So much power

I do not envy the spiritual leaders who follow the call of God on their lives and obey to the best of their ability to serve the body of Christ as Pastors, teachers, evangelist, missionaries, and counselors. When they submit to God and go to teach what they understand, correct, instruct, comfort and counsel where they can, and have a handful of 'fans' who criticize their every move. "The sermon could have been better; the scripture reading should have been a different text; the joke was inappropriate; I should be a lay-leader already, so why can't they see my anointing? ; They skwelched the spirit, and on and on. Folks, leaders are people too. They do make mistakes. Most of them are not mind readers, or able to discern that criticisms comes as 'tough love'- instead of kindness. 

I can think about real tight situations on the mission field where I've misjudge a co-missionary or even misunderstood a leader in the field. I consider the weight and responsibility that comes over a minister or a famous preacher or teacher, and I am humbled. 

I think, “Whoa, I better pray for them and forgive them instead of judging what they just said or did and holding a grudge.” What if my perspective isn't the big picture? What would happen if Heidi spent all of her time listening to 'well meaning criticism' instead of taking another abandoned vulnerable child off of the streets and into the Iris family? What would happen if Bill Johnson spent his time focused on refuting arguments against revelation instead of teaching, preaching and 'doing' as Holy Spirit leads him? Would anyone's time be better spent listening to negative feedback?  I don't think so. It's far better for us to recognize internal offense and give it to Jesus. Pray for leaders. Trust God to gently correct whomever needs correcting. They're not our children, we can correct and discipline the children he'said put in our care because we see their big picture better than they do. He sees his children and knows the big picture better than we do. Let things go. Lay down offense. Forgive. 

Why?
When I forgive, I'm trusting God to guide someone who I feel has done me wrong by lovingly correcting them. I know that he will lead his children to repentance through loving-kindness. I don't have to try to correct people who aren't my children or students. Why attempt to parent someone who is not my responsibility? What if I am the one who needs to repent and change? This is always a possibility, it's just to hard to see clearly with junk in our eyes.

  

When I want to hold someone accountable for their mistakes or failures, or cruelty towards me, I am choosing to take God’s place in their lives. I don't want to try to do God's job. God is so kind that he doesn’t overstep our free will if we want to try. He's pretty chill and permissive. When we want to judge and condemn, we can. It's stupid to do that, but that is one of the realities of free will. We can make choices, even if they aren't the best choices.

Isn’t that wonderful? We can choose to let go of the responsibility to administer discipline to everyone in our life, and trust God to correct a rebellious or ignorant person through whatever means he knows is necessary and best. 

That seems kinda scary to control freaks who want to help God along in his plan. I mean it isn’t practical to think that the all – knowing intelligent creator is waiting on his creation to give him advice, and help him along. As impractical as it is – lots of us think we know what we would do if we had that kind of power.

No really, creative power, power outside of time, power to convict the hearts of men, power to create, power to love, power to truly be unconditional love – to love creation without manipulating the will of his creation. 

Sabbath Rest

That's right folks. I'm gonna be all 'religious' about not writing one day a week. That will be my 'Sabbath Rest'. I believe in it as a concept - taking a day off each week not only to rest, but to recharge, reconnect with family, God and his other kiddos. Yep, I do believe in the concept of 'Sabbath Rest', and not absolutely the traditional Hebrew understanding of a Sabbath. I can hear Hovel and other characters from the Fiddler on the Roof singing, "Sunrise Sunset, sunrise Sunset...."

I am not exactly observing certain hours for my Sabbath Rest, but it is basically one day - through the evening and night, until the next morning.

That might not seem like a big deal. It's not huge, but I just want to give people a heads up. Letting people know what to expect from me on my Sabbath helps my Sabbath Rest be more awesome.

Head's Up:

You want to know what Sabbath means to me if you expect this blog about my silly International Family to have a blog every single day. Right-O! There will be no blog when I'm chill-laxen with Jesus, family, and church family.

Let me say that again. What Sabbath means for me is important to anyone who might look for a blog tomorrow evening. There won't be one. That's because I am committed to writing to express myself and get this thoughts written down; however, I am not actually going to let this writing project take away from my day off with the family in worship and relaxation.

My amazing friends and co-workers understand that there is one day a week that I don't open emails, or social media. I literally disconnect from the virtual world, and don't even take phone calls or respond to work communication unless it is an emergency. People know not to contact me unless previously organized, or it is an urgent emergency that requires my attention.

In my line of ministry 'work' there a lots of emergencies. We've seen lots of green missionaries run themselves ragged reacting to all the needs and emergencies around them - there is a real possibility that I did that too. I have learned a lot about urgency however....and responding to urgent need is a great way to become popular, but it can kill people....and drain energy. I'm not gonna respond to everyone's emergency that they think I can help with.

I'm not the best or worst missionary, like I said somewhere in between. But to some observers, I might not have a spotless image because I don't jump when someone is desperate for my help. I've learned to really think about the emergencies and the needs presented that would cause me to jump up right now, and go fix the problem right now! Is this a genuine need, or a scam? Is it something that can wait until morning? Is someone's life in danger? Am I the only person who can help right now? I'm not really super cynical, it's just that some of my experience has taught me to ask these questions.

Some things really do need an immediate response. Holy Spirit is such an awesome helper!!!! Totally relying on God and the amazing people in our lives has taught us how to better respond to needs and emergencies. Taking a day to unplug from virtual connections, and work or ministry related communication is a HUGE commitment.  It is also a huge INVESTMENT. It helps us better know how to respond to urgent needs, and less urgent needs in a timely and loving manner. It also helps us when we need to see something for what it really is, a life sucker. Sometimes people say they needs us, but they don't. Taking a Sabbath Rest helps us to have a clear head to know how to confront that.

We learn to get really chill when the world is going up in flames, because a major crisis happened last week or the week before. I'm serious. There are really big emergencies, but sometimes I have no power over them or anyway to affect them --other than pray. I do pray, and trust that God knows how to love his children. If Papa God wants to use my life to bless and help someone then I better tune into his voice and guidance on a normal basis, and connect with his other kiddos just to make sure that we are all getting similar instructions from Papa God...

So all that is to say that I will respond to the lesser sized emergencies in my 'normal' work hours. Big emergencies will be responded to, but only if it is actually my responsibility to direct traffic or correct mistakes or help...there won't be writing emergencies that I can foresee, I'm just letting people know why I am a stickler. Mind you - it took a long time to actually learn that I had to take a Sabbath in order to survive. So when I start a new project, experiment, or task I will apply the same boundaries for rest. There are six days to work on stuff, and one day to just chill-lax.

We like it, our family likes it, and we are better people for it. So tomorrow there will be no rambling words to try to read through or not and give up half way....

That will be Monday. Yes friends, Monday is coming. and I will write again.

I know you think I'm silly. Who cares if you take a day off writing? I do. I'm just setting a precedent because I love myself before I can love others.

I do write everyday, It hasn't been on a blog though....so this 'Sabbath Rest' Heads up is very much for me and my family, and for Jesus as well as any reader who happens to read to the end of this blurg.

Just me, Missionary Momma Mia