Friday, March 28, 2014

My Response to the "World Vision" fiasco: Some of you may be shocked!


 
A few days ago, like most of the “church” world, I was surprised by the announcement of the Christian-based organization World Vision International that they would begin employing “married gay couples”.  “Surprised” is the word I was.  A little confused. But not angry.
The whole issue was brought to my attention first by, of course, the barrage of Facebook comments from friends.  My Christian friends were outraged, “disgusted” was the word someone used, and hurt by what they saw as the betrayal of an organization that had heretofore claimed that it hung closely on Biblical morals.  My non-Christian friends were praising World Vision and excited about a religious organization finally “getting it right” as they saw it, and accepting people, and opening their doors to the homosexual Christian society.

Me?  Well, I guess I was somewhere in the middle. (Me in the gray area?! Don’t worry, that’s not the part I thought would surprise you!)  I didn’t immediately form an opinion, or jump on one bandwagon or another. I read several blogs of respected people, some for and some against, I watched my friends battle it out over Facebook, I read up on World Vision’s actual announcement and why they said they made that decision, and I just kept thinking one thing…
 
What would Jesus do?  What would his response be if He were here today? 
As I prayed I suddenly thought about a passage of scripture I had read at some point.  I couldn’t remember exactly where it was, so I had to search for it, but I finally found it in Mark chapter 9…

38 And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.
39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.
40 For he that is not against us is on our part.
41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

This scripture stood out to me because Jesus basically told them that, if these other people were doing it in his name, let them do it!  I love how he says: For he that is not against us is on our side!

Then right after that he talks about helping little ones that believe in him, and not offending them.

So what would Jesus do?  I think Jesus would treat World Vision like he did those people the Apostles told him about.  I think he would say, Hey, they are doing a good thing, helping little children in my name.  Just because they don’t “follow” our way exactly, or they do things a little differently, well, things done in my name will never be done in vain. 
He will get the glory.  And maybe, just maybe, some expected person along the way would be changed because of it?  That would be my hope.

I also found this scripture when I was looking for the other one...it’s about a lady that was walking behind Jesus and the Apostles and crying after them to have mercy on her daughter whom she thought was possessed.  It says she was “crying aloud” or screaming after them to listen to her.  This was Jesus’ and the Apostles response in Matthew 15:

23 But he (Jesus) answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

When I read this, I thought, here was a woman who was not a follower of Jesus, and she was not a Jew. She was actually a Canaanite, who worshipped false gods, and the Jews couldn't stand her. But here she was, probably at the end of her rope, doing whatever she could to help her daughter.  Jesus’ disciples felt like she was bugging them and wanted Jesus to send her away, get rid of her, so they could get busy doing his work.  What they said here reminded me of what they said in the other passage in Mark about those who “follow us not”.  They are again saying, Hey Jesus, this lady doesn’t believe things the way we do.  Send her away. 

I’m so curious as to why Jesus was silent at first before the disciples finally spoke!  I really feel like it was to see what his followers would do, how they would respond to this one who was not like them.  Would they sneer their noses and want her out of their presence, or would they have compassion on her, even though she was unworthy and not like them?  Well, true to form (and so much like we Christ-followers today still do!) they responded by wanting her to go away, leave them alone, not mar their work. 

Jesus then responds to them all, again still teaching EVERYONE at this point (his disciples AND the Canaanite woman), by saying “I’m here to save my people, the children of Israel”.  The lady then comes to him and asks for his help.  Jesus tells her that it’s not right to take food that is for your kids and give it to the dogs under the table.  That sounds harsh but it was his way of stating what the Jews, his disciples, were already thinking, for they called all Canaanites dogs!  To me, this would be like Christians looking at World Vision and saying, well it’s not right to give a job that a regular Christian could have helping kids in Christ’s name to a gay person.  To me it’s similar because of what happens next…

Matthew 15:
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

She came to Jesus not to help herself, or because she thought she needed help.  She came to get help for a child.  She believed Jesus could help.  She was an outsider and she knew it.  But she came anyway.

“Homosexual Christians” is a title that makes every fundamental Christian have eye twitches and cringe in anger.  To many of us, we consider that an impossibility.  To many of us, they are dogs that do not deserve to share the title of “Christian” with us.  We want them to stay away.  Not be a part of anything we are doing.  As far as World Vision goes, if a gay person came into a Christian organization to help a child, well, what if they began to “eat of the crumbs”, and what if they saw Jesus’ compassion and truth and honesty and gentleness in the hearts of those Christians they worked with? What if they saw Jesus working all around them? Would it change them?  If we want them to stay away, how do we expect them to change?  This woman's life, and her daughter's life, never would have changed if the disciples had gotten their way.

Here comes the part that may surprise some of you who feel like I am too liberal on this particular topic…
I can see why hiring a homosexual couple would not match World Vision’s contractual description for their employees.  I can see why the evangelical Christian world was upset about this announcement that goes against World Vision’s previous strict code of Biblical moral ethics. Are you surpised?!!  I agreed it wasn’t the best idea and seemed confusing and to go against what they stand for!

But…(hey, come on, you knew there was "but" in there!), my angst, as always, comes in seeing how the Christians response today was much like the Apostles and disciples response of long ago: outrage and disgust and irritation.  We want to “forbid” it!  Tell them to stop!  That is not our way, you are not following us, you can’t do that and say you are a Christian organization, don’t give that “dog” any of our food…

What would Jesus do?  Well, ironically enough, it seems he did the same thing he did when dealing with Canaanite woman.  He waited.  He “answered not a word” and waited to see what we would do. 
And what did we do?  We bullied World Vision into doing it our way and keeping the outcast away, shooing the “dog” away from table.  And we got our way.  World Vision changed their ruling and "forbid" the gay community from working with them in Jesus name. 
This is a quote from Rachel Held Evans’ blog about this topic:
“it puts into stark, unsettling relief just how out-of-control the evangelical obsession with homosexuality has become. Organizations don’t get “farewelled” for hiring divorcees. People don’t get kicked out of their churches for struggling with pride or for not wearing head coverings when they pray.  (See “Everyone’s a Biblical Literalist Until You Bring Up Gluttony.”) But when it comes to homosexuality, Trevin Wax and many others have decided “the gospel is at stake.” 
See Rachel's whole blog about this here: (note: I don't agree wit all her ideas, but she does bring up good points!)http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/world-vision?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RachelHeldEvans+%28Rachel+Held+Evans+-+Blog%29
 
Now, before you get bent out of shape, let me say this: I DO disagree with World Vision’s choice to allow gay “married” employees.  I feel like that is recognizing sin and choosing to justify it by the world’s rules.  I do, however, feel like World Vision DID try to welcome the outcasts to the table, they just didn't necessarily do it the right way!  I feel like it would have been ok to hire a gay person with the understanding that they remain single and celibate while in their employ.  It would be the same as hiring an alcoholic and asking them to remain sober and stay away from alcohol while in their employ.  It's the whole "you live in our house, you abide by our rules" thing.  However, even the way it happened, I do feel like it could have still been recovered and used for the cause of Christ.

These two scriptures have one thing in common…both of these groups of people worshipped Jesus and did things in his name.  They didn’t do it perfectly, or right.  But they claimed faith in his name.  Jesus praised one for her abundant faith, and told his disciples to leave the other ones alone because they were still doing things in his name.

That was what I personally felt my response to the World Vision thing would be…just leave them alone, let them do things in Jesus’ name, let them keep helping “the least of these” and, in midst of that, dropping bread crumbs to those who don’t even know they’re starving.

“For he that is not against us is on our part.”

Now, we (Christians) have again angered the homosexual community, we have bullied them and cast them away, we treated them like they are not worthy of any crumb from our table.  And we threatened and forced a group of Christians to bend to our will.  That’s not the message of Jesus.

What would Jesus do?

I think he would have said, Don’t forbid them.  They want to do something in my name? Let them.  Because in doing so, they WILL be exposed to those crumbs that fall from my table.  My Word will go out.  My name will be praised.  And it will not return void.

I know I’ll get some backlash for this…please just be kind.  Again, I’m not saying it was a good choice for World Vision.  All am saying is that our response to that could have been different.  I’m sure if we all dug deeper into World Vision’s Statement of Faith there would be many things that many of us would disagree with them on.   But we don’t dig. Because we don’t really care about those other things.  Why? Because we feel like they are doing a good thing in Jesus’ name.  I still feel like they would have been capable of doing a good thing in Jesus’ name.  Who knows how this might have changed the Christian/Homosexual war that is raging in our society right now? 

I’ll leave you with this thought:
Jesus showed compassion.  That doesn’t mean he didn’t call sin for what it was, or ignored it, or accepted it.  He spoke the truth always.  But, even then, he did so with compassion, always offering a place at his table, even if that place began with just the crumbs.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

When God's Plans Are Not Your Plans

I am a planner.
And a control freak. 

I am also a woman and a Mom, which I believe triples the struggle for those two things. Unfortunately, I am just not the best at organizing my time correctly to manage all those plans.
Rarely (and I mean RARELY) do things EVER go as I plan for them to.
But, I still keep planning and making my lists and doing my research and plotting the path that I feel like is best. 
And when it all falls apart, so do I. It’s a lesson you’d think I’d have learned by now, right? How many times do I have to fail before I let go of control and surrender to God?
Apparently, a LOT.
Today, my plan to get my husband well fell apart in a devastating way, and true to form, I fell apart too.
Are you wondering what happened?
Well, so am I!
Ok, actually, I know what happened. And I know what I need to do. And it’s the scariest thing for me.

The PLAN
At the beginning of this year, my Bible study group did an exercise where we all picked a word, song, and verse of the year that we felt like encapsulated everything we felt God wanted for us during 2014.  Immediately, the first word that came to my mind was PLAN.  At first, I thought God was saying I need to plan my time better and stop just saying I’m going to do certain things (lose weight, exercise, write on this blog more, etc.) and start planning to do those things with an actual plan that I follow.  Shortly after that, though, God dropped my “verse of the year” on me…I literally woke up one morning and it was in my head. He had to do that. Why? Because I was trying to pick my verse myself and had spent time pouring over scripture looking up verses that applied to the way
I wanted that “Plan” to mean.  Instead, He gave me a verse that was opposite of that.
He gave me Matthew 6:33-34.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to
you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is it’s own trouble.”

What I heard God saying to me in those verses was this:
STOP TRYING TO PLAN STUFF YOURSELF!!!! Just seek Me, let Me plan it, follow Me, and it’s all going to be taken care of. Don’t worry about tomorrow.  I’m already there. And I have a plan for it too.

In the coming weeks and months, I would fall back in desperation on those verses so often. They have become my constant reminder. And God knew I would need it, because I am still trying to plan things, and still trying to trust Him, and still learning what it means to truly seek Him.
My husband is 34 years old and is very sick. And has been for a very long time. 17 years, to be exact. During that time, his symptoms have multiplied about every two years and current symptoms have only gotten worse. We’ve seen multiple specialist and none of them can tell us why all these things are happening to him. Basically, they all just seem to want to put a “band-aide” on the problem, treat the symptoms, but not stop whatever is wreaking havoc on his body.  The last 2 years have been torturous.  The last six months…have broken us both.  I honestly feel like I’m sitting and watching his body slowly shut down from the inside, and no one can tell us why.
So what did I do?
I came up with a plan (of course!).
Over the years I have spent numerous hours researching and looking up Peter’s symptoms and then adding more symptoms to the search and narrowing it down and emailing doctors and looking for any other medical document that lists all his symptoms.  I finally came up with a plan of action and moved on it!  I thought I had found the solution and that, if we could just raise $3500 to get us to the
clinic in Florida and have a simple surgery, it would fix him.  I was sure that God had led me that way…because it made sense.  And because it was something that I could do.
I researched the symptoms.
I found the clinic.
I called and checked it out.
I filled out the application.
I submitted all his medical records.
I set up the donation website to get us there.
I told everyone that I KNEW this was it.

I FAILED.

After 3 weeks of waiting, we heard back from the clinic today and the doctor’s there who reviewed Peter’s medical history basically said that he was too sick and had too many problems to have a parathyroid tumor and it NOT be reflected in his blood work. The said he was NOT a candidate for surgery.
They said no.
I had all my hope hung on this plan.  I told myself I was hoping in God and that my hope was that He led me to this clinic. But mine and my husband’s level of crushing disappointment today at the news that this wasn’t the plan, well, it opened my eyes to just how much I had trusted in my plan. I got the text from Peter at 11:05am saying they had denied it and he sent me the email stating why. At that exact moment I was sitting in room with 8 of my fellow Kids Ministry leaders and the Kids Pastor in a meeting for our church.  Without saying a word I got up and went to the bathroom and bawled like a baby, all the while texting my broken and frustrated husband not to give up hope. It took about 5 minutes for God’s voice to break through.  Then I heard Him whisper to my broken heart, Now, are you ready to follow MY plan, not  yours?
I realized that my control freak, plan-happy self had been at it again, and that, if it had gone according to my plan, well, I would have gotten the praise for figuring it out, for solving the mystery, for being the one who pushed and got my husband the care he needed.  I would have gotten the glory.  And that’s not what God wants. EVER. 
He wants us trust Him.
He wants us experience Him in every faucet of our lives.
He wants us to see Him working.
He wants others to look at us and see HIM.

So, I took a deep breath, dried my eyes and tried to get ahold of myself, and walked back out to my meeting.  Guess what my next thought was?
Why did it have to happen here, while I’m in public, and not at home where I can just cry? 
They were still discussing some aspects of our preschool ministry and I was sitting there trying to not interrupt by a loud “after-cry” hiccup, or to let any of the still swimming tears escape from the corners of my eyes.  As the meeting was wrapping up, I thought, I wonder if I should say anything? How do I start? What should I say first?  You know, trying to PLAN IT OUT AGAIN!!! (Stop it Deon!) I just kept quiet and waited.  Then, at the very end of the meeting, the Kids Pastor turned to me and asked me if I would close us in prayer.  At the point, I had been staring at my lap, just trying to reign it in.  I looked up at him, and, as the tears broke free and the hiccuping began, I said, “I’m sorry, I just can’t right now.”
And yes, then the dreaded ugly cry was upon me.
Immediately, this wonderful group of people asked me what was wrong and through a mess of snot and tears, I shared the devastating news that Peter and I had just gotten.  They cried with me. Then they all stood around me and laid their hands on me and hugged me and prayed for Peter and I.  I don’t know what is beyond the ugly cry but I’m pretty sure it was happening at that moment.
I felt loved and encouraged.  And also, I felt hope.
Peter and I had a lot of money donated to help us get him to Florida for help. He had just told me (in the bathroom via text!) that he was worried that people would be upset now if we weren’t going. I had already told him that I had many people to say they just wanted to see him get well.
And that we weren’t going to stop.
It just wasn’t going to happen how we thought.
One of the people in this group asked me if I had considered going to the Wellness Clinic here in town, because the Doctor there is a believer and that she knows people he has helped? I told her, yes, actually, we had looked into a few months ago, but it was expensive and insurance doesn’t typically cover most of it, and at the time we didn’t have the money to go.
She replied with, “But you do now.”
A sense of peace washed over me.  Not because that’s my new plan or that I know 100% that this clinic is where Peter will get better.
No.
Because I remembered my verse of the year.  That verse where Jesus says “Seek me first, and all these things that you need will be given to you.”
Then, another thing happened. 
I have to tell you first that two days prior to this I had gotten a FB message from a friend who lives in New Zealand. She said she had been praying for us and her heart was heavy and while she was praying she really felt like God wanted her to tell us that Peter needed to go see a Chiropractor.  She said she knew that sounded weird so she prayed about it, and again, felt very clearly that’s what God was saying for her to tell us.  I told her thanks, and that we were not dismissing anything at this point! Peter’s Dad was seeing a Chiropractor that he liked so I thought I would maybe PLAN to make an appointment with her. 
So keep that in mind, when I tell you this….
One of the other ladies at the meeting came up to me and handed me a brochure that said “Creative Chiropractic.”  She said, “I know that this is not traditional, but this guy is a Believer and he really cares about his patients and he has helped me and my daughter so much!”  She didn’t have to say anything else. A chiropractor, that is highly recommended and being dropped in my lap, after the other message from my friend?  I’ll take it.
I told her about my other’s friends message a few days before and she got tears in her eyes and said she had been second-guessing about giving me that because she was afraid it would seem silly.
It’s not silly.
It’s God.
It’s God’s plan.
Not mine.
Even me being in this room with this group of people when I got the new was not an accident.  He planned it that way.  He knew that I would need them. And He knew that it would all fall into place that way. And He knew that, then, it would completely be seen as HIS plan, and not mine. And His plan is perfect, and perfectly on time.
I can trust that.
I hugged them all and got in my car to go home, so I could pick up my husband and take him to the hospital for a scheduled CT scan he had that afternoon.  I live 3 minutes from the church office. Before I pulled out of the parking lot, guess what song came on the radio?  Yup. My song of the year.  I cried the happy ugly cry all the way home and then sat in my driveway to finish listening to the song and thanking God for His provision and care.  

We are still on this journey.  And the path to Peter’s wellness isn’t the path I had planned. And that’s ok. Because it will be the path that God has planned. And His plan is infinitely better than anything I could ever plan out myself. 
Now…if I can just not try to take back control of that plan?!!!!

I'm leaving you with my song of the year, and with renewed hope.  It’s perfect for our situation. Isn’t it funny how God knew that months ago?  Probably because it was His plan!

p.s.
So I looked up the song on YouTube with the lyrics to add it here and guess what?
It showed a verse first. That verse is Matthew 6:33! 
Coincidence? Nope.  

A Limitless View of God

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