Is holistic a word you feel like you've been hearing a lot lately? In the present places that God has our family, this is a topic that comes up again and again, in ways that are not necessarily new to me yet still enlightening. Sometimes I wonder if God waits to reveal certain truths to me until I am ready to receive them, until my heart is more softened under His hand. This journey with Jesus never grows old and I'm so grateful for His faithful nurturing of my soul!
Shane and I have been asking God to give us a heart for the broken, needy, rundown, poor, lonely people that He cares so much about. Jesus proved His love for the downtrodden when He walked this earth and as much as His word speaks of the poor we are becoming more convinced He wants us to be concerned too. So how does concern translate to action when we are such pitiful creatures of comfort and naturally gravitate to the familiar and the similar? Don't think I have an answer for you either cause remember I said we were asking ourselves? These are just some present thoughts that have been juggling around. So guess what?? I would love to hear your insight, wisdom questions, etc... You knew I was going to ask that didn't you? Well, that's how we learn together.
One more thing about holistic. God has provided 2 great friends for us, paving the way for our friendship before we even moved to Minneapolis. They are a couple, a wonderful couple, married for a few years but also our age and they do not have any kids as yet which makes them wonderfully flexible friends. They are an answer to prayer in so many ways and today they proved it again. We had a slight vehicle emergency, compliments to one car in the shop and some confusion on flight departure time for Shane, resulting in my only mode of transportation for the next 5 days of single parenting sitting in general parking at MSP airport. Yikes! No worries there, our friends came to our rescue and sacrificed their lunch break to rescue our van and one grateful mama. So maybe my "crisis" is not as dramatic or heart wrenching as the many needs all around each of us but my heart was still comforted at how God would meet me through the tangible service of friends. Thank you Fosters!! And thank you Jesus for giving me a real life example of holistic friendship: being motivated by Christ's love to offer our own God-given resources to meet the tangible needs of another.
So now it's your turn...where are the hands and feet of Jesus making an impact in your world?
1 comment:
"Deep Justice In a Broken World" is a great book to wrestle with what holistic ministry to the poor and broken is like... I know I have been challenged by a lot of these same thoughts, though I also have more questions than answers right now.
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