Rewind. Pause. Push Play. The Main Thing.
January 27, 2012 – Aaron Bird
Rewind: Fear can be a powerful motivator. When channeled properly, it can drive us to work harder, think faster, and push farther than you ever would have thought possible. More often than not, however, we let our fe
ar motivate us to stand stock still. It makes our knees knock, our skin crawl, and our feet feel like they’re trapped in blocks of concrete. Our fear – be it of change, of failure, of rejection, of heights, of spiders, of clowns, or of squirrels – manifests itself in the form of self-constructed cages that prevent us from moving forward. Worse yet is when we let that fear drag us back from freedom to slavery.
After spending nearly four hundred years as slaves to the Egyptians and suffering abuse, oppression, and disgrace, fear was a concept with which the Israelites were terribly familiar. So, when Pharaoh finally gave in and let the people go, the exodus was anything but orderly. Even as families gathered hastily, and belongings were frantically packed up, the Israelites were holding their breath, waiting for Pharaoh to change his mind as he had done so many times before. But, you can bet, that when they approached the city limits and saw no guards waiting to stop them, the Israelites took off running! They left Egypt just as fast as they could with plans to never return.
Moses led God’s people out of Egypt, into the desert, and towards the Promised Land, but the journey would be neither boring nor direct; God certainly did not select the “shortest time” option on His divine GPS (it took FORTY YEARS to get to their destination!!). The detours began two or three weeks after their deliverance: God spoke to Moses and told him to turn around and lead the people back towards Egypt. 
Still riding on the spiritual high that follows the kind of miraculous works they witnessed in Egypt, and reassured by the visible presence of God in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, Moses and the Israelites faithfully followed the Lord.
God continued to speak to Moses, directing him to lead the Israelites to the east and then to the west, zigging and zagging His people through the desert. You see, God was very much aware of the power of fear, and chose His path accordingly, saying, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt” (Ex. 13:17). He understood that, despite His promise, despite His very presence, His people were likely to surrender to fear and turn away from His goodness, preferring the comfort of familiar oppression back in Egypt to the unknown treasures of His glory in the Promised Land. Thus, in all of His divine wisdom, God chose to prolong their journey, consequentially building their trust in His provision. The Israelites didn’t know it, but He was preparing them for the coming chaos.
The Israelites had just reached thehore of the Red Sea and were awaiting further instructions from the Lord when they first heard that Pharaoh had changed his mind. After the loss of every first born son in the entire nation, Pharaoh’s heart was harder than ever, and once his son’s funeral was over, he wasted no time assembling an army of charioteers to bring the “lost” slaves back.
Can you imagine the fear, the absolutely paralyzing terror, that must have taken hold of each and every Israelite when they heard that Pharaoh and his army were on their way? They had only just left Egypt! God had promised deliverance! They had trusted Him; they had trusted Moses! And for what? To die in the desert? They demanded of Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Ex. 14:11-12). Their terror was so all-encompassing that they mistook God’s provision for faulty planning, and slavery for protection. They let themselves be so overwhelmed by doubt and fear that they completely forgot who was leading them, even though He was right in front of them the whole time.
What fears do you have? What is it that limits you? What makes you hesitate to trust? What compels you to keep the lights on while you sleep? What stops you from enjoying the fullness of the life you’ve been promised? What makes you squeeze your eyes shut, hold your breath, and lock your knees? Whatever it is – big or small, rational or irrational, kept secret or worn on your sleeve for the world to see – in the midst of chaos, there’s only one thing you need to remember: Who is it that’s really leading you?
No matter what life throws at you; no matter if it makes you want to laugh or cry; no matter if your first instinct is to run hide, dance, or jump for joy (that’s right, we’ve left the realm of fear and moved into a much more universal truth), the main thing is to keep the Main Thing the main thing.
The Lord has promised to bring deliverance for His people, and He has yet to stand us up. When the Egyptians were closing in on the Israelites (who had their backs to the sea), God threw up a wall between His people and their enemies, and parted the sea, providing an escape route. Moreover, when the Egyptians attempted to follow the Israelites across the sea floor, God crushed them, decimating the greatest army the world had yet to see! God promises to provide, to rescue, and to lead His people, always. He is the hero of the text, and the realization of every good thing.
God always shows up, and He is never terrified. He will never be bested. So next time you’re afraid, take a breath and remember the main thing is to keep the Main Thing the main thing. With God leading you, what’s the worst that could happen? Death? Last I checked, He’d already taken care of that.
Pause: His love never fails; He is greater than anything you could ever dream up. Our God is mighty to save, and if our God is with us, then who could ever stop us? What could ever stand against us and pose a real threat? You can rest safely in your Father’s arms, knowing He will never forsake you.
“I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” Psalm 18:1-3
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strongholdof my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.” Psalm 27:1-3
Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes. Psalm 112:6-8
Push Play: There is no reason to be afraid: God’s got your back. He’s been repairing broken hearts, finding lost treasures, and rescuing warrior princesses and knights-in-shining-armor alike for longer than any of us can imagine. He conquered death on the cross, and is still freely giving that salvation away to all of us. Lucifer’s got nothing on Him. When you know the Lord, there is absolutely no reason to fear, ever. Pain is fleeting, loss is temporary, and death is not the end. God is one trust-fall partner you can place your faith in one hundred percent. And yet, we fear. We still don’t trust…
There is no reason to be afraid, but, when you are afraid, embrace the fear. Fear is only a problem when it stops us from trusting in the Lord (like it does in this video). The issue isn’t the fear itself, it’s when we allow it to paralyze us or push us back towards something that we know is wrong. Fear is only powerful when you leave it unaddressed and deny that it exists; that’s when it festers and grows, forming chains around your ankles and walls around your heart. Instead, make efforts to recognize fear for what it is – a lie, a farce, a temptation to deny who God really is – own it, and submit it to the Lord.
He is waiting for you to call on His name; to open your eyes and see that He’s right there in front of you as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, leading you through the desert, building your character and reinforcing your faith. He will take your fear and turn it into strength. He will provide. He will show up; He’s already shown up. Embrace the fear; claim its power as your own, and keep your eyes on the Main Thing. He will catch you every single time.
Much love,
Taylor
Rewind. Pause. Push Play. Stay on your wall.
Rewind: By 444 B.C. the city of Jerusalem had been in ruins for about one hundred years, serving as a constant reminder of the injustice done to the Israelites at the hands of the Babylonians. 
King Artaxerxes of Persia, the son of Esther’s husband King Xerses, was ruler over the Israelites. A Jewish man named Nehemiah held the dangerous yet honorable position of being royal cupbearer. Although his job was to put his own life in danger on a daily basis for the sake of the king, by testing his wine for poison, it’s fair to assume that a servant as trusted as Nehemiah would have led a pretty comfortable life. But, as is so common in the lives of believers, God soon placed a call on Nehemiah’s heart that demanded both attention and action.
Now, the Jews had been back home in Jerusalem for almost one hundred years, but the city was far from being rebuilt. In fact, aside from the restoration of the Temple in 516 B.C., few other construction projects had been completed, due in large part to the frequent raids on Jerusalem by neighboring war lords. The city was in dire need of protection, but the once strong walls, meant to keep out invaders, still lay scattered in heaps of rubble on the outskirts of town. When Nehemiah’s brother, Hanani, came for a visit and relayed this sad news, Nehemiah’s heart broke, and his soul became restless. He wept, fasted, and prayed for his fellow Jews. Soon enough, however, he came to recognize the longing in his heart for what it really was: a call to action from the Lord.
Traditionally, royal cupbearers (and most other royal servants) were expected to maintain a happy disposition in the presence of the king, so, when Nehemiah, visibly wracked with anxiety, presented Arataxerses with his daily wine, the king expressed his concern, or, at the very least, his curiosity. Nervously, Nehemiah explained the situation in Jerusalem, and, at the king’s prompting, asked for a leave of absence, during which he would go to Jerusalem and lend a hand in rebuilding the city. To Nehemiah’s great surprise and pleasure, the king granted his request.
Once he arrived in Jerusalem, Nehemiah met with other Jews, and quickly decided that the one thing he most needed to do was to rebuild the city walls. Thus, he assembled a large, talented, and very motivated team of men, and they started building, one brick at a time. The process was long, it was difficult, and it certainly stirred up a lot of discontent. In particular, the worst of all the war lords, Sanballot, made numerous attempts to prevent Nehemiah from completing his task.
Sanballot invited Nehemiah to dinner, threatened to kill him, and started very dangerous rumors concerning his loyalty to king Arataxerses. But, no matter the request or the complaint, Nehemiah’s answer was always the same, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” (Ne. 6:3).
In the face of grave danger, Nehemiah maintained his composure, continued his work, and never once faltered in his reverence for the Lord. Even when the only safe place for him to hide was behind the closed doors of the Temple, a place laymen like himself were forbidden from going according to Jewish law, Nehemiah remained faithful. He remained on the wall. He understood that his great work was actually God’s great work, and refused to let anything deter him. He knew that building that wall was the one thing he absolutely had to do: “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”
So, what about you? What is the one thing that you just have to do this year? Maybe it’s a habit you need to make, or maybe it’s one you need to break. It could be a relationship you know you have to end, or it could be one you know you should start. Maybe it’s something as intangible as having the joy of the Lord in your heart each and every day. Maybe it’s finally turning away from the sin that has haunted you for all this time…
Whatever it is, your one thing won’t require extensive discernment. It won’t allude your attempts at identification, and it won’t 
hide in the shadows of your busy mind. Your one thing is something you feel deep in your bones. It might even be something you’ve felt deep in your bones for quite some time now. All you have to do is engage with that one thing long enough for it to convict you; just long enough for you to see that God’s DNA is all over it, and all over you.
Forming or breaking a habit, starting or ending a relationship, moderating or eliminating a negative tendency, seeking God’s face in a new way or running from temptation with more vigor than ever before…
This is your semester. This is your year. Don’t waste it only worrying about all of the earthly things you should be doing. Do what it is that you know you absolutely have to do. Recognize your one thing for what it truly is: a call God has placed on your heart to do a truly great work. So, get on your wall and stay there; don’t let anyone or anything bring you down.
— January 19, 2012, Aaron Bird
Pause: The story of Nehemiah summariazed above is taken from Nehemiah chapters 1-6, and it’s definitely a good place to start when meditating on your one thing… Here are a few other passages you may find helpful; in all things, seek to place the Lord first.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Cor. 10:13
Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. James 2:15-18
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:6-8
Push Play: Nehemiah’s call was strong, steady, and undeniable. Even under threat of death, he stood firm. As terrifying as building that wall must have been for him at points, especially when Sanballot was threatening to kill him, it also must have been such a source of comfort for Nehemiah. He was so certain of his task, so convicted by the Lord’s prompting to return to Jerusalem and rebuild that wall, that he put everything else on hold, and boldly proclaimed that he was “doing a great work.” The man certainly was not lacking in confidence.
Oh, how I envy that certainty of purpose from time to time. Forming an honest answer to the question What is one great thing that you want to do? is overwhelming. It’s a question weighted down by implications, expectations, and the promise of time consuming deliberations. For most of us, a question like that can be temporarily paralyzing, because the future, in all of its immeasurable vastness, is where people and ideas get lost. For some, the intangible entity that is ‘the future’ has too much uncertainty to wade through comfortably, while for other sit serves as a safe space in which to deposit all of the desires they’re just too busy to attend to at the moment; either way, thinking about or planning for the future tends to trip people up.
But I think one of the key aspects of Nehemiah’s story, and one of the reasons why it is extremely relevant to our lives here in the 21st century, is that his conviction was for the present, not for the future. He wasn’t caught up in the planning; he was swept away by the doing. He wasn’t deceived into waiting for the perfect moment; he was inspired to act here and now. We could learn a lot from a guy like Nehemiah.
It’s time to stop being intimidated. It’s time to stop putting off the things you know you shouldn’t. It’s time to stop being distracted or discouraged by other commitments and obligations, because when they stand in the way of God’s call, those otherwise healthy commitments become idols, and that gets very dangerous very fast. It’s time to do what you have to do; what your soul longs to do; what you’re being called to do. Find your one thing, and then, brick by brick, step by step, victory by small victory, start building your wall.
Much love,
Taylor
True Christianity
Recently, our very own Sarah Stef took it upon herself to start up a unique and much needed workshop: True Christianity. The purpose of this weekly discussion is to address common misconceptions about the Christian faith in an attempt to clarify how and Christians view the world. It is not an apologetic class, and neither is Sarah looking to lecture for an hour every Thursday night, rather she is trying to facilitate open conversation and understanding among people of all faiths. Over the last few weeks, Sarah has been working to publicize her workshop and has seen had some really good conversations as a result! Last week, she was even featured as a guest blogger on Faith Line Protestants blog through a connection with UIUC’s Interfaith organization (head on over there when you get the chance and browse their website, it’s pretty neat)! Here’s what she had to say:
At the end of my junior year at the University of Illinois, I began to contemplate what my last semester of college would look like (since I am student teaching in the spring, I have to pack all my senior experiences into half the time). What would my goals be? How would I accomplish them? More importantly, have I made a difference in my time at the university? I struggled with these questions and more as I tried to plan the blank expanse that is my future.
In a meeting with several other leaders of the Christian ministry that I attend, I took to heart a comment that seemed to outline a need on our campus: Why can’t we create an environment in which we present our faith without making any assumptions about our audience’s faith, prior knowledge, or intentions? Even the most basic Bible study usually assumes that the members have a Bible at home that they can read between meetings. I got excited, because I felt that I had found my purpose for my last semester—I would organize some sort of weekly workshop that could outline Christianity for anyone who was interested, regardless of religious belief. In fact, I encouraged people to invite their non-Christian friends, because it would be most beneficial to those who may not have heard some of it before.
Wait, let me back up… what do I mean by “it” in that last sentence? Well, having grown up in the church my head is packed full of all these random facts about Christianity; what it is, and what the implications are. My weekly workshop is a semi-successful attempt at organizing basic biblical doctrine into different topical explorations of meaning. But I didn’t stop there! Since I wanted to design this workshop to be beneficial to people who may not know very much about what Christians believe in, I decided to add another layer into my discussions—how can I address common questions and misconceptions that people have about the Christian faith?
We all hate clichés and stereotypes for the same reason—because we don’t like to be misrepresented. Christians aren’t any different. It bothers me that the image of Christianity presented by the media, and a few small fringe groups with loud voices, is a garbled caricature of what Christianity really is. A lot of people are put off by Christianity because what they see is only a distortion, and so I am using my workshop to try to clear up those confusions. This is why I named my workshop True Christianity, because there are so many false Christian ideas out there.
Right now I am at the halfway point in my workshop series, and what surprised me was the response to it. My expectations were that Christians would use it as a way to invite their non-Christian friends into non-judgmental discussions about Christian beliefs. It was very disheartening when I finally realized that my Christian friends had little interest in the workshop, probably because they didn’t think it would be useful to them (which is not necessarily true, I myself have learned a lot through my research for this workshop). But on the flip side, I’ve been getting a lot of positive interest from the non-Christian community itself. People actually want to learn about Christianity! Several groups on campus have supported my work, recognizing the need for educating people about Christianity. I think it’s been awesome how my workshop has allowed me to connect with people on campus with common goals that I would not otherwise have had a chance to work with.
As the end of my workshop approaches, I am once again faced with contemplating the future—what do I want to do with everything I’ve learned and done through this experience? I hate the idea that this was just a one-time deal, and will soon be nothing more than a memory. In fact, I refuse to leave it that way, because the need for this workshop will not end when I leave. That’s why I’ve put all of my notes on my website,truechristianityuiuc.weebly.com, because I want everyone to have access to the information regardless of whether or not they have attended my workshops. Besides, I think this small workshop is something that I would like to refine and re-implement wherever I end up in the future. Who knows, maybe I’ll write a book… someday. And wouldn’t it be really cool if some underclassman came up to me today and asked if they could keep the workshop running on campus after I’m gone…
True Christianity meets every Thursday night at 6:30 pm in 309 ACES Library. Spread the word, invite your friends, show up and support Sarah, join her in helping to clear up misunderstandings on our campus while making lasting connections with people of other faiths!
Rewind. Pause. Push Play. Identity crisis solved.
October 17, 2011 – Aaron Bird
Rewind: Identity. This word has been giving people headaches for centuries. It’s what defines you; it’s who you are. It’s what some people spend their whole lives looking for. According to the Oxford Dictionary identity is the very definition of intuitive: it’s the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, which pretty much says that your identity is you. Yet, we walk around, hanging our heads, full of passion and pain, desperately asking everyone and everything around us for direction. We ask them to do what proves too difficult for us to do on our own; we ask them to define us, to tell us what is at our core. We ask “Where do I fit in? Where am I not wanted? How valuable am I? How insignificant? What 
purpose do I serve? Where do I fall short? Who am I?” Their answers, however, trap us in a dangerous cycle; they always leave us unsatisfied, which is why we keep asking. Mankind is going through a major identity crisis. It won’t end until we stop asking everything and everyone, and start asking The One.
You want to know who you are?
You are God’s child.
If you’re looking for your identity, that’s it right there, in all of its mysterious, awe-inspiring grandeur: you are God’s child.
There are a couple of things at the center of our identity crisis…
The process of elimination: Even when we feel like we don’t know exactly who we are, we can almost always say something about who we’re not. I am not as smart as him; I am not as pretty as her; I am not as successful as her; I am not as kind as him, etc. There’s a much more scientific, intellectual name for this, but at its core, it’s a process of elimination, similar to the test-taking technique we’re all so familiar with (well, it’s not A or C…). The flaw here, is that it’s completely destructive. Whether it’s intentional or not, you are putting yourself in direct competition with those around you in an attempt to prove you deserve to exist and have value. But, how can you prove that you have value if your your evidence rests completely on all of the things you are not – all of the things you are “missing?”
Belief that actions are your identity: The world around us is constantly saying that what you do is inherently who you are. If you teach, you’re a teacher; if you preach, you’re a preacher; if if you write, you’re a writer; if you farm, you’re a farmer; if you run, you’re a runner; if you succeed, you’re a success. But, the problem here is that what you do is inherently who you are, even when those things are not positive… If you cheat, you’re a cheater; if you lose, you’re a loser; if you quit, you’re a quitter; if you fail, you’re a failure. So, then, if you win the spelling bee, but fail an exam, who are you: a winner or a failure? Or do they cancel out, meaning you are nothing at all?
Take a look at what Paul has to say about our identity crisis:
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29
You see, the truth is, you don’t have to impress anybody. You already have an identity: you are God’s child. And since you are incapable of impressing God, any efforts spent trying to assert your claim to this identity, to prove you are somehow worthy of it, are in vain. You can’t prove anything, which is why God made it so you don’t have to. You belong to God, and you can either embrace that truth, or run from it.
We struggle with this concept because we are constantly looking inward and outward, and never upward. But, the more you get yourself out of the way – the more you let Him have you – the more truly yourself you become. Once your life belongs to Christ, you are completely clothed in this new identity. You have nothing left to prove, because in Christ you have value; you have significance. When you are sure of God – who He is and what He has promised – you are sure of yourself. Our value comes from being loved by the Lord, and our identity is firmly rooted in who God is. Since God never changes, His love never changes, which means that our value never changes. Your importance on this earth never depreciates. You are God’s child.
That is the Gospel. He never changes, so who you are never changes. Again, you can embrace it, or you can run from it, but that doesn’t change it. Do you know who you are?
Pause: Even if it makes you feel silly, read these things out loud. Make them a part of your prayer life today. Write them down. Repeat them to yourself as your falling asleep. Internalize this truth: I am God’s child. We all need a paradigm shift. We all need to see ourselves as God sees us.
I may be angry; I may be happy. I may be big; I may be little. I may be dark skinned; I may be light skinned. I may eat desert first; I may not eat much at all. I may be gorgeous; I may need a little makeup. I am God’s child.
I may love politics; I may hate politics. I may be introverted; I may love people. I may have a job; I may be unemployed. I may like a cold of cup of lemonade; I may like a nice glass of wine. I may marinate and sauté; I may overuse my microwave. I may get straight A’s; I may not remember the last time I got an A. I am God’s child.
I may be single; I may be married. I may like rap; I may only listen to Stephen-Curtis Chapman. I may make lots of money; I may barely make ends meet. I may like dogs; I may like cats. I may have children; I may not have children. I may like pricy lattes; I may only drink tap water. I may have a police record; I may live in fear of taking risks. I am God’s child.
I may have a plan for my life; I may be clueless. I may be successful; I may be struggling. I may be popular; I may always sit by myself. I may believe in global warming; I may think it’s a hoax. I may kiss on the first date; I may wait till marriage. I may like soap operas; I may not own a TV. I may appreciate real books; I may own a kindle. I am God’s child.
I have value. I have worth. I have significance. I am accepted. I am known. I am loved. I have nothing to prove. I am God’s child.
Push Play: 
Brokenness stems from a grand misunderstanding of ourselves and of the world around us. Lifetimes are wasted in search of abstract answers to concrete questions; we deny simple, clear-cut truths in search of something big enough to fill the void in our souls. We’ve removed certainty from everyday life, preferring the comfort of confusion – no one’s wrong; everyone just has a slightly different, possibly valid, interpretation. In so doing we have made living much harder than it needs to be. We have convinced ourselves that our identities are complicated and intangible and vague and indefinable.
The problem isn’t that our identities are hidden or intrinsically complicated; they’re not even all that abstract. The problem is that we are trying to recreate something that already exists. Ironically, we end up denying our true selves in a vain attempt to find our true selves.
We haven’t always had an identity crisis. The modern concept of individual identity is a relatively new idea – most scholars agree that term and the idea it embodies is probably only a few centuries old. In our efforts to understand the world, to embrace reason, to question and critique and doubt, either to find truth or simply for argument’s sake, we have confused ourselves. We are constantly mistaking lies for truth. “The unity of the self was not a problem so long as the traditional Christian conception of the soul held sway…”* but when we decided God wasn’t necessarily God, when we decided the Gospel was just a nice story, when we relegated Christianity to nothing more than a placeholder – a satisfactory explanation only until the ‘real’ truth can be found… that’s when we lost sight of our identity.
It’s okay to question, and it’s even okay to doubt, but let those questions drive you closer to God, not farther. Don’t believe the lie that man-kind has progressed past the need for God. We will never not need God, and we will never be ourselves without God. If you feel lost, this is what you’re missing.
Your identity is mysterious, but it’s not a mystery. Your identity is beyond comprehension, but it’s not out of reach. Your identity was bought at a high price, but it was freely given to you. Your identity will not be found in this world; it resides above. Your identity is who you are. And who you are, is a child of God.
Much Love,
Taylor
*Gleason, Philip. “Identifying Identity: A Semantic History.” The Journal of American History. 911 (1983): 910-931. http://www.jstor.org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/stable/1901196
We have to drink Water to give water.
October 10, 2011 – Aaron Bird
Sorry for the temporary hiatus last week… we had a somewhat unconventional service (an interactive discussion about some of the fundamentals of Christianity) that didn’t really lend itself to a written format. This week, too, was a little different, so you won’t find the same “Rewind. Pause. Push Play.” segments, instead you’ll just get my take of Bird’s message. This week was about being convicted, being called to action. This week was about sacrificing for the good of our brothers and sisters around the world who are dying each and every day. This week was about drinking Water so we can give water…
Nobody likes infomercials. They’re long, they’re overdramatic, and they’re always trying to get you to do something… usually that something is “Call right now to place your order and receive our special bonus prize!” To make matters worse, the product they’re selling is typically unnecessary, overpriced, and poorly made. Nobody likes infomercials because they attempt to trick you, and sometimes guilt you, out of your hard earned cash.
You know what people like even less than infomercials about the latest and greatest quadruple-use kitchen appliance? Christian infomercials. You know the ones I’m talking about – there’s the guy or gal 
dressed in a simple pair of shorts and old t-shirt holding the most adorable child ever standing in the middle of a dirty, dusty street asking you to please do for the least of these. Now, it’s not that we, as viewers, don’t support the mission of the charities behind these advertisements, nor do we aim to scoff at those among us who choose to pick up the phone and donate the much needed funds to drum up food, medicine, and clean water for our brothers and sisters in need. Quite to the contrary, we’re all for someone else answering the call to make a sacrifice on the behalf of a stranger, and we’re definitely all for Christians, in general, stepping up to change the world. Yep, we’re all completely, one-hundred percent on board with sitting in our living rooms and praying for Christians to become the active hands and feet of Christ all over our broken world. And yet, whenever those commercials come on, most of us promptly change the channel. You see, the problem isn’t that we’re against the vision behind these Christian infomercials, it’s quite simply that we don’t like feeling convicted.
The trick there, of course, is that if are seeking to live our life apart from conviction by avoiding it at every possible turn, then we can’t really call ourselves Christ followers, can we? After all, everything Christ does convicts.
So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. John 4: 3-4
Looking at a map, this journey makes sense; of course Jesus would go through Samaria to get from Judea to Galilee – it’s a straight shot. But, culturally speaking, this was a radical concept. No Jew chose to go through Samaria; instead, if you wanted to go north from Judea, you first went east, crossed the Jordan river, then traveled north, then crossed the river again and went west until you reached your destination. The Samaritans were half-breeds, social outcasts, a constant reminder of a violent, shameful past (when the Asyrians invaded, they killed many of the Israelite men, but kept and copulated with the women, creating a new cultural mix of people, with whom the Jews did not associate).
The significance of Jesus’ choice to go through Samaria has less to do with correcting nonsensical travel habits and more to do with irradicating hateful, divisive social prejudice. That, in and of itself, ought to be convicting. There are plenty of people we avoid on a daily basis because they seem “less-than” the kind of people we think we should be hanging out with. Who are the people in your life that you avoid? Do you do so because being with them leaves you feeling just a bit dirty? Do you think that’s what Jesus wants you to do? Where or who is your Samaria?
Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” John 4: 6-7
Once again, to our twenty-first century minds, this doesn’t necessarily strike us as odd, but, again, this was a big deal. It was high noon when Jesus and the Samaritan woman were at the well together… no one drew water at high noon! They’re in the middle of Samaria, which is a hot, dry country, and noon is the absolute hottest part of the day; typcially, women would only make the trip to and from the well in the early morning or the evening hours, when the sun was less harsh. Also, they would generally go in groups to pass the time and strengthen community. The only reason, then, that this woman would be at the well at noon would be if she were a social outcast, either forced out or too ashamed to join with the other women.
Also, Jesus is a Jewish man talking to a shamed Samaritan woman (three strikes against her, by the way), and He’s asking her for a drink! Jesus, a Jewish man and the one, true God, is asking this poor, wretched woman for a drink. Jesus doesn’t hesitate or avoid; He doesn’t avert His eyes or maintain a holier-than-thou attitude (despite His having every right to do so). No, instead, He acknowledges her presence and strikes up a conversation. He validates her existence.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you Living Water.” … The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4: 10, 15
The Samaritan woman probably would have benefited from reading through a written transcription of this conversation, especially if it included the tell-tale capitalizations. Here you have yet another example of Jesus’ wondrous rhetorical skill – His incredible ability to manipulate words and stories so that they take on ground-shattering significance. When Jesus makes mention of this Living Water (which He later explains would forever eliminate her thirst), He is no longer speaking of water (H2O); He’s speaking about Himself. She, of course, doesn’t understand – how could she; this is a pretty radical concept. All she’s thinking about is the hours she spends each day walking to and from the well just so she can draw water; how tired she is when she reaches home again; and how she has to do it all over again the next day. When she asks Him for “this water” she still thinks He’s talking about liquid water – that He’s got some sort of magic, self-replenishing water that will get rid of her lonely, shameful journeys to the well.
We know, of course, that the water Jesus is speaking of is not liquid, but grace, and the life it brings isn’t corporeal, it’s spiritual. Jesus is the Living Water, and those who come to know and trust in Him will never thirst again – they will be eternally satisfied.
The woman said, “I know that Messiah [called Christ] is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am He.” John 4:25-26
She’s not disagreeing with what Jesus is saying, she just doesn’t understand. She’s confused and probably feeling a bit convicted (because Jesus did just finish calling her out on her five husbands), but she’s not willing to act yet. Instead, she simply repeats what she already knows to be true: The Messiah is coming and He will explain everything when He gets here. He’ll tell me what to do and how to live and where to find this magic water. He’ll make it so I don’t have to live under this shame any longer. Jesus listens patiently, but when she’s finished speaking, He wastes no time in setting her straight: I am that Messiah, and I have explained it to you. I am the Living Water; I can make it so you are never lacking again.
Are you lacking? Do you have the Living Water?
We have a water crisis on our hands. For most of us here in America, living in the twenty-first century means having indoor plumbing, satisfactory sanitation systems, and clean water at your finger tips, but to many of our brothers and sisters in other countries, ‘the twenty-first century’ has little baring on the modernization of their culture. In countries like Rwanda, women walk, on average, three miles a day to get water for themselves and their families, and the water they get isn’t even clean. That means two months of these women’s lives each year are spent transporting water. This substance is supposed to be life sustaining, but, instead, it often brings sickness and death. So, why go to all this work? Well, it’s obvious really; because you need it. Without water, people die.
Over 884 million people do not have access to clean drinking water, and 5,000 children die each day due to water related diseases, many of which are completely preventable. The question, then, is this: Would you dink this water? If not, why should they?
Without clean water, people die. People are dying. We have a water crisis.
So, why do we have a water crisis? Because we have a Water crisis. Everyone is thristy for something, and everyone spends painful hours toiling away trying to find the thing they believe will relieve their thirst. But if we only had Living Water, we would never thirst again.
Read that again slowly: If we only had Living Water, we would never thirst again.
What I mean to say is that if we have Jesus in our lives, we are never lacking. He always provides. Our cup is always full. Even when we don’t see it that way. He provides for all of our needs, physical and spiritual (like it says in Matthew 6, if He takes care of the wild flowers and the birds, how can we not trust that He will take care of us all the more?). And, as if that idea isn’t radical enough, I believe that if we have more Jesus in our lives – if we welcome Him in and allow Him to reign over all our thoughts and actions – we can irradicate physical thirst too.
Each year, 2.2 million people die as a result of contaminated drinking water; that’s 20 jumbo jets full of people that effectively crash. Each day. If those were literal jumbo jets, people would be up in arms across the world; there would be committees and civil action groups working to prevent the tragedy from continuing; there would be groups of people claiming a conspiracy. There would be an overwhelming sense of conviction. We would want to act.
We need to act. Real people are dying. This is not a joke or an exaggeration; this is reality.
We have a water crisis because we have a Water crisis. Followers of Christ are changing the channel, averting their eyes, avoiding Samaria, and refusing to acknowledge a world of people strugglilng to survive. We need to start watching those Christian infomercials and embracing that feeling so similar to guilt and calling it by its true name. We need to be convicted. We need to follow Jesus’ example and walk to the well in Samaria, sit down beside it and meet people there. We need to drink Water to give water.
At the well is where the world changes; it’s where sanctification, justification, and transformation happen. Life happens at the well, but it’s messy, which is why we’d rather sit on our couch or in our pew and say a silent prayer rather than taking action.
You will never be held accountable for the number of bible verses you committed to memory or the number of worship songs you sung. But you will be held accountable for what you did, or didn’t do, at the well. You are here for such a time as this – there are no more excuses. Take action. Drink Water to give water.
Much love,
Taylor
Join the 10 Days Campaign. Across the nation, college students are giving up all drinks other than water for the next 10 days (Oct. 10 – 19th) and donating all of the money they would have spent to Living Water International, which will take the proceeds and build wells in Rwanda, providing thousands of people with clean, safe drinking water. Be a part of the change.
Rewind. Pause. Push Play. His rules remove your chains.
September 26, 2011 – Aaron Bird
Rewind: God’s will for you is not that hard to figure out. It’s not hidden or cloaked in mystery. There is no maze, no one, right path for you to take to get God’s best for you. Despite what you may have been told, God doesn’t try to trick you or rely on your correct interpretation of His promptings… when He speaks, He SPEAKS, and when He acts, He ACTS. Stop making your life more complicated than it has to be.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence… 2 Peter 1:3
God has given you everything you need.
His plan for you is written down. It’s been around for thousands of years, and millions of people have already read and lived it. He has placed His plan for you on your heart, and He has made it evident in the world around you: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Romans 1:19-20. He even went so far as to nail His will on a cross for the whole world to see.
His will is for you to be with Him.
Stop stressing out about what God’s will is and live your life in pursuit of Jesus.
That being said, God has called His children to live differently than everyone else…
And I [Christ] am no longer in the world, but they [God’s people, those who keep His word] are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as We are one… They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. John 17:11, 16
And because He knows we aren’t so good at figuring out how to live well without help, He has set out some rules… and this is where people get tripped up.
No one likes that word ‘rules.’ Secretly, or maybe not so secretly, we’re all rebels at heart, and we view rules as the strings that hold us back and keep us from being completely free. But that’s a lie. His rules don’t limit your freedom, they remove your chains.
God loves you. And because He loves you, He wants you to be with Him. And because He wants you to be with Him, he wants to protect you from the things that could hurt you – the things of this world that could keep you from being with Him. He wants to set up a hedge of protection around your life. That’s what his rules are: a hedge of protection.
It’s the same logic that drives a loving dog owner to fence in his backyard. You want your dog to be free to roam around, investigate, and explore, to experience joy, challenge and growth, but, at the same time, you want to make sure that they’re safe, so you put up a fence to ensure that they’re exploration doesn’t end up killing them. The difference here is that a dog owner wouldn’t set up a fence and then leave the gate open… God not only loves us enough to give us freedom within his hedge of protection, but He loves us enough to give us the choice to leave.
If the dog/fence analogy isn’t working for you, think about it as living within the circle. Circles have no beginning and no end, and they are often used as a symbol of perfection and infinite love (think, wedding rings). Within the circle God has established for His people, we are each a piece of divine art; works-in-progress, no doubt, but art nonetheless. Inside the circle we are being sculpted and perfected; we’re becoming who we were meant to be. Inside, we’re made beautiful. Outside, we’re less than what our maker intended.
Sometimes, despite the inherent perfection within the circle, our sinful, impatient hearts tempt us to leave. We decide that we’re tired of letting God continue to sculpt our raw materials into something that looks more and more like Him. We tell ourselves we’re bored of living by the rules; we want to be our own master and live how we think is best. But the truth is, we leave the circle not because we’re bored, but because we can’t handle just how much God loves us.
Love, true love, the kind of agape love God has for us, is not interchangeable for kindness; it doesn’t mean constantly holding your hand or making every decision for you, and it certainly doesn’t mean telling your you’re great when you’re not. Love is exacting; it’s precise. Love points out where you’re falling sort, and encourages you to seek out Something to make you better. It boils down to what C.S. Lewis called the “intolerable compliment:” God loves you just the way you are, but He absolutely refuses to leave you that way.
God’s love is intense and unrelenting, and it pushes you to be more than what you are. It pushes you to be more like Him.
We get stuck in self-constructed mazes when we start to fixate on what we get worked up about because, often, it’s not what God gets worked up about, and we don’t understand why God isn’t getting worked up enough about what we’re worked up about to give us a direct answer about what we should do about what we’re worked up about. (See how that kind of logic can drive you crazy?) The thing is, God’s worked up about you: about who you are and who you’re becoming. His focus is extremely internal and that doesn’t always mesh with our external concerns.
When you’re living within the circle, respecting the hedge of protection God has established around your life, you always know where God is, even when you can’t see Him, and that gives you the freedom to roam, to decide, and to investigate without risk of endangering your soul. When you’re in the circle, you’re walking with Jesus, and life is good. Even when life is hard, it’s good.
Pause: God knows you and cares for you and has taken the time to explain how you can live a life of righteousness – one that is pleasing in His sight. With God, life is good. No matter what.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23
Push Play: “The thing is, God’s worked up about you: about who you are and who you’re becoming.” That truth should be incredibly humbling, and probably a little bit terrifying. The fact that God’s worked up about you is a big deal, and I can’t help but think that if the God of the universe is worked up about little, insignificant me, shouldn’t I be equally worked up about Him? God doesn’t need me, He doesn’t need any of us, but He wants us. He wants us so much He died for us. How can we even begin to understand that?
Yes, God is accessible and relatable and He wants you to approach Him, but we need to remember that He is also LORD. He’s powerful and holy, and while we are incapable of giving Him the kind of praise, reverence, and respect that He deserves, we still ought to try. He loves us. We should honor Him.
Much love,
Taylor
Rewind. Pause. Push Play. About that ‘divinely inspired’ hunch…
September 19, 2011 – Aaron Bird
Rewind: The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” Jonah 1:1-2
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them… so make yourself an ark of cypress; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it…” Genesis 6:13-15
When the LORD saw that he [Moses] had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses! … I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob… I have come down to rescue them [the Israelites] from the hand of the Egyptians… so, now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:4, 6, 8, 10
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid… This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8-10, 12
As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him. Matthew 9:9
The bible makes it very clear: when God wants to get your attention, especially when He’s calling you to take action, He is anything but subtle. He uses storms and giant fish, world-consuming floods, burning bushes that speak, plagues of frogs and locusts, and angels singing His praises. And Jesus. So, then, why is it that even though the bible gives us every reason to believe that God is loud, we say “it’s God’s will,” when our only justification is a gut feeling or an inspired hunch? (*This is when the crowd shouts, “we just know; we can feel it.”)
The idea that these “little hunches and promptings I feel deep down in my heart/stomach/toes/nose/etc are God’s way of revealing His will to me,” is just as biblically sound as the whole “He has one, unique, detailed blueprint for my whole life” idea. In other words, it’s just not supported by scripture. Try as you might, you’re not gonna find an example of a Godly man/woman/child who relied on their intuition, no matter how finely tuned it may have been, to discern God’s will for their life. And when you think about it, the reasons why are kind of obvious…
Gut feelings give you all the power in the relationship… God made us and has been dealing with us for a LOOONNGG time; He’s well aware that we’re clueless and stubborn and generally unobservant. Do you really think that He would rely on your correct interpretation of a gut feeling every time He wants to communicate with you? *BTW: we’re not talking about feelings of peace, comfort, or conviction here; think major-life-choices and calls to action.*
On that same note: inspired hunches effectively eliminate the need for accountability… Who’s going to call you out or caution you about acting on a calling from the Lord? If it’s God’s will, it’s God’ will, and who am I to tell you differently, right? See below for the inherent problem here.
Relying on subtle promptings and signs tends to get you what you want… When we start interpreting feelings and looking for signs, we can find whatever we want to find. It’s like looking at one of these cool optical illusions, as soon as you think you know what you’re supposed to see, it’s hard to see anything else. Popular methods may include bible roulette, clearing your mind and attributing the next thought to God, or saying that if the next car you see is red you’ll go with option A, if it’s blue, option B, and if it’s another color, you get to play again.
OK, so now that we’ve established that our gut feelings aren’t always as legitimate as we’d like them to be, how do we, as Christians who want to follow God and listen to Him in all we do, go about making decisions? Well, first off, there’s an inherent flaw in our question. We need to stop thinking that “when faced with two or more good, moral alternatives, I must be careful to choose the ‘right’ one, because, of course, there’s always a ‘right’ one,” and embrace the
validity of equal options. When you’re presented with choices, assuming they don’t go against God’s moral will (which He has outlined pretty clearly in the bible), it’s an occasion to celebrate! God loves you; He wants the best for you, and because He loves you so much, He’s given you the freedom to make decisions! It’s not a punishment, it’s a blessing! With that in mind, maybe we don’t even need to ask that question (Lord, which should I choose?!?!) in the first place.
When you’ve decided to follow God, He gives you His best for your life, always. So, stop wandering around in circles, driving yourself nuts, and stressing out over whether or not God wants you to major in Biology or History, see you drive the blue car or the red car, or take a job in Texas or Maine. The Lord wrote you a letter explaining how to live your life in a righteous way (it’s 66 books long and probably sitting on a shelf or maybe hiding under your bed), so read it again and again, and seek to live your life in pursuit of Jesus.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t pray about the choices you make or the goals you set – God wants to be in relationship with you, and He wants you to recognize His sovereignty over all that you do – nor am I saying that, despite your prayers, God will remain silent. God does answer prayers – He has proven that time again – and through Christ, we can each have a personal relationship with Him, where we can be in constant conversation with each other. Like I said in the very beginning, God is loud, and when He wants to speak, He’ll speak. All I’m saying 
is that, the times when you pray and you don’t get an answer, maybe you’re asking the wrong question. And, when you’re so caught up in looking for a sign that you call your gut feelings God’s will, maybe the ‘right’ answer you’re looking for doesn’t really exist.
Maybe, just maybe, God answered your question and gave you that sign a long time ago, and now He’s pointing to the Gospel, to His Son on the cross and His resurrection from the grave asking, “Could this be any more clear?”
Pause: Next time you’re wondering what God’s will for you is, turn to the one source with all the answers… the bible.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified… 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. 1 Peter 2:15-17
Push Play: It’s easier said than done. Knowing on an intellectual level that God doesn’t have one, unique, detailed blueprint for my entire life and that there isn’t necessarily a ‘right’ answer to every question is easy enough. It makes sense that, because I have given my life to Christ, God takes my decisions and uses them for His glory; after all, we still have free will even after we’ve declared Christ as our Lord. Therefore, I am capable of deciding for myself, and God has promised that He will be there for me and that He will use my life, including my mistakes, for His purposes.
Knowing this on an emotional level, however, is a little trickier. Humans are relational beings – we live in community, and we don’t tend to do well in isolation – and emotions are a big part of relationships. So, being told that I can’t always trust my emotions in my relationship with Christ is a little scary. But, again, it makes sense; emotions are extremely subjective. If I could completely rely on my emotions to accurately portray my relationship with Jesus, then that would mean the 
times that I feel far from God, as if I were walking in the desert, are times when Jesus has actually left my side, and I know that it is not true. Jesus is with us always, whether we want Him there or not, and whether we feel Him there or not; we are never alone.
Putting these truths into play in my life, however true and logical they may be, is ridiculously difficult sometimes. Trusting in God is hard (if you disagree, you probably haven’t really tried it). It can actually be a lot easier to get stressed out and worked up over what God’s will for 
you is in this or that situation than to trust that no matter your choice, God’s gonna be there, or at the very least, it feels safer. But, God’s will for us isn’t to stay safe or comfortable; it’s to follow Him, to trust Him, and to love Him, no matter the consequences. Trusting in God means we don’t have to do as much work – He means what He says, and you can’t miss what He says because He wrote it all down for you. Ironic, isn’t it, that it’s so hard to do something so easy?
Much love,
Taylor
Rewind. Pause. Push Play. Get out of the maze.
September 12, 2011 – Aaron Bird
Rewind: Maps are practical. They not only tell us where we are right now, but also where we’ve been, and, best of all, how to get where we’re going next. They provide an easy to follow, step-by-step solution to a lot of logistical problems. Maps are also comforting; no one likes feeling lost. When you don’t know where you are or where you’re going, yo
u feel powerless and vulnerable, and a tangible guide can help to combat that all-too-common road trip side effect.
When you get down to it, maps aren’t much more than a few lines, dots, and color splotches on an awkwardly large and hard-to-handle piece of paper, but they tend to make us feel like we’re in control…
Road closed? You can handle it. Wrong turn? You know how to get back. Going somewhere you’ve never been before? No worries, just unfold another section and keep tracing the road with your finger.
Maps are handy-dandy, little (or big) drawings that serve to eliminate a bit more of this world’s overwhelming mystery; everything seems so much smaller and easier to understand when it’s been condensed onto a two dimensional piece of paper (that’s probably why humans have been making maps for over 14,000 
years!).
We trust in our maps: we turn where they say, stop where they say, and hope we end up in the location they say we will. And when our maps turn out to be wrong, as they often do, we find it hard to believe, and we take it as a personal affront, grumbling about the extra minutes, or even hours, it can take to get back on course. That’s why so many of us love our GPS: it’s a talking map that figures everything out for you! Even when you make a mistake, the machine assures you that it’s “recalculating,” and you know you’ll soon be on your way again. While it’s true that we sometimes trust too much in our maps, for the most part, they make life easier.
What if I told you God’s plan for your life is just as straight forward as a map?
So many of us go through life repeating Jeremiah 29:11 without ever really understanding what exactly it means…
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
The ‘typical’ interpretation/misunderstanding: God has one unique, detailed blueprint for your entire life, and your job is to completely discern that plan – His will for you – and follow it to a tee. This interpretation says that there is one divine, individual will – one path, one set of directions – that you must follow in order to get God’s best for you, and in order to stay on that path, you need to wait for God to tell you what to do. If you’re walking along this one path, however, and you mess up – you stumble or twist your ankle or close your eyes and wander into the woods on the side of the road and get stuck – your life doesn’t stop, but you are no longer walking along God’s path for you; you’re following a different, less good, path…
Did you notice that I said this was a misunderstanding?
The truth is, God does have a plan for your life, and it is definitely a good one. But it’s not that hard to figure out. You see, God’s will for your life is spelled out in the bible – you can think of it as His divine map, written just for you. His desire is for you to believe in Him, to trust in Him, and to dedicate your life to Him – be willing to listen and obey. At first, this may sound like the same thing as the misunderstanding explained above, just said a little nicer, but take a minute to think about it; hopefully you’ll begin to see the difference…
Listening and obeying God doesn’t mean sitting still and waiting for Him to tell you exactly what to do with every minute of your life, because unless you’re one of the few people who have been blessed with the gift of hearing God’s voice audibly, that would be akin to wandering aimlessly through a maze with no map; when all you’ve got is your gut to lead you to the end, chances are you’re going to make a lot of wrong turns. No, listening and obeying, aka discerning God’s will for you life, is a lot more straight forward than all that. Read the bible – it’s all right there. (Sometimes it really is that simple.)
For you to love God, for you to trust in His sovereignty over your life, and for you to abide by the calling He has placed on each of us (Eph. 5:1-20) – that’s His will for you. God set out what may seem like ‘rules’ as a way of protecting you, of making your life easier. Things get real complicated when you stop following God and start following yourself. But following God doesn’t mean giving up your agency or relying on the Creator of the Universe to choose something as mundane as your outfit in the morning. It means praying sincerely and often; it means reading the bible and storing it in your heart; it means plugging into a Christ-loving community and fellowshipping with your brothers and sisters; and it means sharing the Good News with everyone you meet. God desires for you to trust in Him, to rely on Him to save you, and believe that when you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are on God’s path, and you’ll stay there, even when you mess up.
So, pick up your map, and get out of the maze. Pursue Jesus, read the bible, and trust in the Lord.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
Did you hear that? Stop freaking out over whether or not you’ve properly discerned God’s one, divine will for your life – it’s not on you to make yourself understand – know what you believe, let it permeate your entire life, and trust that God is always in control – He will keep your path straight.
Pause. Following Jesus is living out God’s will for your life, and it means you are on the ‘right’ path, even when you mess up.
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,”Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him. Matthew 4:18-22
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace… You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you… And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:5-6, 9, 11
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-40
Push Play. Following Jesus is not easy. In fact, it’s one of the hardest decisions you will ever make.
I
t means loving Jesus more than you love yourself, and giving God all the glory, honor, and praise.
It means sacrificing – to follow Jesus you have to give up the things your flesh desires and trust that the promise God is offering is far more valuable.
It means humbling yourself and asking for forgiveness when you mess up. And you will mess up. All the time.
It means submitting to the authority of the Lord – trusting that He is far smarter, far wiser, far more just, far more caring, and far more capable than you could ever hope to be.
It means living out your faith – Christ doesn’t call us to sit silently in the shadows and watch life go by, He calls us to be a city on a hill:
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
Following Jesus means changing your entire life; He’s not an accessory you can put on or take off when it’s convenient, nor is He a crutch you can use to justify your sin:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Romans 6:1-2
None of those things are easy to do; they are all in direct conflict with our selfish hearts which desire to put ourselves first – declaring ourselves king over all we do. But, I can promise you, that if you genuinely dedicate your life to Christ, and sincerely pursue the Lord, all of the struggle, all of the sacrifice, and all of the change will be eternally worthwhile.
Much Love,
Taylor
Rewind. Pause. Push Play. Go find YADA.
August 29, 2011 – Aaron Bird
Rewind: What do you want? What do you wish you had? You probably don’t need more than a few seconds to come up with a whole list of things that you want: maybe it’s a car or a new computer or some cash. Maybe you’re more of a big-picture person and you really want world peace or the end of world hunger. Or maybe after a week of classes all you want is to pass your organic chemistry final this semester… But, what if, rather than another limited human being, God were the one asking you that question? Would your answer be any different? Would you be like Solomon and ask for wisdom?
… the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Solomon answered, “…give Your servant a discerning heart to govern Your people and to distinguish between right and wrong…” The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this… [and said to him,] “I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart…” 1 Kings 3:4-6, 9-10, 12
In our culture, wisdom has become yet another watered-down term more likely to pop up in a conversation about the qualifications for Jeopardy contestants than in one about life goals. The problem with that is, quite simply, that wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. Knowledge is information based; it’s quantifiable and, when you’re in college, it’s what earns you a degree. But, knowledge, despite what you may have been told, is not what prepares you for a life of success and happiness. Wisdom, on the other hand, is a way of living, of walking in grace and righteousness. Wisdom is relational knowledge that comes from a growing understanding of the Lord. Wisdom is like a tree:
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she [wisdom] is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed… My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you… Proverbs 3: 13-18, 21-22.
In Hebrew, the word for wisdom, and therefore the word that embodies wisdom as a way of life, is YADA, and, as the book of Proverbs tells us, YADA is a big deal! So big, in fact, that it is compared with the Tree of Life. That tree is the reason why God sent cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the Garden of Eden, and it’s the same tree that John saw in his vision of Heaven baring twelve crops of fruit and covered in leaves of healing (Gen. 3:24, Rev. 22:1-2). The Tree of Life is precious and rare and God has seen fit to protect it and save it for His children; thus, the book of Proverbs is saying that in the same way that the Tree of Life provides an everlasting life with the Lord in Heaven, so too does wisdom offer us a way of walking closely with God during our life here on earth. Seeking YADA, a way of life with the Lord, is our purpose – it’s what this life is all about – and it effectively trumps all other endeavors.
Here’s a little YADA, courtesy of Aaron, to get you started:
Think ‘ripple effect’ before acting: Newton said it (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), Ashton Kutcher acted in it (The Butterfly Effect), John Donne penned it (“No man is an island entire of itself”), and your daily life affirms it: everything you do will eventually end up effecting someone or something else, so take a moment and consider the consequences, good and bad, before choosing anything.
Be smart about what you exchange your life for: Is what you did today, or what you’ll do tomorrow, worth exchanging a day of your life for, because that’s what you’re doing. Don’t waste valuable time on unworthy causes. Don’t be afraid to quit or change your mind. Make conscious decisions about what battles you’re willing to wage; don’t fight just because you can.
The grass may be greener over there, but it’s also covered in poop: (Ya know, because poop is fertilizer…) But, seriously, don’t spend your life wishing for what you don’t have. If you need it, God will provide it. If you don’t need it, then you really don’t need to spend time wishing you had it. When the world says everything you’re not is better than what you are, it’s generally a lie.
Unlearn things so you can continue to learn: When you start thinking you know everything, remind yourself that you don’t. God created a complex and mystifying world, and He’s the only one who has the luxury of spending even one day not learning.
Connect with more than a volleyball: Your name is probably not Tom Hanks, and you’re probably not stranded on a desert island, so Wilson (the volleyball) should probably not be your only friend. The only thing God ever deemed “not good” was man being alone, so go connect.
Be humble: If you’re thinking, “Check! Got that one covered,” then, I’m sorry, but you don’t. Everyone loves a humble person, they make other people feel good, and they often meet with success. Wise people are humble people (James 3:13).
‘I love you’ is the most profound thing you can say to someone: Love is so much more than what our mainstream culture says it is. It is something so much deeper, so much more meaningful, so much harder, and so much more complicated than what we are taught to believe. Love is a verb and a commitment, not just an emotion. Love changes everything.
Do something with Jesus Christ: The Gospel consists of the first four books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John); it’s the Good News – the story of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. After reading about Christ, you have to decide: either He was crazy, He was a liar, or He is Lord. The one thing you cannot decide is that He was “just a good teacher;” if you come to that conclusion, you missed something. Go back and read it again; pay attention to the claims He makes: He wasn’t pretending or exaggerating to make a point; He meant what He said, and you need to take Him seriously. He said He was sent by God the Father (Luke 4:16-21); He said He had the power to forgive sins (Mark 2:5, Luke 7:47-48); He said He would be beaten and killed, and on the third day, come back to life – He said He would conquer death itself (Matthew 16:21 and 20:18-19, Mark 8:31, Luke 18:31). So, what are you going to do with those statements? Some people bowed down and worshiped – those people were healed and forgiven – and some people chose to walk away in disbelief and hatred. What about you? Remember, Jesus predates “Christianity”, and God existed before time itself, so you should make your decision based on the Word of God, not on the things you’ve heard about “Christians” or “religion.” Read about Jesus for yourself, and then decide how you are going to react to the Son of Man: are you His disciple or are you a scoffer; are you for Him or against Him, because there is no in between.
YADA, it’s a way of life; it’s wisdom, not knowledge; it’s walking with the Lord; it’s like a tree; it’s precious; it’s a refuge; it’s what you should be looking for. Go find it.
Pause: If you’re interested in leading a Christ-like life, meaning one that is satisfying, righteous, holy, happy, challenging, and fulfilling, you should probably check out some of the pieces of YADA written by Solomon in the book of Proverbs. A few verses a day can bring about some pretty big revelations, and really change the way you live.
“Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor.” Proverbs 4: 6-9
“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city. ‘Let all who are simple come in here!’ she says to those who lack judgment. ‘Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.” Proverbs 9:1-6
“Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life.” Proverbs 22: 4
Push Play: So, you know how a square can be a rectangle (because a rectangle is a shape with four sides and four right angles), but a rectangle cannot be a square (because a square is a shape with four sides and four right angles, but all of its sides must be the same size)? Well, wisdom and knowledge have a similar relationship. Knowledge can be wisdom, but wisdom cannot be (just) knowledge…
Knowledge can be wisdom: it’s wise to be well-informed (“Wise men store up knowledge” Prov. 10:14). Human beings need doctors and engineers and writers and teachers and managers and leaders, and it’s very important that those people each know the information they need to perform well. In the same way, it’s wise to inform yourself about an 
issue before you choose your position, and to research your classes and professors when deciding what to register for each semester. Education is by no means a wasted endeavor; knowledge often plays a critical role in gaining wisdom. But…
Wisdom cannot be (just) knowledge: wisdom is something much bigger than just information. Wisdom is YADA; it’s a way of life. Wisdom may include knowledge, but it is not the equivalent of knowledge. Wisdom is a focused application of knowledge that serves to bring you into closer communion with the Lord. You may be the smartest person in the world, but if you don’t know Jesus – if you’re not living for Him and walking with Him and beleving in what He has said – then you’re not wise, you’re just really smart.
The comparison isn’t perfect, and I’m not even totally confident that I got the order right (maybe it should read “wisdom can be knowledge but knowledge can’t be wisdom”?), but I’m pretty sure you get what I’m saying. Educating yourself and earning your degree does not in and of itself make you a wise man or woman of God. Loving the Lord, reading, believing, and trying your best to follow His Word, spreading the Gospel, loving your neighbors, respecting your parents, worshiping Jesus – those things are what come together and begin the process of walking in wisdom.
Much love,
Taylor
#1 Question of Welcome Week: “So, um, what is ‘Axiom’?”
“For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” (Acts 13:47 NIV)
The University of Illinois is HUGE. There are more than 40,000 students here studying hundreds of different majors. We are a Big Ten university with the largest Greek system in the world. We boast over 800 registered student organizations (RSOs) and a vast number of intramural sports teams. We consistently have one of the highest percentages of international students in the whole world, which means you can make connections (and have a real impact) in every corner of the globe without ever leaving Urbana-Champaign. The U of I is home to a number of world-renowned professors and researchers, as well as some of the brightest students you will ever meet. Our football team may be hit-or-miss at times, but our graduates have gone on to, quite literally, change the world…
Smack dab in the middle of all the soy bean and corn fields of central Illinois await millions of opportunities for students to make the most out of their education and their life (all while learning how to spell I-L-L-I-N-I properly and cheering on a relatively non-existent mascot). But, there are also millions of temptations. Statistics vary, but it has been found that the majority of students who begin college already knowing Jesus, walk away from their faith within the first year, and there are many, many more who don’t have a faith to walk away from in the first place. We want to do something about that.
Axiom is just one of the many RSOs on campus, but we have something different to offer than the majority of them, something “of greater worth than gold” (1 Peter 1:7). We have faith in Jesus Christ, and we want to share that with the world.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe… and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47 NIV).
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’ll fill you in: Axiom is a Christian ministry located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. We have a house on the corner of Lincoln Ave and Oregon St in Urbana where some of the guys in our ministry live, where our staff works, where our students gather and fellowship, and where we host English Corner every Wednesday evening from 5-6pm. This year our worship service is being held everyMonday night at 8pm in Mumford Hall (on the south quad), room 103 – you should probably check us out some time; we’re nice, our band is AWESOME, and our ministers are pretty cool too.
Axiom is a campus ministry that desires to support students as they run towards their passions, and more poignantly, to encourage them to be passionate about Jesus Christ and who He is calling them to be. We, at Axiom, are constantly looking for new, unique ways to reach out to our campus and to meet the needs of the students who find themselves at U of I, Parkland College, or in the surrounding areas. In the last few years, God has been moving in some truly incredible ways on campus and within our ministry. Axiom has been experiencing unprecedented growth and some big changes; God has really been challenging us to place our trust in Him and dream big dreams. It’s all we can do to keep up, but we’re loving every minute of it!
Currently we have four wonderful, Christ-minded ministers at Axiom: Aaron Bird, Mary Baird, Rebekah Songer, and Gary Umphrey. I can say with full confidence that each of these four individuals not only has a heart for God and for His work, but more specifically, they each have a heart for God’s work on this campus. We, as students, are incredibly blessed to have such a wide range of life experiences from whom to draw advice, guidance, support, and friendship. In addition to our lovely staff, we also have seventeen students on the Servant Leadership Team (SLT). As you’ve probably deduced, these guys and gals are student leaders who, along with our ministers, are in charge of a variety of outreach activities within our ministry, such as service projects, the worship service, bible studies, and English Corner (you can find out exactly who’s who at the Axiom website – www.illinoisaxiom.com – under the “Contact” tab). Each member of our SLT is desperately in love with Jesus, and is looking for ways to pour out His love on campus.
Now that you know a little bit more about us, maybe you’re wondering about our name: what in the world is an “axiom,” anyway?
An axiom is: an accepted, established, and self-evident truth; Jesus Christ is an axiom. In fact He is the axiom. It’s like what Paul said: “…since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Ro. 1:20). The truth of our Father’s eternal goodness and our Savior’s unending love is undeniable, and as plain to see as the sunrise, as easy to feel as a breeze, and more beautiful than the stars. Christ is the only reality. Thus, Axiom, notice the capital “A” here, attempts to be a representation of that truth and that reality.
As humans, it is so easy to get caught up in the world we see all around us; to be sucked in to thinking that we are a big deal. Distraction is everywhere. At any given time there are a million different things asking for, and sometimes demanding, our attention: school, work, friends, family, bills, deadlines, grocery shopping, your sorority/fraternity, your honors society, your volunteer organization, your roommates, TV, video games, the internet, the bars, parties, and, especially when you’re a student, sleep. Now, I’m not saying that these in and of themselves are negative distractions, but the point is, sometimes it gets a little difficult to remember what it is that we’re doing here.
“Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ – the Message – have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives – words, actions, whatever – be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.” (Colossians 3:15-17 MSG)
After three years on this campus, exploring, making friends, and seeing what the U of I has to offer, Axiom is still the place where I am most reminded of my center, of my true purpose. It’s a place where I know that I have made friends for life because my friends have become my family. It’s a place that has been, and is continuing to teach me how to lead by being a follower of Christ. Axiom is where I go to be challenged, encouraged, comforted, poured into, loved on, and cared for multiple times a week – it never gets old. And, in turn, it’s where I go to be all of those things and do all of those things for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Axiom reminds me that there is a world out there that’s much bigger than me, and much bigger than U of I, and that world is desperately in need of Christ. Moreover, Axiom constantly encourages me to do something about that need. We are not a ministry that sits still and waits for people to find Christs on their own; we want to be a part of opening their eyes to His majesty by coming alongside and showing His great love to our campus. Monday nights are a breath of fresh air, Thursday night bible studies are a reminder that God ranks higher than any academic endeavor, and the people I’ve met are never shy about building me up, encouraging my passions, and offering Godly advice. What I’m trying to say, is that for me, and for quite a few others, Axiom is home.
On a typical Monday night, our worship service is filled with students who have gathered for one purpose: to worship our Creator and Savior. It’s one of the few places on campus where you walk in the front door and are immediately greeted with a smile, a handshake, and maybe even a hug (okay, it’s probably gonna be a hug; be prepared), from someone who loves you simply because Christ loves you. And the best part is that this love – Christ’s love – is the most real thing in the world; the only truth.
In case you were wondering, the point of this blog is to keep all of you up to date on the goings on at Axiom. And, yes, I am a real student at UIUC. My name is Taylor Pinion and I’m a senior majoring in History and double minoring in English and International Studies, and this will be my second year serving as the president of Axiom. Axiom found me on Quad Day of my freshman year at a time when I was in no way looking for a Christian ministry; I am so thankful that God saw fit to throw a frisbee at my head and open my heart to what it really means to follow Him! If you ever want to talk more about Axiom, or Jesus, or the university, or Napoleon Bonaparte, or Andrew Johnson (I’m a history major, remember?), please come find me – Monday night worship is probably a good place to look (8pm, Mumford Hall, Room 103).
Most entries here will be written by students about students and their pursuit of Jesus Christ (if you want in on that action, again, talk to me, or check out the “Get Involved!” page here on the blog). We hope that you are just as jazzed about what God’s doing on our campus as we are, and that you would be praying for our ministry and for our students- that God would always be our center, our guide, and our purpose.
Much love,
Taylor
Rewind. Pause. Push Play. “For Such a Time as This”
August 22, 2011 – Aaron Bird
Welcome to the University of Illinois! If this is your first week on campus, I hope you’re finding your way around, enjoying the dorm food, befriending your room and hall mates, not paying full price for your books, learning the bus routes, loving your classes, and having a fantastic Welcome Week! If this isn’t your first year here, I hope you’re reconnecting with friends, nearly done moving in/unpacking, getting as much sleep as possible, and ready to start another great school year! For those of you who may not know, Axiom is no longer on Thursdays this semester; we have officially switched our worship service to MONDAY nights at 8pm in Mumford Hall, room 103. As such, last night was our first Axiom Service of the school year, and believe me, it was amazing – a truly great way to kick off the semester.
Just in case your reading this for the first time, let me tell you how this whole blog thing works… If you miss an Axiom service, or if you really loved the message, or if you didn’t quite understand the message, or if you want to share the message with your friends and family, you should check in right here Tuesday evenings (hopefully)! Here you’ll find my (Taylor’s) recap of Monday’s message, some verses to dwell on for the rest of the week, and a few thoughts on how to take what you learn on Monday nights and put it into action. That being said, here we go!
Rewind: What are you doing here? I know that’s a broad question, but it’s an important one. What are you doing here at the University of Illinois? You’ve probably been, or will soon begin, studying and taking exams and writing papers and completing labs. Hopefully you’re also enjoying the freedom and social atmosphere that comes with living on campus. Maybe you’re here because it was expected that you attend college, and U of I seemed just as good as anywhere. I suppose it’s even possible that you’re here because you don’t know what else to do right now, and college is, in a way, a way to buy yourself four more years to figure your life out.
Those kinds of answers are all well and good, but they don’t really touch on the question I was trying to ask, so let me rephrase it: what is your purpose here? Is it possible that, rather than being the reason, studying and test-taking and graduating are all side-effects of you being here? Don’t get me wrong, those things are really important and should definitely be a focus in your life, but could it also be that something much, much bigger is happening? Have you ever thought that you might be an Esther of the 21st century?
Alright, before you tell me I’m crazy because either you’re a dude (which would make it physiologically impossible to be ‘Esther’) or because you’re not living in ancient Persia, let me explain; you and Esther may actually have more in common than you think. For example, the Persians, who ruled over the Israelites during Esther’s time, LOVED to party (King Xerses once through a six-month-long party, followed by another week long party), and, here at the University of Illinois, whether or not it’s your scene, we also LOVE to party (the Princeton Review ranks us as the #11 Party School in the nation). Another thing you and Esther may share is being outside of the social norm; Esther was a Jewish woman living in Persia (not a Jewish nation, by the way), and long felt that she must keep her faith a secret to be accepted. Similarly, we are Christians living in an increasingly non-Christian environment, and you may at times feel that living out your faith separates you from many of your peers. Finally, Esther, like you, found herself in a place of great significance. Now, unlike Esther, you are probably not the queen of a country, but you are at one of the top schools in the nation, and simply by attending a university you are placing yourself within the group of people from which most world leaders arise!
Now that you realize just how much you share with Esther, and are thoroughly invested in her story, you should take a moment to read the Book of Esther (if you haven’t already)… Aaron went through the whole book on Monday night, and if I had the time, or if I really thought you had the attention span, I’d summarize the whole thing for you again, but, since neither of those things are true, you’ll have to click on this link here, and read it yourself… go ahead and do it now; it’s really not that long…
Wow! Did you catch all of those coincidences? First, out of all the girls who were paraded in front of King Xerses, he chose Esther, a Jewish woman, to be his wife and his queen. Second, Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, just happens to overhear the inebrieated guards plotting the King’s assassination and is credited with saving the King’s life. Then, on just the right night, the King can’t sleep, and his servant just so happens to pick the history book that has Mordecai’s act of loyalty written in it. Next, Esther is allowed into the King’s chamber even though she had not been summoned, for which the typical punishment was death. Oh, and then, just before the evil Haman can carry out his act of genocide against the Jews or the murder of poor Mordecai, the King decides to honor Mordecai, forcing Haman to take part in the celebration. Later, Esther is able to expose Haman and save the Jews all without losing the Kings favor. AND, in the end, Haman is hung on the gallows he had intended for Mordecai; talk about a twist ending!
Does it make you at all uncomfortable to write all of those things off as coincidence? Well, what if, rather than coincidence, we give credit for these events to the One who truly deserves it? What if we call them miracles instead of coincidences? We should be praising the Lord for protecting His people rather than breathing a sigh of relief at another lucky break for the Jews! If we do that, then what Mordecai said in 4:12-14 was true: Esther had indeed been placed on the throne for such a time as this.
What if you are here at the University of Illinois in August of 2011 for such a time as this? Would that change the way you think or the way you live? What if I told you that God has a plan for your life (because He does), and that you don’t have to wait for graduation before it kicks in (because you shouldn’t)? Don’t let your expectations limit your ability to serve the Lord by carrying out His divine purposes. So, what are you waiting for? Life begins right now; go figure out why you’re here.
Pause: The start of the school year can seem really hectic and out of control at times, especially during Welcome Week- everything’s new and slightly intimidating – but, you can trust that God has everything completely under control! If you feel yourself getting stressed this week, take some to time to read and pray about these verses.
“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone.” Ephesians 1:11-12 MSG
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21 NIV
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
“And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIV
“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’” Isaiah 46:10 NIV
Push Play: How many times have you seen Dead Poets Society? You know the movie I’m talking about, right; you’ve probably watched it in high school English. It’s the one where Robin Williams stands on a desk and tells his students to
“Carpe Diem, seize the day!” about a thousand times? Well, I’ve probably seen it 10 times, all while sitting in a classroom, and even though I’m being a tad sarcastic here, I love that movie. I know I’ve already made some pretty strange comparisons in this post, but the story of Esther really does make me think of that movie. Remember the hard-hitting pep talk Mordie gave Esther in chapter 4: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (4:13-14) He basically tells her not to squander her God-given opportunity to do something good for the Lord’s Kingdom; he’s telling her to seize the day!
I think that’s why the Book of Esther made it into the bible even though it never once makes a direct reference to God. Esther is God’s version of Dead Poets Society (stay with me here)! The story tells us that even though God may not always be obviously present to our limited human eyes, hearts, and minds, we can take comfort in His promise to always be there, and to always be good, and to always be in control. So, again, I’m going to ask you, why are you here? And, is it possible that you could be like Esther?
Don’t miss a God-given chance to change the world. He has brought you to this place at this time, and He does in fact have a divine purpose in mind. Sure, He can accomplish His purposes without you, but if He has chosen you (which He has) for such a time as this, do you really want to say no?
Much Love,
Taylor
Welcome Week 2011!
Hello dear friends! As you make your way back to our lovely campus in the next few days, I hope you find yourself well-rested, prepared, and excited for yet another wonderful year! Fall 2011 brings a few changes to Axiom, including a new time and location for our worship service, and we are pumped to get going! So, before you solidify your plans for Welcome Week 2011, take a look at our schedule, get psyched, and, of course, tell all your friends!
Sunday, August 21st – Ice Cream Social
What could be better after a hot day traipsing around the Quad than hanging out with Axiom and eating some super cold ice cream?? Join us at the Axiom House at 7pm for cool treats and even cooler people!
Monday, August 22nd – Axiom Worship Service
That’s right! Axiom’s weekly worship service will be held on Monday nights at 8pm this semester!! ALSO, our location is different this semester: we’ll be meeting in Mumford Hall (on the south quad), Rm. 103. We can’t imagine a better way to kick off the semester than praising the Lord with all of our friends, so we really hope to see you and all of your buddies there! *Afterwards, we’ll be heading back to the Axiom House to finish off the ice cream from Sunday night.*
Wednesday, August 24th – Burgers, Bags, and Bocci
Even after only a few days on campus, you’ll probably be missin’ mom’s home cooking, so why not let Axiom provide the grub? Grab your friends and head on over to the Axiom House at 7pm for some grilled deliciousness and lots of fun games! (If you’re already a part of Axiom, we’d really appreciate you bringing a side to pass – thanks in advance!)
Friday, August 26th – Date Night with Axiom
You’ve officially finished the first week of Fall 2011 and now you’re ready for the weekend! Join your fellow Axiom-ites as we head to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner at 6pm, and then back to the House for a movie (TBD). Who knows, you may even meet your future ‘someone special’ on this date night…
Saturday, August 27th – CANOE TRIP!!!!!
Best. Event. Ever. Seriously. If you opt out of this one, you will probably, if not definitely, regret it. We’ll be meeting at the Axiom House at 8:30am on Saturday morning to head to Kickapoo State Park where we’ll spend the rest of the day getting to know one another while canoeing, eating our sack lunches, and swimming in the river. The cost is $16, and you need to get that money to J.D. Maloney no later than Wednesday (*ahem* Burgers, Bags, and Bocci). This is definitely something your friends would love for you to tell them about, so, go do it (also, SIGN UP HERE)!
See you soon! (and Welcome back to school!!)
Taylor
Te[am] Iubesc: We’re all still processing…
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2011, Bolingbrook, IL.
I must have sat down to write this post at least twenty times this summer, and each time I’ve ended up staring at a blank screen or a blank page for at least twenty minutes before giving up…
I just keep thinking, “what is there that I could possibly say that could ever adequately describe and satisfactorily conclude a trip that, for so many of us, changed everything?” I am convinced that not even the most talented wordsmith around (let alone me) would be able to write something beautiful enough, deep enough, or complex enough to communicate the impact Tinca has had on the lives of Te[am] Iubesc’s members. And yet…
We have been home for nine weeks now; we’ve gone through the hundreds of pictures dozens of times; we’ve told stories to anyone and everyone who’s been kind enough to listen; and we’ve thought about and prayed for Rachel, Dave, Michelle, Urb, Abel, Samuel, David, Naomi, Alex, Simona, Calina, Maria, Florica, and Mariana each and every day. We’ve been home for nine whole weeks, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that we’re all still a bit heartbroken. I know am.
I’m heartbroken that I’m not currently spending my days digging holes and raking rocks and chopping wood and building showers and twirling kids and dancing with toddlers and holding babies in the sunshine and pushing kids on the swing as they shout “mai tare!” and learning firsthand from the amazing missionaries at the Isaiah Center.
I am still heartbroken, and I have a feeling I always will be. And that’s OK.
You see, I left a part of my heart in Tinca… I couldn’t bring Abel and Samuel home with me; I couldn’t promise Iza that I would definitely see her again; I couldn’t stay and protect Davina from her bubble-stealing peers in the gypsy village forever… on May 29th, I had to leave Romania and begin my journey home along with the rest of my team. (At one point, Dave “the Man” Truss joked about ‘misplacing’ our passports so that we could stay a little longer; he was kidding, but I am not ashamed to say that I seriously thought about it.)
I learned so much about myself, and about God in the two weeks I was abroad. I learned that I, too, am indeed an incredibly selfish human being capable of thinking entirely of myself even when surrounded by the glory of the Lord. I learned that as hard as it is to put on an attitude of humility here in the states, it’s even harder to not judge the young woman who removes her shoe and hits her child over the head with it just because he wouldn’t leave her alone. I learned that kids are kids no matter where they come from or how they were raised: little boys like bugs and dirt and little girls like twirling and painting nails. I learned that I can in fact sleep in the same bed I just saw a bug crawl out of, much in the same way that I can get
used to the smell of trash and human waste. I learned that I do not like eating sausage for breakfast, especially cold liver sausage; no thank you. I learned that language is not nearly the barrier to clear communication that it’s cracked up to be.
I came to understand more fully that true love is a commitment that has nearly nothing to do with emotion. More importantly, it is not just a commitment to the person you’re loving, but to the Lord; one that says, “God, I love You, and I trust You, and that is why I am choosing to act this way towards this person.” I came to understand more fully just how big our world is, and was subsequently confronted by the thought of just how big our God must be. I came to understand more fully that people matter, regardless of who they are, what they’ve done, 
or how they treat you. And, since I’ve been home, I’ve come to understand more fully what it means to be restless – I have been convicted to live out Christ’s love in an active, rather than a passive, way; I don’t want to sit and just love the people around me – those within arms reach – but I also want to get up and go out and love those who are hard to find, and even harder to hold on to.
I think I will always be a little heartbroken thanks to my time in Tinca, but the way I see it, heartbreak goes hand in hand with loving and serving the Lord. When Jesus looks at His church here on earth and sees the hurt and the brokenness and the depth of sin, I imagine His magnificent heart breaks. Therefore, if we, as Christ followers, are really called to live our lives in pursuit of a life that is more and more Christ-like – then our hearts must truly be broken for the things that break His. I am, and forever will be, so thankful for my broken heart, just as I will be eternally grateful for my time spent in Tinca.
To Te[am] Iubesc: Ben, Conner, Emily, Heather, Val, Kelly, Jonathan, Sarah, JP, J.D., Robbie, Justin, Steph, Alina, and Tyler, I love you all so much! I am so blessed to know each and every one of you, and I am so thankful to have shared this with you.
To all of our supporters: You were just as much a part of this trip as we were! You, be it through prayer or donation, joined us in being Christ’s hands and feet, and loving on people in desperate need of hope. We love you all!
Update: Upon leaving Romania, we were able to give Rachel and her team about $8,000 (see, told you our supporters were a HUGE part of our trip!!), which was used to place a down payment on a new, large, 
piece of property where Rachel plans to drastically expand her ministry! Once stateside again, Ben sifted through our receipts, and the team collected a few more donations, and, together, were able to send even more mula to Tinca! Since then, thanks to God’s divine love, power, and grace, Rachel has been able to purchase the new property outright!! That means that, in addition to the current Isaiah Center, she now owns a house large enough to accommodate teams our size and even a bit bigger, and the land on which to build a brand new Isaiah Center where she can take care of even more kiddos! AND, the current Isaiah Center can now eventually be transformed into a community center where young adults can go to learn productive vocational skills and further chip away at the cycle of abuse and oppression within the gypsy community! Rachel is truly a visionary, and it is obvious that God is not done with her, her ministry, or the Roma of Tinca! He has not, and will not forget or abandon His children!
Much love,
Taylor
http://www.youtube.com/user/illinoisaxiom#p/u/0/Vk7p2xdgGdI
Te[am] Iubesc: Reflections on the Voyage Home
I’m sitting here in a flying machine thousands of feet above you typing away on an iPad….crazy much? Well, I think so. (the idea of airplanes still freak me out, but that’s a story for another day). A couple things I found note worthy so far today…
1) Airplane food isn’t actually that bad. In fact, it’s pretty dang tasty and I really enjoyed my vegetarian option of spinach and cheese pasta. Do let not those trickster comedians tell you otherwise.
2) Airplane seats aren’t meant for 8 hour rides. Like, this is borderline torture, they should really look into getting the seats some better lumbar support, and not making me feel like I have the back of a fifty year old…( which may or may not be the case…still determining that possibility)
3) Heather brought along a HUGE kit of string for friendship bracelets, which occupied the majority of our two hour extended layover in Brussels. I’ve currently made 3 bracelets while heather has made 5 and is currently working on a twisted hair wrap that most 4th grade girls would sport for myself. We’ve gotten a few funny looks along side a very excited airline attendant asking us “girls” what we were doing to our hair…yes we are twenty and yes we are proud.
With five hours still left on the plane, I have a far amount of time to process the past two weeks of my life. It’s weird to say that in five hours I’ll be at the airport meeting my family. I’m excited to go home for the familiarity of it and for the much needed rest (not to mention seeing whole family again which hasn’t happened since Christmas). But it was hard to go. It’s hard to leave all the people and relationships behind. It’s hard to think about another team coming in to work with Rachel and Dave at the center and not have that team be mine. But it’s amazing that there are other teams going to share the workload. To share their love and their God given passions and to spur the ministry on. It’s amazing to think what all these other people can do to further Gods plan for Tinca. I’m sad to leave, but i know God did His work with us there and has a wonderful plan for the groups to follow.
So what so we do know? Where does that leave us? To me, there are a few things we can still do….We can remember. Remember the faces and the names of the forgotten people of Tinca. We can reflect. Reflect on their stories and how that has affected and shaped our own. We can pray. Pray for God’s will to be done and that He continues to work in and bless the people of Tinca. And we can share. We can share our story and our passion for this ministry and how it’s changed us, whether we really planned for that to happen or not.
I want to thank all of you for supporting and partnering us on this life changing journey. God has done some amazing, breathtaking, life changing things on this trip and we’re all so happy we could share this experience with you.
So much love,
Sarah
Te[am] Iubesc: All Good Things Must Come to an End
Sunday morning, we woke up prepared to leave our hotel in Tinca for the last time. We ate breakfast, took one last look around for loose belongings, and piled into the van for church. It’s hard to believe that our time in Tinca is over. We have accomplished so much in our time there; we have improved Rachel’s facility, played with kids in the village who may not get the chance to play everyday. We worked on fixing up the house of two very special little boys. And yet, our feelings leaving Tinca are bittersweet. We are proud to have accomplished so many wonderful things, but also know that there is still so much work to be done. Rachels vision is so big…we just hope we can continue to be a part of that vision and the bigger vision God has for Tinca.
We attended the same church that we went to last week, and then hit up McDonalds afterwards! After eating we had to say a difficult goodbye to Rachel, Dave, Iza, Michelle, Herb, Abel, and Samuel. For spending such a short amount of time in Tinca, we have come to see these people as our friends, and as people we care deeply for.
We loaded into the van and drove to Budapest. After a brief stop at the hotel to unload our bags, we headed out to see as much of Budapest that we could in our short time there. Our tour guide, Tibor, knew more about his city than anyone I have ever seen! We traipsed around Budapest and saw some beautiful sites. Budapest is a gorgeous city with a rich history. the weather was perfect, and we got to see the sun set over one of my new favorite cities. I will never forget standing on the bridge between Buda and Pest and looking over the Danube run through the city under a skyline and sunset that could take your breath away. What a fantastic reward for all the hard work we have put in on this trip.
Our day ended by returning to the hotel after dinner and packing up for our early morning flight to Brussels. This trip has been an amazing experience, with moments I will not soon forget. I feel blessed to have been a part of it. Thank you for supporting us, praying for us, thinking of us, and following us as we go. Bon voyage!
-Emily
Te[am] Iubesc: Clash of the Cultures
Saturday, May 28th, 2011 : Tinca, Romania. 11:45pm
We made it. Our last full day in Romania has come to an end, and what a day it was. Saturday brought with it naps, synagogues, markets, cats, and WWII, just to name a few. Our team ventured to the great city of Oradea today, and let me tell you, what an adventure it was. The day started off as any other day. I was awakened by church bells (an alarm set on JD’s iPad) and hopped in the shower. Breakfast was eggs and ham with toast and blueberry jelly. We headed over to the Isaiah Center to get Dave and then headed to Oradea. I enjoy long car rides because it leaves plenty of time for good conversations. The first stop of the day was at Selgros, a local grocery store comparable to a Sam’s Club. We were there for over an hour going around the store and trying to decipher Romanian products. A bunch of us bought candy and Frutti Fresh. After Selgros we packed all our goodies and drove into the city of Oradea. We were able to shop at the local market there. What an experience that was! It was essentially an open air market, with everything from shirts to food. I am always amazed at how cheap everything is here. Things that would normally be $40-$50 dollars in The States are $20-$30 dollars here. I think my favorite purchase made by our team at the market was Conner. He bought some euro-undies and sported them for us later that day. What happened next no one could have expected. So generally, when we all travel together, we take a mini bus so that we can all ride together. The driver drops us off and then usually parks somewhere and takes a nap while we do our thing. Well, this time, while the driver was napping, a cat snuck in and pooped ALL over the bus. It got on backpacks, on Frutti Fresh, on clothes, everywhere. The driver cleaned it up, but our bus still smelled like used diapers doused in cleaning products. It really wasn’t a big deal to us but our driver felt so bad and kept on apologizing. That is one memory most of us will always remember from the trip.
Next on our agenda was to walk around the city and do some shopping and sight seeing. This was my favorite part of the day because we got to learn a bit about the history of Oradea. The thing that got me the most, though, was how big of a presence WWII has in Eastern Europe. Talk about culture shock. That is one thing that has been one of the biggest obstacles to overcome. Most people that go on mission trips go through a culture shock, as most places are different then America. But we had to experience 3 different cultures, that of Tinca, Romania, which is a modest town, the gypsy village, which is below the poverty line, and Oradea, which is pretty nice, but has so much history behind it. With Oradea, most of the places we went to talked about the Holocaust and the Jewish people that lived (and died) there. We went by buildings that had been bombed or burned by Nazis. One building in particular that we went to was a Jewish Synagogue where hundreds of Jews met their end when Nazis stormed in and killed them. There were monuments all over the city to people (mainly Jews) that had died there. You just don’t get to see history like that in The States. I feel like a lot of times Americans take sympathy on situations for a little bit, but then forget about the travesties that happen over seas (Haiti and Japan to name a few). Having a thing like WWI being so present and alive in Oradea was jaw dropping. The influence WWII had on Oradea literally shaped the city. The city had 30,000 Jews living in it, but now it only has 300. The trip we took made me realize that things that happen around the world don’t just last as long as the media portrays it, but that these events shape cultures, shape cities, shape nations. We need to break out of the American bubble and stay connected with things happening around the world. We Christians should never stop praying for things. It is my hope that the lessons learned here in Romania stick with the team and I, and that we do not forgot about the things, good and bad, that go on here.
-Tyler Yount
(photos coming soon)
Te[am] Iubesc: The Final Countdown
Friday, May 27th, 2011 : Tinca, Romania. 11:45pm
This morning started off different than the others. Instead of heading straight to work, we began by giving some toys to the kids at the center. The etch-e-sketches were a big hit. The only thing that pulled them away from them was the candy. We had lots of fun blowing bubbles and dancing with all the kids. Those kids can really shake it!
Then it was time to go to the village to work on Abel and Samuel’s house. Right before leaving, Ben asked for a couple volunteers to do something. Sarah and I volunteered and it turns out that something was clearing a quite large patch of weeds, small trees, vines, and roots. We hacked and axed and pulled our way through. We flattened it! I was really glad I got to do this last task with Sarah since we had been paired up on other odd tasks on the trip. It turned out that the space that we cleared will become the space for the new addition onto the Isaiah Center! Meanwhile at Abel and Samu’s house, their hut was painted, the attic cleaned out, and a drainage pipe laid. We were both a little sad that we didn’t get to go to the village, but I just kept reminding myself that all of this is not about me, or what I want. All of this work is for God and for His glory.
Everyone came back to us for lunch, and after that we left to see the new building FMN is buying. It was awesome to hear Rachel talk about her plans for the place and the work that needs done. I just want to stay another two weeks and start building! Then we got to go see the elderly home that Mehai runs. It was great to see him in a different setting. He can be a little disgruntled at times, and all we’ve done is work, so I loved seeing him smiling and proud of the place and his new pigs.
Then came the rope swing. Everyone had fun, and the cold water felt great! I kind of failed on 2 out of three jumps, but even they were fun. I’m going to have to practice for when I come back! Then back at the center, our clothes stayed soaked as we played with the kids in the sprinkler, and the kids wore the new swimsuits we brought them. Simona was shivering with cold from playing so long but would not stop! The newly finished outdoor shower was tested, and it worked great.
Saying goodbye to all of the kids was sad, we have all learned their individual personalities and were just beginning to really bond with them and then it was time to take them back to the village for the last time. Since Sarah and I hadn’t seen Abel and Samu’s house yet, we got to go to take them home; but so many people wanted to go back we almost didn’t get to go again! Everyone loves these kids so much, and wants to see them to the last moment.
Back at the center, we got to relax, eat dinner, have team time, and watch a movie. We were able to enjoy a little bit of the work we’ve done these couple weeks. We all sat on the patio that was a pigsty, literally, at the beginning. We sat around a fire pit we dug, fueled by all the wood we cut and carried to the woodshed we built. There was a peace I felt there, knowing that more teams this summer are going to be worshipping there. I can’t wait to see pictures of this place at the end of the summer. If every team makes as many changes as we did, this whole town could look completely different! I can’t wait to keep up with the changes, and when I return sometime in the future, I don’t doubt Rachel and the whole FMN team will still be adding on and expanding this great ministry in Tinca, Romania.
– Valerie
Te[am] Iubesc: Never Alone
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 Tinca, Romania 11:30pm
After an incredible Tuesday that saw Te(am) Iubesc really hit our stride, there was a lot of excitement going into today. It started with another punctual breakfast meeting followed by an encouraging devotional from Taylor and JD. The day continued with one of my favorite team building opportunities, the “buddy walk” to the Isaiah Center. The one-mile trek to and from the Center has come to be a great opportunity to get to learn more about, encourage, and uplift a teammate.
Once we arrived, some got right back to work on the previous day’s projects while others loaded up our donated shoes and headed into the village. Being able to give shoes to the families of the Isaiah Center’s children was an awesome experience. In total there were roughly 250 pairs distributed. They seemed to be very appreciative and for people who often walk on rock and glass filled ground without shoes, it was a much-needed gift. As Dave and the rest of the crew drove off, they said they could see a little girl holding up a large pair of men’s shoes that consumed her entire arms as she joyfully waved goodbye. A little confused about her size, but still grinning from cheek to cheek.
Robbie and I stayed behind in the village. The two of us have been working there alongside the father of two of Rachel’s children at the Center for the past few days now. His name is Adrian (pronounced Ah-dree-on) and he is actually a Christian man who shares a passion for building God’s Kingdom in the village. Our project has been creating brick outhouses.These will eventually be a great asset in an area set to be fenced off and used specifically for ministry purposes such as bible schools. Adrian also hopes to create a house of prayer in the village for people to safely gather for prayer and fellowship. It has been wonderful getting to know him better, coming to understand that a number of these parents do truly love their children, and being able to joke with him while at the same time helping to teach him some English.
After finishing the outhouses, we came back to an awesome lunch (complete with homemade doughnuts – a personal favorite of the team) and then headed out for our last day of bible school in the village. As always, we ran around with the children, tossed them in the air, spun them around, painted fingernails, kicked the soccer ball, and told them a bible story – all activities that the kids have come to know and love these past three days. However, as time went on, I could sense a feeling of uneasiness in some of them. One young boy in particular, Samuel, a child I’ve come to know well through both our bible schools and my time working in the village, began to hold on to me and was unwilling to let go. He’d always wanted to be by my side, but today, as he continually latched on to my leg, it was as if I could sense the fear in his heart in his knowing that our time was almost over. All that many of these children have ever come to know is neglect and abandonment. We as a team, have given our all in trying to show them the love of Christ, a love that does not abandon, but our time here is only temporary. That is why the ministry of Forget Me Not is so important. Teams may come and go, but it’s these incredible people who remain as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in Tinca, Romania. Their selfless work in helping to build long lasting relationships with these children and their families is such an integral part of vision God has given Rachel for His people, those cast aside by the rest of society. It’s such a privilege to be a part of that vision and to be able to share the love of Christ with these people, reminding them that they are never alone.
It was back to work once we arrived at the Center. Some painted the garden and playground while others began work on finishing the fire pit. This area will most likely be the site for some amazing fellowship as relationships continue to be built with the Roma (gypsy) families. The hope was to have the project finished by today, but in looking at our remaining materials it appeared that goal would be near impossible to reach. Still, the group pressed on hoping the get as much finished as possible with what we had. What transpired was nothing short of a God-given miracle. The entire patio was cemented and project completed using literally our very last ounce of cement. Thus putting an encouraging cap on a great day.
It was certainly a day full of emotion, yet rich in God’s goodness. All glory to Him.
Be blessed,
Justin Neally
Te[am] Iubesc: PART ONE & TWO
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 Tinca, Romania 11:30pm
PART ONE: RECAP and Jungle adventure
I’m not really sure where to begin…so here we go! We’ve been here in Tinca for 7 days and have gotten a tremendous amount of work done. Today we’re finishing up (roofing) the wood shed, totally reconstructed the garden fence, put together patio benches, finished assembling a swing set (no more fighting for swings! woohoo!!) conquered the wooded jungle to paint silly trees so silly ants wouldn’t eat them up (more on that in a minute) and filled a couple hundred water balloons.
The jungle: So here in Romania they paint the trunk of the tree with this white acidic paint to keep ants and bugs from eating away the tree (makes sense, seems like a great idea…and it is). The only problem is getting to the trees. Ya see, I was assigned the task and recruited Alina(the first time around) and Val(for round two) to help to paint these suckers. I thought it’d be easy enough to slab some weird cottage cheese looking paint a couple(more like 25) trees…Little did we know these trees rested snuggly amongst some of the biggest and scratchiest weeds I have ever encountered. The weedy boogers came up to my face and if either of us fell down and died…well, we weren’t really sure if our bodies would be found again. When we went to the very back of the property we saw the leafy beasts. So with the awkwardly small trashcan of pesticide-paint and a garden hoe I fashioned to act as a machete; we trucked our way up the hill to where the naked trees awaited us. Ripping through the weeds with the handle of the hoe I felt like Moses parting the red sea (me folding over the green sea of jungle weeds) to free the Israelites (trees) from the harmful Egyptians (tree eating ants). It may sound silly, but we needed all the strength we could muster for this gig. Needless to say we survived the jungle and painted all the trees. We learned that shorts are a HORRIBLE idea and that charging recklessly through was the most effective way to create a path, yet the most painful. All in all, we’re rocked it and proved victorious.
PART TWO: Underdog
I’ve always been one for the underdog in life, and I feel confident saying that most of you reading this blog are probably in the same boat as me…why else do we love movies like Little Miss Sunshine, Good Will Hunting,…or every single sports movie ever made (Remember the Titans, Rudy, Rocky, Blind Side, Miracle…just to name a few). We have this sympathy, this heartache for the characters that have it the hardest and realistically no real hope at exceeding or even succeeding in their life.
Today I was introduced to a new underdog: Loomy. (I’m not really sure how to spell her name, but I doubt she’s all that sure either to tell you the truth). Her skin is one of the darkest in her village. In America we would be totally cool with being dark and probably really excited if we were darker than our friends and brag about tan or whatever. Yet here, in the Gypsy village it’s all-apart of the village hierarchy and being the darkest kid in the group is never, ever a good thing. Val and I were attempting to play a silly lighthearted circle game with the girls and had them all grab hands, but none of the girls would touch her. I tried to help by putting the others girls’ hand’s around Loomy’s to show them what to do, but they would let go, or move away from her to the other side of the circle. And it kept happening over and over again…and I started to get really fired up about this and upset for her. This was in no way fair, everyone else was accepted into the game but her…So obviously we had to put her in the most valued spot in the circle….holding hands with BOTH Val and myself. For the rest of the day Loomy and I clung to each other. Two other girls had been hanging on me the past day and today, but I wanted to make sure Loomy knew she was just as good as them, and she was loved. A few times she got lost in the shuffle and let go of me. Once I realized she was gone, I went to find her, calling out her name. It only took a couple seconds for her to come running to me, greeting me with one of the most beautiful smiles I’ve honestly ever seen in my life. I cared enough to go after her. I included her and made her a crucial role in all our games because this is was she deserved and because she was the underdog. I wanted to fight for her because she couldn’t. I wanted the other girls to see the beauty I saw in her, and the beauty God saw in her. This is how God feels about us. He comes after us, he fights for us, and he sees our beauty when we or others don’t. Tomorrow will be our last day at the village for VBS, and after that I may never see Loomy again…but I’ll pray for her and for her future. I’ll pray she learns that’s she just as good, if not better than the other girls. Ill pray that she becomes another one of those underdog stories and she learns God loves her, and I love her from a half a world away.
-Sarah
Te[am] Iubesc: Vacation Bible School of Hard Knocks
Monday, May 23rd, 2011 : Tinca, Romania. 11:30pm
“First day of VBS! FIRST DAY OF VBS!!!”
Today has not been the only day in my life that I have woken up and thought those exact words, but it is the first time I’ve been able to do so in another country.
This morning was an interesting one as we all woke up to our first “Americanized” breakfast: scrambled eggs with ham and milk and cereal. The feeling of home was quickly to be worn off however as we headed to the town’s farmers’ market.
It really felt like the entire village was there, and they had brought their kids, their car, their horses, their chickens, and pigs. My best description of the marketplace is that it seemed that I was within arms reach of a sickle, a collapsible fishing pole, a rug, some sort of block of fat, or a piece of soccer merchandise at any point during my visit. I didn’t have any Lei (the local money) so I didn’t end up getting anything except an extreme culture shock.
After the market we did a little bit of work on both the swing set extension and the new wood shed for the Isaiah Center before heading to the village. After lunch we briefly went through the plans for our drama performance that we were going to perform towards the end of our VBS program, and then we packed up into the vans and headed for the village.
Talk about a paradigm shift.
Toddlers running around with no pants on, sewage in the ditches, children smoking, adults throwing rocks at kids as punishment, and too many other surprises had been awaiting us. And we were eager to share the love of Jesus among all of that brokenness.
While the girls painted nails with the children and women, the guys focused on throwing frisbees and kicking soccer balls. I quickly made friends with a little boy named David and we began to play a form of soccer tennis that is apparently popular in the village. We were having a great time playing and then the adults started to mix into the game. It wasn’t that the adults weren’t entertaining or involving David and me in the game, but it seemed as if once they showed up, the kids seemed to vanish. It seemed odd at first, but when I began to see how they tended to bully the children, it all made sense.
We then headed over to do the drama that I had planned out for our first day and my jaw was once again dropped. None of what I had expected our “stage” and narration to be was correct. We had about 20 feet of room to recreate Pharoah chasing Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. Despite the setbacks, the kids behaved and seemed to enjoy the performance. Everything was going alright until the candy came out.
Imagine Black Friday sales for children because that’s what giving out free candy is like in the village. We actually ended up packing up and leaving early because we didn’t want things to get hostile, which kind of bummed out our team a bit.
Although I spent the rest of my day at the Isaiah Center and continued my role as “Calu” (the Romanian word for horse) for the children, I couldn’t help but reminisce on what I had just experienced in the village. Even though I was physically carrying little Mariana on my shoulders around the entire property, my mind was in another place completely.
It wasn’t until the end of the night that I finally realized how to best describe what I thought the village was like…it was like being in middle school again.
The parents and adults didn’t act like they were adults really; it was more like they were the 8th graders that nobody messed with. All those younger feared them, but yet still tried to be with them. Everyone else, kids included just fit the roles of the younger classmen who didn’t really stand a chance against any upper classmen bullies. It’s just too bad that the bullying in the village isn’t just verbal abuse or teasing, but instead is often physical or sexual abuse.
I’m just hoping and praying that what we do this week, that what Rachael does everyday, that what the Lord presses on their hearts, will graduate them from this middle school of hard knocks.
-JP
Te[am] Iubesc: A Day of Rest
Sunday, May 22th, 2011 : Tinca, Romania. 11:30pm
Sunday. A day of rest.
Never has this concept felt so real to me.
Over our three days here in Tinca, we have put in a great deal of hours doing work projects and playing with kids. I could do the math, but it’s late. Since we arrived and started working, I’ve seen the yard of the Isaiah Center transform. Where there was a pigsty with crumbling roof and dusty cement walls, there is now a freshly paved patio area surrounding a fire pit. Where there once was an empty corner, there now stands the skeleton of a woodshed to house the enormous pile of firewood stacked up against the fence. The swing set that held three swings now stands extended waiting for five brand new additions. I haven’t seen the progress made on the outhouses in the gypsy village, but I am told the work that Robbie, Justin, JP, Tyler and Ben have done has left the buildings ready for the construction of walls and roofs.
Besides all of this, I have seen my friends become attached to the children at the Isaiah Center. Each morning, as we are setting up for our projects, I watch out the corner of my eye for those little ones to begin their ascent on the yard in search of someone to play with. And we have played! We’ve got lots of sore shoulders and backs from piggy-back rides. We’ve all gotten used to hearing the children say “hai tare!” as we push them on the swings. We’re pushing as hard as we can! We’ve seen it proved true that no matter the culture, little boys love bugs, dirt and beating stuff with hammers. I’ve enjoyed playing house with Simona and Calina as we baked bread made of sand and prematurely picked apples. We’ve worked hard and we’ve played hard. And today, we were thankful for it.
Even being in the know about all this as the missions intern, I was still caught off guard by the amount of projects we would take on or the energy involved in playing with adorable little kids. But without all the time, energy, muscle power and cooperation we are spending on all these projects, this day – this Sunday – would not have meant so much.
We woke up at the usual time for breakfast (oddly bright red sausage with mustard) before packing in a van to drive 45 minutes to church in Oradea. Though the service was not in English, we were blessed by the passion and the familiarity of being among fellow believers. Some of the coolest moments happened as we sang How Great Is Our God and Majesty in English amidst the resounding Romanian chorus. Our translator worked hard to help us understand the message. It truly was encouraging to learn about God’s love even in the midst of the deserts in our lives. We were reminded that when we are in the desert, thirsty and unable to see God, sometimes we have to begin to dig deep in order to find the water that is his blessing and provision in our lives.
After church, we enjoyed a delicious and filling meal at the Capitoleum before exchanging our money and heading back to Tinca for some rest time. The few hours we had at the hotel were so good for sleep and fellowship that has been missing during our weeks of hard work.
Around eight, we went to Rachel’s for burgers and smores. During team time, we talked about what this day has meant to us. I think the general feeling was thankfulness for the opportunity to refocus. While we are hard at work during the week, it is tough to see past finding a rhythm while mixing cement or frustration with not knowing the language. But this time to spend with God and each other was a clear reminder of why we are here and what is most important. After one more good sleep, I think we’ll be ready to dig more holes and love on more kids, this time in the gypsy village during VBS. It’s no wonder that God commands us to take a Sabbath. I can’t wait for the next one to be able to see the blessings that come from this week!
Until then, keep praying, for Rachel and all the Isaiah Center kids, the three VBS days and all the work projects to come. God’s gonna do some cool stuff.
Much Love!
Stephanie
Te[am] Iubesc: Inaugural Work Day
Thursday, May 19th, 2011 : Tinca, Romania. 10:30pm
The alarm at 7:30 came way too quickly this morning, though the alarm may have been unnecessary. The village roosters and dogs are definitely willing to wake you as the sun rises over the village. Our first day of work in Romania had finally arrived.
After a swift breakfast and devotion, the team set out on the approximately 1 mile journey to the Isaiah Center. In hand were all of the toys and games that we had brought with us in our luggage. Upon arrival we met up with Michelle and Herb who are two Americans working at the mission for an extended period of time and another friend Mehai, who also works for FMN. We were all fortunate enough to go on the drive to pick up the children from there homes in the morning. Riding through the village and seeing not only the difference between the standard of living in the United States, but also the difference between the Romanians, and they gypsies. Certain streets near the outside of the village were designated, unofficially of course, as the streets where the gypsies live since the Romanians want nothing to do with them. Gathering up the children that were excited to come to the Isaiah Center was really cool to see.
Once the team got back we began to tackle the three main projects for the day, the first being to demolish and recycle the pig barn. As the team disassembled the structure, we sorted the pieces by their type and quality since we will be using whatever we can save to build some outhouses in the village. The demolition was almost completed by the end of the day, as well as a fence put up to fill the hole left by the lack of pig barn wall. Rebuilding that fence section was crucial since, if it wasn’t finished tonight, there was a great risk people would try to walk in during the night and steal items from the center. The team also split firewood at Rachel’s home, and stacking it up to dry. Believe it or not, this is the first shipment of wood for the winter to heat her home and the Isaiah Center. Lastly, the team used the rubble that was unfit for building materials to level a portion of the yard where a foundation will be poured tomorrow for the lean-to that will house the previously mentioned firewood.
All of these projects happened while we got to take turns playing all sorts of games with the children, getting to know there names and what they enjoyed doing. All of which made it an amazing and tiring experience.
The team finished off the night with an amazing (and HUGE) meal of soup, bread, walnut-cinnamon toast, and crepes. Never has a shower and soft bed felt more comfortable.
Thanks so much for your prayers and support, we really feel God working and doing great things through the ministry and Rachel!
JD
Te[am] Iubesc: We Made It!!
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 : Tinca, Romania. 11:30pm
We made it! We jumped on our plane to Budapest after I (Emily) took a SERIOUS nap on the floor of the Paris airport. A short 2 hour flight later, we were on the ground and enjoying the beautiful weather in Budapest. The bus ride to Tinca was accompanied by some excellent techno music, courtesy of our driver but enjoyed by all. We arrived at our hotel and settled in, then finished our day with dinner provided by the hotel. The pork and potatoes were delicious!
As someone returning to Romania for the second mission, this trip is already having some special importance for me. Talking at the coffeehouse fundraiser, I made the statement that it’s easy to forget how real the lives of the kids here are. Driving to Tinca, I realized that, in a sense, I too forget how real this world is. It’s easy to forget that this place exists. It’s easy to forget that these hardships are real, that poverty is real. I think that, after our first trip, I settled back into life and accepted that the Romania trip had been an incredible experience, but not something I knew how to experience every day. That’s something I’ll be consciously fighting both throughout and after this trip. I think that’s something we can all fight: that ignorance is bliss, but awareness breeds change. I can’t wait to see what this trip brings, and on top of all the anxiety and excitement, I think one word best describes my mood right now: hopeful.
Emily
Axiom at the University of Illinois 