeling of discontent that just never left. I enjoy teaching fourth grade, but I know that it's not what I want to do forever. And I know that if I don't start to make moves now to change my life's path, then I might get stuck. So, after much thought, prayer, and conversation with those close to me, I've come up with a life story I want to write.

It starts with more education. I want to get a master's degree in Educational Psychology here at IU. I wasn't sure at first what I wanted to pursue, but I think this is the right choice. I want to be able to identify disabilities in children, and then know how to help them to deal with it. This might require getting a Ph.D. as well, which I'm totally open to. I love learning. I think I'd be a professional student if possible. However, this is not where my life story ends.

Next, I want to adopt and foster children. Lots of them. Now, I don't want to be like the Duggars, because that's just a little out of control in my opinion, but I do want a large family. Think like 4-5 adopted kids and at least one foster kid at any given time. I also want some of these children to have social and/or learning disabilities. I'm not talking about anything severe and profound necessarily, but autism, ED, ODD, etc. Basically, if it has an acronym I'm willing to have a child dealing with it in my house. I also want to have a fair amount of land in order to have animals like horses, goats, chickens, etc. I think that animals are a great form of therapy for people, and especially kids. It helps teach responsibility, and it helps boost self-esteem. Kids that can't seem to connect to people often find they can connect to animals. And let's just be honest, I love animals. I mean, I don't even know how many strays I've taken in. So, I guess that part might be selfish. Oh well. But this is not the end of the story either.

The main part of my story is this idea for an organization that I want to start. I want to start an organization that has four main priorities. Since I'm a list person, I'll give these to you in a bullet point form (I know, you can thank me later):

• Priority One: Raise awareness of social and learning disabilities. I think a lot of people have misconceptions about children with disabilities. I want to work to correct these misconceptions, as well as inform parents and schools of symptoms and things to watch for if you are concerned about your kid. I particularly want to help raise awareness in lower SES areas. A lot of these people work so much that they don't know where to look for resources or have the time to do so. I want to be so present in these communities that it's easy, efficient, and obvious where to look for help.
• Priority Two: Lobby/Work to create political change in our public school systems. I don't know about you, but I believe that our public school system is in dire need of some help. I also believe that the main problem holding back our schools from providing great education is educational policy. Special education policy is in need of revamping, and I'd like to do something to help change it. The only possible problem with this is that it might keep us out of 501 c 3 status. I'm not super familiar with all of that, but I'm pretty sure you can't be political if you are 501 c 3. But that might be wrong. I don't know.
• Priority Three: Work with private schools to help provide special education. Many parents choose private school (mine did), and a lot of people with special needs children would like to. The problem right now is that a lot of private schools don't have the resources to really service these kids. I'd like to help them by showing them low cost resources that they can implement easily.
• Priority Four: Community. I want to help create community among parents who have kids with special needs such as autism, ADD, ADHD, ED, ODD, etc. There are a lot of resources out there for parents who are dealing with kids that have severe and profound disabilities, but not as much for parents with kids who have social disabilities. However, these disabilities can be just as frustrating and difficult as more severe ones. The most important part of this priority is that I want all resources to be free. This goes back to priority one. I don't want money to keep someone out of this important community. Furthermore, I want to be able to have people over at our house to see what we are doing, to have a break from their kids, and to be able to share and have conversations about life. Isolation is the biggest problem for parents dealing with these children with social issues, and I'd love to be able to help bring about community in their lives. This can also be done through the various social medias out there. That's the great thing about the Internet. I can be thousands of miles away from someone, yet still connect with them to help them to live their lives and write their stories with their kids.

So that's the story I want to write. I have two big obstacles to accomplishing this goal. First is obvious- money! The second is knowing how to start such an organization. I'm good with ideas, but I don't know all of the red tape to becoming official and all of that. This is where I feel like attending the seminar could really help. I know that Donald Miller has started The Mentoring Project, and it would be great to hear from him and others in his organization about how it got started, how much money it takes, how many people need to be on staff, etc. etc. etc. There's a lot to discover.

So, I'd love the opportunity to go. Here's a video about the seminar. Watch it, check it out, but you better not try to win the contest or else I will cut you.

Living a Better Story Seminar from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.

Okay, so that's just a joke about the cutting you thing- but please let me be the friend you bring!

Those of you that follow my blog- I want to hear from you! What do you think? Ideas? What kind of story are you writing with your life?

Running: Day: Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five

2 miles.

Hot.

Painful.

Hot.

Finished.

Hot.

I definitely have a love/hate relationship with summer.

Running: Day Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three

So, in case you hadn't noticed, I haven't blogged in awhile. I accidentally didn't run for a week! It was a total accident I tell ya. It was the last full week of school, it rained every day, and we had lots of crazy stuff going on. This was a total drag, because not running for a week is not good. However, I didn't give up, and I began running again this week. I ran on Monday for about 20 minutes just to get my legs moving again. I didn't really focus on time or distance, just simply not passing out. I didn't, and then on Tuesday I was able to run 25 minutes with Annie and Julie with little problem. I went running again yesterday (Thursday) and I decided that rather than running for 28 minutes, I wanted to run 2.25 miles. I've noticed that I haven't been going as far as I want to because my timer would always go off. I'm a very slow runner/jogger. Definitely a jogger, but runner sounds cooler.

I was able to jog 2.25 miles, and it went pretty well. It was difficult, but I saw a family from my church on the trail. This mom has 5 boys, all of whom she homeschools. And she is in shape! She was running while 2 of her boys rode their bikes. I kept thinking, if she can run like that after popping out 5 boys, I can do 2.25 miles. That proved to be good encouragement! I was able to do it, and I felt great that I finished it. My new running plan is to focus on my distance rather than my time. The rest of this week and next week I want to run 2.25 miles every time. Then I want to do 2.5 miles for a week. Then I'll up it to 2.75 miles for a week. Then 3 miles! (Like how I spelled that all out for you? I didn't want you to get confused.)

Running is great! And when I think about where I was 2 months ago... I still can't believe I'm doing this.

Running: Day Twenty and Twenty-One

Yesterday I ran with Katie for 25 minutes. It was terrible. Katie was fine, but I felt sick. I felt so badly that I had to stop and walk for a couple of minutes. I did continue to run, even after I walked, but I just felt horrible the whole time.

Needless to say, I was rather discouraged. Even though I didn't quit, and I kept on going, I still felt defeated.

So, today, I went running pretty early in my day. It's Saturday, so I have the option to go whenever I want, which I very much so like. I got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and went on out. I was very nervous, because I was running by myself and I had such an awful day yesterday.

However, my worst fears were not realized.

I think I had the best running day today that I've ever had. I ran 2 miles!! I felt great too. I made a conscious effort to focus on my breathing, rather than my legs. That way I could pace myself better, and listen to my body for cues as to my abilities.

And I really focused on my music. I listen to Pandora while I run on my iPhone, and today I listened to the Black-Eyed Peas station. I loved it. What I'm about to confess will probably make many of you question my sanity and/or our friendship, but I have to tell you anyway. Honesty is the best policy. I tried to think of the songs as defining my relationship with running. For instance, this song came on that basically was saying "shut up, I'm crazy for loving you, why can't I quit you?" (Okay, maybe not quite that last part, but that was the essence of this song.) I totally thought of that as my relationship with running! I mean, I must be seriously crazy to run. And then the song came on that says, "I know you want me, you know I want you." Again, I thought of myself and running. It's true, I do want running. And running wants me. So we made it work today.

Then the last song that come on, which pushed me on to my 2 miles, was that song "I love to move it move it." I mean, seriously. How perfect for running!

Overall, today was fantastic. It was so encouraging to be able to do exactly what I wanted to do.

Hopefully, these days will become the norm.

Running: Day Eighteen and Nineteen

Day Eighteen- we ran 20 minutes straight.

Day Nineteen- we ran 25 minutes straight.

It's really hard.

And I'm very slow. I don't go nearly as far as I want to/need to in that time. I know that I just need to and want to go a lot faster than I do. I'm not sure if it's all mental, or if I just really can't go much faster yet.

I'm not sure. Any ideas or tips to go faster?