Love God, Love Your Neighbors

It's a scary day when your little brother turns 18 and is not so little anymore... Happy 18th to my favorite little brother!

So today at church, Mark gave a sermon and the title of it was called 'Romancing the City'. It doesn't have to be the city, it could be your neighborhood, your college campus, your apartment, etc etc. His sermon definitely got my mind churning. One thing he said that really stood out to me was how we as Christians should relate to the city. We shouldn't simply be "in" the city, because that just means we go about what we normally do with our lives, without any affect on the area or the people. We shouldn't be against the city, where there's a divide between sinful and sacred and we're the "sacred" people. We shouldn't be of the city, where no one can tell if there's a difference between us as Christians and everyone else. Instead, we should be for the city. I loved that. For the city, which means that we are active and loving the city, where we make a difference in the lives of the people, and not just for the sake of it, but out of a love for Jesus. Where we believe in it and believe that God can work and do so much in it. One of the biggest ways to be for the city is to listen. To listen to the people and what they really need. Mark told this neat story of these missionaries who went to the slums of India with lots of money. They asked the people there, "What is it you need? We can get you clinics, schools, hospitals, etc. What do you need?" And the people there said they wanted a post office. The missionaries were confused. "What? A post office? Are you sure? But we can get you a hospital! A school!" In India, if an area doesn't have their own post office, their own zip code, then they don't exist on a map. There was no door to the world for them. No one can aid them because no one even knows that they are there. So those missionaries ended up using their money and efforts and got those people a post office. They didn't just fly in there and plop a church down or a clinic. Instead, they listened to the people for what they needed and that ended up meaning more to them than anything else. Mark also talked about Isaiah 58. The Israelites all thought they were doing the right thing, by fasting and marching around somberly to prove it. They asked God, "Why are you not doing anything? Have you not seen us fasting?" And God responds with Isaiah 58:6-12. "Loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free..." [...] "...share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--" [...] "and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday." And this isn't the only place in the Bible where God calls us to care for the poor and the widow, and to love justice. It's in Proverbs over and over again. Proverbs 31:8-9 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." It's in Micah 6:8. "He has showed you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Today's sermon just really got me thinking about how God has uniquely called me to carry out these passages in my life. I don't know if West Lafayette is considered poor by any means, but whether it is or it isn't, there are definitely places that really need love. I'm sure we don't have to look very far to find hurt, pain, and brokenness. There's always someone who simply needs a listener or someone to stand by them. Maybe that means taking the time to get to know my engineering group outside of class, riding the Citybus just for the sake of having a conversation with someone, engaging in conversation with the cashier at Walmart. And that's on the smaller and more personal scale. In the larger picture, it means romancing the campus. It means loving your campus and not just the "Of course I love you! Look at what I did for you! And if it ever changes, I'll let you know" kind of love (that's not really love...). But really loving the community, being there for the community, and walking alongside it. A challenging question that was asked to the congregation was "If this church was no longer here, would anyone notice?" And on a more personal level, "If you weren't here in this community, would anyone notice?"

Anyway, right now I'm currently trying to figure out how I can do that in Knoxville, even though I am here for only 4 more weeks. And I'm excited to see what God will do through the Campus House community next year. I still don't have all the answers but it's okay, because God laid it down pretty plainly with this:

Matthew 22:36-40

New International Version (NIV)

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b] 

Hope that all made sense. There's a lot going on in my head that I can't seem to type up clearly... so sorry if it's a jumbled mess! Yup, that's it for now.

Ps. Totally went back to Magiquest. Had an AWESOME time. No shame.

Hello from Knoxville!

Greetings! I am now in Knoxville, TN! My family and I finally arrived on Monday after leaving on our road trip on Saturday. We stopped by Philly, Roanoke (Virginia), and finally Tennessee. It was a really fun three days with my family because we got to see a lot and spend a lot of time together with all four of us. I guess spending time with all four of us is going to be tough now that Tak is finally going off to college. 

So anyway, there have been a lot of changes in so little time. For one, I had to say goodbye to my family, which for some reason, was even more sad/depressing than normal (normal as in when they send me off to college). I think it's because this is my first summer outside of New England, and I won't get to see them until November. No July 4th with my dad (July 4th is his birthday), no July 15th with Tak (that's his birthday), and no August 22nd with my mom (that's her birthday). No more random dinners to Chinatown, or spontaneous trips to Spofford to check up on Tak. Just me, myself, and I in the state of Tennessee... 932 miles away :(

Another major change: I am currently living and working with people that I have known for less than 72 hours. And so far, everyone is great! I was blessed to have two really cool roommates (and a great apartment...) and I loved that the majority of the interns (9 out of 13) are girls who are all really smart and friendly.

Today, I also found out that I am working in the hotline department at Alcoa! (No, I will not be answering phone calls all day). Basically, I get to help/watch the giant slabs of aluminum get rolled into thin 1/4 of an inch sheets. Because of this, I got some PPE (personal protection equipment) which included some safety glasses, ear plugs, an obnoxiously yellow hard hat, and steel toe boots. (And I thought the mechanical engineering shop at Purdue was intense....)

So basically, God has been teaching me a lot, and a lot of that I haven't actually processed through yet. The biggest thing that kept on popping up was pray-- don't worry, which was just what I needed. I was so nervous about meeting/living with people I didn't know, saying goodbye to my family, working in a huge plant with huge machines, driving around Knoxville, etc. But I was just reminded over and over again-- Blair, if you're worrying, that means you're not praying. Which, was a hard lesson to learn. I don't pray as much as I should. And even as a I pray when I'm nervous, it's like a frantic, jumbled up prayer, which I know that God can still understand/hear, but even as I'm praying, I'm still worrying a lot. But slowly and surely, God's showing me that He is faithful, and He always keeps His promises and does what's best for me, even when I frantically pray to Him.

I can't say with 100% certainty that I am excited for what God has in store for me this summer... because to be honest, if there's one thing I learned about the summer, it's that it's not always easy. I know this won't be an easy summer, and I won't pray for one. I just hope and pray that God will change me this summer and mold me into someone who loves Him more than anything and anyone. And, I am praying the same for everyone else, be it a Scandinavian mission trip, camp, Boston internship, research, etc.

God is good, guys! Don't forget that in the chaos of your summer :)

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Psalm 90:14 ESV

May in Massachusetts

Hello!

A quick explanation of the title (as if it really needed one...) but basically I am in Massachusetts only for the month of May. Which means that there's only a month for me to enjoy all the Kimballs ice cream I can get my hands on, take the T into Boston as many times as I load my Charlie card, and spend as much time with the people I love as their schedules would allow. The downside of being in Massachusetts for a whole month is that there is a LOT more free time than I hoped for/would ever want. I've probably logged more hours on facebook and pinterest in these past 2 weeks than I have during the academic year.... and I have definitely been spending way too much time and money on Groupon. (But, I have found some pretty sweet deals!) All this empty time and pointless web browsing has got me wishing I was back in West Lafayette working at Greyhouse or something. At least then I would have the convenience of living closer to friends and having more activities to do within walking distance. But gradually I am coming to terms with the fact that God has me in Massachusetts for a reason.

Perhaps that reason is so that I can sit for hours on end in the Java Room reading and reflecting. A book I read last week was Heaven is Real by Todd Burpo cover to cover. I honestly can't remember the last time I had the time to read a book cover to cover and so being able to do it this time was awesome. It was such a good book too! Basically it was about a little boy who goes to heaven during a near-death experience and comes back with an incredible account of heaven. And the craziest part was that his experience lined up with the Bible. I won't ruin the book for you, but the rest of the book is about how his experience in heaven impacted his family. It was a really great reminder to his family (and now to his readers) that heaven really is real and that we have a real hope and a real place that we are going for eternity.

Another book that I've been reading through is Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, a book that Sally gave me but was recommended to me first by Adam. I'm only in chapter 3, but it's been so good so far! One of my favorite parts of chapter 3 was 

We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us.

I just loved this so much! First, because it really helped me to put our devotion to God and Jesus's love for us in perspective. Two, it's so so so humbling to think about because we are so awfully weak and we exaggerate about the pettiest things (okay, maybe I can't speak for everyone.... I exaggerate about the stupidest pettiest things). This just reminds me of how limited our minds and bodies are. That we could even think of the littlest thing as a really big deal. And so it's mindblowing to even try to begin to grasp the fact that we could never ever ever exaggerate God's love for us. No matter how bad we screw up or how bad we think we screw up, there's nothing that Jesus's blood doesn't wash clean. And then to think that we could never exaggerate our devotion to Him! We owe God our blood, sweat, tears, and our very lives and that is just so humbling because that is not an exaggeration.  It's crazy to think that the gruesome deaths the saints had to endure in the Bible is not an extreme. Along with those that choose to give everything up to cross the world and risk their lives to preach the gospel is not an extreme because that is the unadulterated devotion that God requires of us. Our lives, our love, and our devotion to God can never be an exaggeration.

Anyway, there are a lot more thoughts I have on this book, but it's all in the moleskin and if I continue to type it all up, it'll be a ridiculously long summary of the book and I honestly don't know if I would do Tozer any justice. So you should all just read the book :D

Okay this is the end of this post because it's time for dinner. Fun fact: I used the 'shift' key when typing this up. Annnnd...that fact will only be significant to those who know my shameful keyboarding secret.... >.<

Later!