escapingbabylon.com

Almost missed connection

I am now on the plane heading to Jamaica. You have no idea how happy that makes me.

You should click the link to read the entire article.

From : Jesus Enters the War on Christmas

Letter From Jesus Christ, concerning His birthday celebration.

Dear children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wasn’t actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime…

Last year on this date I went to the Christmas Concert at Pilgrim. Last year, it was probably one of the low points of the year, I was homesick, uncertain of relationships (romantic and otherwise), cold, and feeling sort of abandoned. I did have an amazing conference to look forward to, but was  unable to go home for the holidays because of it, and in any case, was not allowed to do on-campus work with IV at the time because of lack of funding.
Yesterday I went to the Christmas Concert at Pilgrim, and was amazed at how much of a better place I found myself this year. A big part of it is that I will be going home for Christmas, this time I’m skipping an amazing conference to be there, and I’m very happy about it. My funding isn’t a lot better than last year, but I’m allowed to do on-campus work as a Campus Affiliate until my funding gets better and I can go full time. I know where I am relationship-wise though it’s taken much of the intervening year to get there (appearances to the contrary, I heal slowly). I now have a car, whereas last year at this point in time I wasn’t even saving well (I need to re-configure the budget now that I have insurance and gas to pay for though). I’m singing again, doing praise and worship at church, which is absolutely perfect. I love the folks I sing with, I love the students I work with. I took a semester off from Family Night, and miss “my kids” but I don’t have regrets, because I would be stretched way too thinly if I didn’t.

In a lot of ways, I feel like the past year tied me to the back of a pickup truck and dragged me through the mud. But I thank God for it, and for bringing me through it and out of it. I haven’t always been the most faithful servant, or the greatest example of His light, and I hope to get better at that, but I’m glad He was with me and that He is still with me today.

In spring, the plan is for me to lead a Leadership Development small group at Hamline. Right now, I don’t have curriculum planned for this, but I am open to ideas. If you have any ideas of books or bible studies that have helped shape your idea of ministry, let me know.

One book I’m very likely going to include is Kingdom Come, and possibly Evangelism Outside the Box (I have to re-read the latter though, I may have some questions/concerns about it at this point in my spiritual life). I’ve heard interesting things about Inclusion: Making Room For Grace, so I’ll probably read that with an eye to including it. I would love to include something on race, culture, and cross-cultural ministry/communication, but that may be later on. Sometimes, colleges tend to produce a sort of “Diversity fatigue” among students, particularly, in my experience, for students who come from majority cultures. There’s a couple reasons I think this is the case (which may be an interesting future post), but the challenge is to address the issue in a way that is constructive and is not rejected because of the diversity fatigues students are already experiencing.