Blog Post 100!!!!!!!!!

Me and the family, our Easter photo

I did it! I actually managed to write 100 blog posts in the past 15 months! It has been a fun adventure, and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.


Blogging has been a fascinating experience for me. I have never been much of a diary writer or journaler. In fact, I really hated all of the forced journaling that I was required to do in college. So I wasn't too sure how blogging was going to go for me.


Well, it turns out it has been pretty good. This gives me an outlet to share what is on my mind, repost things that are interesting to me, and reflect on what is going on in my life and the world. I am a little curious why blogging has gone better than my attempts at writing in a journal or diary in the past. If I am going to be totally honest with myself, it probably has a little something to do with narcissism. I am posting in a public forum, a few people read what I write and they sometimes even comment on it.


I think I lead a pretty interesting life with my work and Healing Waters, my work at Wellshire Presbyterian Church and my amazing family. I enjoy sharing parts of my life with the world, back to the narcissism, perhaps it is a little bit of bragging?


Anyhow, I just thought it would be fun to share this milestone with everyone out there. I hope to keep on blogging for a long time. I have some interesting and exciting news to be sharing in the next couple of weeks that will probably have a long-term impact on the nature of my blog posts. So I guess you will all just have to stay tuned!


Finally, thank you to my loyal readers. Like I mentioned above, knowing that you are reading is at least part of what has motivated me to keep blogging. I especially appreciate comments and feedback, so keep that coming too. A shout out to all my brothers and sisters in the blogosphere. Keep writing my friends, I love to read about your lives too!

The church's role in healing, meeting people's basic needs and reconciliation

A reflection from Henri Nouwen… good for the church and for organizations like Healing Waters.

"A Ministry of Healing and Reconciliation"

How does the Church witness to Christ in the world?

First and foremost by giving visibility to Jesus' love for the poor and the weak.

In a world so hungry for healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and most of all unconditional love, the Church must alleviate that hunger through its ministry.

Wherever we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, listen to those who are rejected, and bring unity and peace to those who are divided, we proclaim the living Christ, whether we speak about him or not.

I think this is a representation of what the church's role is, and what we are all called to do as Christians. Just my two cents.

In Christ alone, my hope is found. . .

A few years ago Eric Moe was leading contemporary worship at Wellshire, as well as leading the youth praise band that lead worship with the youth group every Sunday night. He started rotating "In Christ Alone" through the song list. I loved this song as we sang it each week. Then this Sunday, the handbell choir at Wellshire played an amazing arrangement of the hymn "In Christ Alone." The music was glorious, and it got me thinking about the lyrics too.

I did some research, thinking that this was an old hymn set to a more modern score. As it turns out it was written in 2002 by a guy named Stuart Townend: "Stuart Townend is a British Christian worship leader and writer of hymns and contemporary worship music. His songs include "In Christ Alone" (2002, cowritten with Keith Getty[1]), "

A common and sometimes accurate criticism of contemporary worship songs is that they are very repetitive and not very profound. That is true many times, but not in this case. These guys really knocked it out of the park with this song, rivaling any old hymn in depth of message.

The lyrics for this hymn are below and below that is a video of the Newsboys version of the song. I encourage you to read through the lyrics as a prayer of hope and thanksgiving. Stop and pause as you read, really reflect on them. Then if you want, listen to the song and continue to meditate on the lyrics. This is some powerful stuff!

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

Some great quotes on social justice, global missions, prayer and service

I am the interim youth director at Wellshire Presbyterian Church. For the past few weeks, with the help of Holly Inglis, our Director of Christian Education, we have been doing a really cool series with the youth group on prayer.

The first week we focused on "prayer for self." We set up prayer stations so the kids could focus their prayers. I built a cross out of rough-hewn 4x4 cedar and the kids were able to write their prayers on a piece of paper and then nail them to the cross.

Last week we focused on "prayer for others." The kids braided together strips of cloth representing themselves, the person they were praying for and God, symbolizing the way that prayer can bring us together and in closer relationship with God.

This week we focused on "prayer for the world." One of our activities was praying over headlines from the paper and quotes about service, global missions and social justice, and then lighting a candle and placing it on a big world map over the country or region the kids were praying for.

A couple of the quotes that Holly found for this activity are below and I wanted to share them with you. They really resonated with me and I hope they are meaninful for you too:

“It is not how much we do,
But how much love we put in the doing.
It is not how much we give,
But how much love we put in the giving.”
-Mother Teresa


“Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing;
Nakedness is lack of human dignity”
-Mother Teresa


“If we pray, we will believe;
If we believe, we will love
If we love, we will serve.”
-Mother Teresa


Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless humanity now.
-Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

A huge "shout out" to Holly for all of her help with this series we have done on prayer. She is a genius with a servant's heart. I am blessed to work with her. Thank you Holly and thank God for Holly!

Patience and a Father's Love

Watch this touching video clip given above which shows a conversation between a father and son.

This Greek short film (with English subtitle) was made in 2007.

Father and son are sitting on a bench. Suddenly a sparrow lands across them. The old Father asks son, “What is that?” to which the son replies “A Sparrow” and looks back into his newspaper. After sometime his father again asks him “What is that”. A little annoyed, son replies “I just told you father, its a sparrow”.

Then, the sparrow flies to the other side and sits there. The father repeats his question “what is that?”. This time, son replies “A sparrow father, a sparrow…s-p-a-r-r-o-w……” and when again the father repeats his question, son is filled with anger and says “Why are you doing this Father? How many times I told you its a sparrow!!!”

Father gets up and goes into the house to take his old dairy. He comes back and asks his son to read a passage from the dairy, which goes like this “Today my youngest son, who a few days ago turned three, was sitting with me at the park when a sparrow sat in front of us. My son asked me 21 times what it was and I answered all 21 times that it was a sparrow. I hugged him every single time he asked me the same question again and again without getting mad, feeling affection for my innocent little boy.”

This video really convicted me. I need to learn patience and practice patience more with the people that I love.

This is the kind of father that I had, and this is the kind of father I want to be.

Thank you Dad, for having such patience with me. Thank you for setting this example for me.

Thank you God for giving me a father that had that much patience for me and modeled that.

I pray that I can live up to my Dad's example and have that much patience with my children and with the rest of my family.

Boring. . . finding joy in the mundane

I stole the text below from my friend's blog, but think it is relevant and right on. Enjoy!

Well today I was in the midday doldrums in need of a spiritual zap. I was working on some tasks that are certainly important to keep things running smoothly, so that is good. But sitting in front of the computer can suck my brain out. The mundane is where we live most of our lives, and in this place we learn to love God, and serve people, even though we don’t always feel like it. This is called having character. Or most days, building character. For this I rejoice, because I love Jesus, and want to learn to love Him more. I want to learn character through the testing pressures of life, including functioning in joy during mundane tasks. I do though fail in this assignment regularly. The stir-crazy revivalist in me wants every moment to be a world changing, earth shaking, devil blasting, holy ghost hoedown. But not every moment of my life fits into that category. As Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer puts it “We focus on establishing our identity in God as we are faithful to serve in the mundane.”

Guest Blogger: Our Dysfunctional Christian Hearts

Below is a blog post from John Bell, senior pastor at Wellshire Presbyterian Church. He is brand new to the blogging world and his blog is still in Beta mode, so he hasn't made it public yet. As one of his "beta testers" I read this post and thought it was worthy of getting some public circulation, so here it is. Stay tuned and once Pastor Bell goes public with his blog, I will be adding it to my blog roll over in the right column. Without further ado, Pastor Bell's post:


This will not surprise anyone in my family: I was born with a small, hard heart. Literally. Most hearts are about fist size. Mine is roughly the size of a tennis ball. I have a congential heart defect. In a small section near the heart, my descending aorta never really grew from birth, and my heart remained small. It had to work extra-fast to pump the blood through the narrow place, so it became hard. This condition is called coarcation of the aorta. Had I been born 10 years earlier, I most certainly would have died as a young boy; however, the development of the heart-lung machine and new surgical techniques in the 1950’s now give people like me a second chance. Once my defect was discovered, my activity was limited until I had corrective surgery at the age of 11. More on this later … I’m sure.

Like the Grinch who Stole Christmas, who’s heart was two sizes too small, my heart is still naturally hard and naturally small. Therefore, I need lots of exercise and some medication to be heart healthy! (Notice I didn’t say a strict diet! I don’t have a problem with cholesterol. Don’t take away my macaroni and cheese! In fact, my daughters once dubbed me “Cheese Boy,” because of my love of all things cheese.) If I don’t exercise, mentally and physically - and probably spiritually too, I start to wear down, get crabby and easily can become Grinch-like. The medication I take keeps my heart soft and pliable, the way a good heart should work. My doctor at the Mayo Clinic says that with proper exercise and medication, I should live long and prosper. (Well, live long at least. Prosper may be a different issue.)

There is a lesson here for all of us. Metaphorically speaking, I believe that everyone is born with a congenital heart defect, and that none of us have hearts that work properly – without “exercise” and “medication.” It is clear that we weren’t born right. Jimmy Buffett says (sings!) that it’s clear the cosmic baker took us out of the oven a little too soon. Theologians have long called this the doctrine of original sin. We are not able to do the right thing all the time, we are not perfect, we somehow always fall a bit short of the expectation, we are born with a screw loose, we are flawed, we do not love as we ought to love: we were all born with slightly defective, broken hearts …

And we need “exercise” and “medication.” I do not know what this might be for you, but for me it means I have to set aside time and find ways to work at loving others. Love is not just a feeling, an emotion; love is an activity. It’s not enough to say that I love my wife; I have to occasionally do the dishes or clean the potty to prove it. It’s not enough to say that - like Jesus – I love the poor, I have to give up an occasional day off to work on a Habitat for Humanity house or travel to a remote part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and live among and assist an oppressed people for a couple of weeks. Love requires exercise. “Medication” for me means that I have to try to keep my heart open and soft, alert – and not allow it to become hard and callous. It’s easy to read the paper or watch the news and become jaded and cynical, effectively shutting down the heart by closing down that which we call: compassion. “Medication” (Bible reading? Prayer? Meditation? Worship?) keeps my heart soft and open, sensitive to the needs of others, alert to the presence of The Spirit.

My heart requires “exercise” and “medication.” Otherwise, I become Grinch-like, with a heart two-sizes too small and in danger of living a bitter life of cynicism, fear or self-hatred. I imagine your broken heart needs some work too! Love does not come easily or naturally to any of us. It requires time, work and discipline. Exercise your heart today: tell someone that you love him or her and … throw in a random act of kindness!

My second post. Whew. It’s 4:20 a.m. Time to head to the gym and hop on a cardio machine!

The Spiritual Practice of Justice

There was a great insert in my Sunday bulletin at Church that I wanted to share with you:

There can be little growth in holiness without growth in a sense of social justice.
-Edward Hays in "A Lenten Hobo Honeymoon"

We must be for the poor not simply a handout but a voice on their behalf where the poor are not heard and their pain is not registered. If we are to really minister, it is up to us to first be transformed ourselves so taht we can then be really transfiguring.
-Joan Chittister from "In the Heart of the Temple: My Spiritual Vision"

Develop a daily cue to remind yourself to practice justice

• Every time you take money out of your wallet, it can be your cue to "practice justice"
• Every time you start your care, it can be your cue to "practice justice"
• Every time you see someone in need, it can be your cue to "practice justice"

Pick your own cue and use that to keep your calling front and center.

Reflections

• Identify an injustice that troubles you. What first made you aware of it? Reflect on one action you have done or can do to combat it.
• Do you think that all people are born with a yearning for justice, or does it have to be taught? Think back to your childhood and recall your most vivid experience of justice or injustice. How can you participate in teaching justice to a younger generation

I really got a lot out of this bulletin insert and wanted to share it with you. There was also a great Psalm that someone quoted this week that I wanted to share in light of this social justice posting and the healthcare debate:

Happy are they who consider the poor and needy! The LORD will deliver them in the time of trouble. The LORD preserves them and keeps them alive, so that they may be happy in the land; he does not hand them over to the will of their enemies. The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and ministers to them in their illness.

God is calling us to take care of the poor and needy and promises to take care of us when we do. We are called to care and to be the hands and feet of God, ministering to the disenfranchised, the hungry, the weak and the sick. Let us not forget.

Water use put into perspective

I saw this and thought it was pretty amazing. It is a graphic that shows how much water we use in a day, not just through showers and flushing toilets, but the amount of freshwater resources it takes to create some of the food we eat too.

Click on the link and then click on the graphic within the link to get it to a size you can read it:
http://www.good.is/post/transparency-how-much-water-do-you-use/

Another great water org with a very similar message

Yesterday I posted about not getting paralyzed by the scope of the problems we are facing in the world. Today I got an e-mail and a video from another water org that had a very similar message. I really like what they have to say, just at the end, kick over to Healing Waters website instead of the one that they suggest. :)

Enjoy!

"I've been reading a lot lately about the psychology of enormous problems. About how people will always rush to save one child but disconnect when faced with helping thousands of children. "One death is a tragedy, a million - a statistic," we're told.

Non-profits like ours that are addressing enormous problems (a billion people without clean water) are told to make sure we don't scare people off by communicating how big the whole problem is.

Author Seth Godin recently wrote that the problem with enormity in marketing is that it doesn't work. He said "Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down. Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies, and you won't get a bigger donation, you'll just get averted eyes."

While all this may be true, it just seems rather boring. Visionless. I believe people want to sign up for something bigger than just one. I did.

There's a proverb in the Bible that says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." People are certainly dying all around us, but could that be because we're terrified to tackle the enormous? Because we don't have the faith to see the entire problem solved?

I can't quite see to a billion people yet, but I'm getting closer.

So in the spirit of solving enormous problems, we want to step it up this September, and serve more people. Then keep going until every single person on the planet has clean and safe drinking water.

We shot a video that explains how we want to do that through the 2009 September campaign. Please watch it, share it and act."

Overwhelmed, paralyzed, what can I do?

The title of this post captures the sentiment that I have felt at times about issues of social justice, global poverty, starvation, the water crisis and other tough stuff that tugs at my heart strings.

There are so many issues out there, that we can be paralyzed into inaction because we are so overwhelmed by the amount of saddness and suffering around us.

But know that you can make a difference, even little you. In your tiny corner of the world, you can make a difference. I use the starfish parable a lot to describe this:

One morning an elderly man was walking on a beach. A high tide the night before had washed thousands of starfish up on the beach. Now that the tide was back out and the sun was coming up, the starfish were dying in the sun. He came upon a boy surrounded by thousands and thousands of starfish. As eagerly as he could, the youngster was picking them up one at a time and throwing them back into the ocean.

Puzzled, the older man looked at the young boy and asked, "Little boy, what are you doing?"

The youth responded without looking up, "I'm trying to save these starfish, sir."

The old man chuckled aloud, and queried, "Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?"

Holding a starfish in his hand, the boy turned to the man and, gently tossing the starfish into the water, said, "It will make a difference to that one!"

Find your starfish in your own little corner of the world. For me, it is safe drinking water in Latin America. For my wife, it is teaching in urban schools. For a friend of mine, it is working in soup kitchens and homeless shelters on her time off. Each one of us knows we can't fix all the world's problems, but we each work in our own corner of the world "making a difference to that one."

The video below has a cool spin on this too (and is also pretty critical of "reality TV" which is one of my pet peeves):

Principle-Centered Planning - by Dr. John C. Maxwell

Below is an e-mail that was sent to me by JJ Gomez, Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad National Director in the Dominican Republic. I think it has a lot of value in both planning for an organization and planning personally in our live, so I decided to share it on my blog.

I have been asked to serve as the part-time interim Youth Director at my church, Wellshire Presbyterian In this role, I am running the youth programs until we can get a new Associate Pastor hired. This new responsibility, along with my full-time job at Healing Waters International, means I really need to stay on top of planning, in both of my jobs and in my life as Jessica and I prepare for our new baby. This message really resonated with me, I hope that it helps you too.

Enjoy!

Principle-Centered Planning
By Dr. John C. Maxwell

If you've ever gone whitewater rafting, then you know the importance of planning. Whenever the raft approaches rapids, the guide has to plan the best route to navigate safely through them. If the guide fails to plan, then the raft can easily smash into a rock or capsize.

Four Types of Planning
Passive planning happens when leadership allows the raft to travel downstream at the mercy of the current rather than steering, rowing, and turning. This kind of non-planning eventually leaves you unprepared to face whitewater rapids. Worse yet, in the absence of a plan, the current may take the raft over the edge of a dreaded waterfall.

Panic planning happens only after the raft is in trouble. At this point, all of the organization's resources are scrambled in a reactionary pattern in an attempt to solve the problem. With panic planning, you may or may not come out alive and well, but you are guaranteed some bumps and bruises.

Scientific planning is viable, but can be laborious, mechanical, and often ends up abandoned in the process. Imagine if a raft guide constantly tried to measure the depth of the water, the distance between rocks, the wind speed, and the water current. Although the information might be helpful, oftentimes the water would be moving too swiftly to take the measurements. In a like manner, leaders often have to respond to change in an instant. There's no time to collect scientific data on all of the variables before deciding which course of action is best.

Principle-centered planning is the key to effectiveness. It is the artistic or leadership approach. Principle-centered planning recognizes that life in general (and people in particular) can't be graphed on a chart, but sees that planning still remains essential.

Reasons Why People Don't Plan
You don't have to be in leadership very long to learn that planning pays off. Even so, many people don't plan. Here are four reasons why people neglect planning.

1) They don't possess planning skills or knowledge.
Some people don't have an innate ability to project themselves into the future. They've never been taught to prioritize their day or to prepare for tomorrow.

2) They're caught in the tyranny of the urgent, and they believe that they don't have time.
Some people allow themselves to be pulled into the vortex of minutiae. As a consequence, they end up buried under a sea of details, and they can't pull their heads above water long enough to plan.

3) They don't like the perceived hassle of planning.
Instead of planning one event at a time, they become overwhelmed by the mountain of things to plan.

4) Many people don't plan because the outcome varies greatly.
"After all," they say, "When I do make a plan, it normally doesn't end up happening, so why bother?"

Why Planning Is Essential
We all have desires and dreams, yet we'll never accomplish our dreams in life just by wanting them bad enough. Planning bridges the gap between our desires and dreams by calling us to action. As noted by William Danforth, ""No plan is worth the paper it is printed on unless it starts you doing something." A concrete plan supplies us with tangible steps to take in the direction of our dreams.

Qualities of Principle-Centered Planning
• Principle-centered planning allows us to be flexible without losing focus.
• Principle-centered planning allows us to be creative without losing concentration.
• Planning is the structure. Principle-centered planning is the flesh.
• Planning is the roadmap. Principle-centered planning is the movement.
• Planning is the idea. Principle-centered planning is the action.
• Planning is the paper. Principle-centered planning is the power.

Summary

It's been said, "By failing to plan, you plan to fail." I wholeheartedly agree. People who ignore planning handicap themselves and stifle their effectiveness.
The good news about planning is that it's a relatively simple discipline. Anyone can do it. No PHD is required to make a solid plan - only a window of uninterrupted time for focused thought.

Guest Blogger: Great blog post from a good friend about missions work

So I haven't been great about getting new content on my blog this month. It has been a crazy few weeks, and I just haven't felt inspired. . . until this morning.

I read a blog post from a friend of mine and wanted to repost it. I think it is profound enough that it needs to get some circulation. The "Guest Blogger" today is Paul Sundberg, who is a Lutheran pastor up in Lynwood, Washington. His daughter, Kirsten, and son-in-law, Nathan, are some of our best friends and I count Paul as a friend of mine in his own right.

The post really resonated with me relative to the work I do with Healing Waters and any other global or local missions work that people do. Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Are We Just Enabling?

So here is the question-- We do a whole lot of local mission work, helping those who are homeless, have little in the way of resources or money. Jesus teaches us to take care of those-- feed the hungry, etc. When people have made a whole host of poor decisions that have landed them in that spot, are we doing more to enable them to make more poor decisions, or are we really doing good? There are consequences to our decisions--where do these come in? In this culture of kindness and gospel outreach, I feel guilty even asking the question-- but it has been bothering me for months. And maybe it's grace. We don't judge-- we just do what we can and leave the rest to the Lord. Comments?

This is a question with which we constantly struggle as we work to address basic needs. There simply aren’t simple answers.

It is an accurate reading of the gospels to conclude that Jesus never asked someone how they got into a situation of need. It is also an accurate reading to conclude that much of Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees, scribes, priests, and leaders is directed to their socio-economic/political failure to care for the poor and excluded. Such care was an obligation of the “system”/institutions. When it comes to personal choices Jesus seems to point to the reality that systems themselves limit the range of choices one can make. What is possible from one position in the system is impossible from another position in the system.

Maybe the most interesting situations occur with the feeding of the great crowds 5000 and 4000 “not counting women and children”. These people willingly followed Jesus out into the desert and seem to have neglected to provide for their own needs – generally accepted foolish behavior. In addition, it’s likely that few would have suffered by waiting for a meal until they got back home. But, Jesus says, “feed them”.

It’s not that Jesus doesn’t call us to exercise our decision making abilities; he just doesn’t call us to self care. When he feeds and heals he sends people back home to take up their productive/supportive roles in society. When he doesn’t do that he invites people to follow him and join his community – and become healers and feeders of those in need. There is nothing he does about past choices; he only draws people into new opportunities. And what if their choices are once again bad? 70 X 7 seems to be the formula for forgiveness – transformation most often takes a long time.

So, meeting basic needs seems to have several objectives. 1) Meet the need, after all, hungry is hungry, thirsty is thirsty, homeless is homeless. 2) Draw people into community. 3) Turn the healed and fed into healers and feeders of others.

Those are the objectives we actively pursue at Trinity as we deal with basic needs. Thanks be to God, we’re seeing all three of them realized.

Posted by paul sundberg - justkeepasking@gmail.com at 6:34 AM
Labels: care, choice, community, Compassion, forgiveness

One more Wellshire team Guatemala Sermonette/Message

Rachel is in the green shirt on the far left

Below is the final sermonette/message from one of the members of Wellshire who participated in the Healing Waters/Habitat mission trip to Guatemala in March of 2009. It focuses on our responsibility as Christians to ensure that the money we give to causes is being used wisely, good stewardship. This was written by Rachel Wildrick, a member of Wellshire and sophomore at UC Boulder. Enjoy!


After my first year of college, the thing I’ve begun to get my head around most is the simple fact that life isn’t that simple. It isn’t just the sky is blue, as anyone familiar with the physics of light and refraction could tell you. Life requires considering all sorts of different data and interaction. In a similar way, ADU Guatemala has changed the way I view charity- no longer is it we give, they receive – too simple! Instead, charity is about not only meeting needs, but also meeting needs in a compassionate, yet helpful manner – we don’t just give, we help empower and help up our brothers and sisters… and that means giving with more than just that particular need in mind. It is the nonprofits that take into account the issues or problems that a situation presents (in other words, are a little more complicated to explain) that are the successful, effective, working organizations.

For example, ADU’s partnerships with good-standing, local churches who have seen a need and want to help meet it give the churches the opportunity to stimulate the area’s local economy (by employing locals and charging a fair price for water), and to also use the portion of whatever profit they make to help grow and lift up the community around them. On our trip there, that meant that we went to local schools and painted classrooms, took class pictures, and played with the children all in the name of the church we were working with.

At the local high school, the very idea of community service by others inspired a celebration for the entire school, involving a full-fledged banquet, gifts for us made by the shop class and a dance performance – this fabulous celebration was really a celebration of the outreach and the impact that this church was able to make on the school. Made possible BY ADU, and through ADU’s holistic approach, and their encouragement of serving the community through something like a small profit through selling clean, disease free water for a manageable and fair price makes a huge difference in the people in that area. I remember someone remarking after we left that day from the school, that this day is something that they will remember forever (whether it be just the image of white tall gringos attempting to challenge their star basketball team or us painting the inside and outside of their school, not only are the memories stamped on our hearts, but we have made an indelible mark on their lives as well.

It’s giving with knowledge and understanding of what you’re giving to… No longer will I give money or time to organizations who are giving handouts that don’t work for long… ADU sets the standard for empowering those that they serve, thoughtfully and with a mind to better the community. I obviously have a very high opinion of ADU, and think that they set the standard in many ways for non profit organizations, but one thing that is crucial to conscientious giving is the accountability of the organization. By keeping close record of all water sales, they are setting an example of good business and accountable habits for the churches they work with and the local employees, which as we’ve talked about, reaches the entire community.

In our giving to organizations that are accountable and effective, we in turn are being effective givers, where our time and money really count and make a difference. With the old ideas of simple donation (we give they receive) out the window, I want to suggest that giving is more about the Christian ideals like giving somebody the tools that will help them up, accountability to the community and to God, as well as giving back to the community that you live and work in.

It’s harder and more complicated to consider things like economy, business, community development, but I feel as though God calls us to consider the bigger issues, to consider the difficult things. God’s not about a temporary fix or handing out 500 dollars that’ll run out in no time. God is about solving long term problems with long term solutions. So while it may take an additional 15 minutes to describe, really, what your favorite charity does, I think it might just maybe be more of what God wants from our charity. Not just simple giving, but thoughtful, compassionate giving that addresses the problems, whether they be monumental or easily fixed.
Yes, the sky is blue… but give me 15 minutes and I could tell you the million different reasons and interacting sciences that make it work.

Another Sermonette/Message from the Wellshire Guatemala Team

I am going to share a couple more of these sermonettes because they really drive home the power of Global Missions and the important work of organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Healing Waters International.

This one is from Ray Johnson. Ray has been a member of Wellshire for decades and he went on this trip with his whole family (wife and two kids.) The message is pretty self-explanatory, so enjoy!

WHY GUATEMALA?

Good morning. My name is Ray Johnson, and I had the privilege of being part of Wellshire’s recent trip to Guatemala. I have to be honest. The main reason I went on the trip to Guatemala is that my wife told me I had to. She really wanted our family to participate together in an international mission trip ... and it was a great idea. But, I had two questions prior to this trip that made me hesitant about doing an international trip:

The first was “Why Guatemala?” Why travel all that distance to another country when you can find many of the same problems we are going there to address, right down the street in our own city? This is a question I asked myself and it is a question I was repeatedly asked by others.

That question was answered for me while I was in Guatemala. See, there are approximately 13,000,000 Guatemalans … of those, approximately 1,000,000 are presently living in the United States, some legally, some illegally, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. They are here hoping to work and be able to send money back to their families so that their lives can be better in Guatemala. And Guatemala is just one country where this is happening.

I also learned that drug and gang violence was on the rise in Guatemala. I learned that many of the gang leaders there were “trained” in Los Angeles gangs and were deported back to Guatemala after they had been arrested. Back in Guatemala, they’ve carried on with what they know.

When you travel to a country like Guatemala, or any other country for that matter, and you listen to the people there, you realize that no matter how different we look, or what language we speak, or what our customs or living standards are, God created us all the same. We all need food and shelter, we want to love and laugh, we want a safe place to raise our families, and the list of similarities goes on. In short, they desire the very things that we desire.

So, I truly believe that a man in Guatemala, given the hope of decent housing, clean water and an education for his children would rather stay with his family in his native land than travel to the United States in hopes of being able to send some money back to make the lives of his family better in his absence.

So what occurred to me on this trip is that maybe, just maybe, some of the problems occurring right down the street here in Denver and in other cities in our nation are truly global problems that need a global solution; a global solution that starts by providing hope for people in nations like Guatemala.

The second question that kept gnawing at me prior to this trip was “can we really hope to make a difference?” After all, I just told you that there are 13,000,000 Guatemalans and 19 of us who traveled down there for one week. We talked about this after we arrived in Guatemala. Greg Allen-Pickett told a story that I had heard before, but had forgotten. I won’t forget it again.

The story is about a young boy walking along a beach. The beach is littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed up on the beach in a storm the night before. As you know, starfish don’t move very fast, and their chance of making it back to the water before the sun rose and killed them was slim. So the young boy was picking them up one by one and casting them back into the water. A man came along and asked the boy; what are you doing? There are starfish along this beach for as far as you can see in both directions (maybe 13,000,000 of them)… you can’t possibly make a difference! The boy bent over, picked up another starfish, cast it into the water, looked at the man and said, “I made a difference to that one!”

So now when I think about the 19 of us traveling to Guatemala and working for four days on a Habitat for Humanity house for a woman named Ester, I can’t help but think “we made a difference to that one”… A difference that will impact her, her daughters and her grand children and maybe provide that glimmer of hope.

So next time you hear that Wellshire is planning a global mission trip, don’t be like I was. Remember two things: 1. We really have become a global society that needs global solutions, and 2. Don’t be paralyzed into inactivity, globally or locally, by thinking, I can’t possibly make a difference.

Amazing, Inspiring, Profound and Thought-Provoking speech. . . excerpts below

A child in Guatemala. She lives in poverty

without safe drinking water or other very basic things

but represents hope for the future. All of us need to

believe in a better future, no matter where we are

or where we come from.

My mother-in-law sent me the speech below. I have taken excerpts out of the speech to share with you. If you want to see the whole thing click here http://www.paulhawken.com/paulhawken_frameset.html
Then click on "Multimedia" and you will see the speech as a PDF.

This speech was given by Paul Hawken at the University of Portland graduation this May, 2009. Paul's short bio is: Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.

Here are some amazing excerpts from the speech:

Healing or Stealing?

The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland

May 3, 2009

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there. Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. . .

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way. . .

Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.

Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history. . .

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. . . We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

Great article on leadership and management

JJ Gomez, the National Director for Healing Waters

in the Dominican Republic. He exemplifies good

leadership and good management (two different skills)

JJ Gomez, the National Director for Healing Waters International / Aguas de Unidad sent me the article/study on leadership and management below. I thought it was really good, so I wanted to share it here.






The Law of Empowerment
By Dr. John C. Maxwell

Biographers universally agree that personal insecurity factored heavily in the downfall of former American President Richard Nixon. Rather than empowering others, President Nixon clutched at power so tightly that he lost all sense of morality and ethics. Obsessively fearing his critics, Nixon authorized a domestic espionage group to spy on his political opponents. When members of the group were caught burglarizing the Watergate Hotel, Nixon tried unsuccessfully to cover up the incident. Eventually he resigned in shame, having left a dubious legacy of scandal.

Nixon's behavior in office violated the Law of Empowerment: Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others.

Today, at a time when managers must do more with less - less people, less budget, less margin for error - leaders have no choice but to empower followers to share the load. Insecurity simply isn't compatible with survival. Even so, human nature resists empowerment. Let's look at three common tendencies that make empowerment a tricky task.

Three Obstacles to Empowerment
1) Desire for Job Security
The number one enemy of empowerment is the desire for job security. Weak leaders worry that they will become expendable if they train up talented subordinates. As a result, they retain a monopoly on select knowledge in the hopes of positioning themselves as irreplaceable. Some misguided leaders even go as far as undercutting those they perceive as potential rivals. Not wanting to be surpassed, they intentionally make others look bad from time to time.

Insecure leaders who prize job security are fiercely territorial. They stake out their turf and refuse to delegate. They want to be the go-to-guys so badly that they may senselessly refuse to train and empower others who could offer them assistance.

The truth is that the only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable. In other words, if you are continually able to empower others and develop them so that they become capable of taking over your job, then you will become so valuable to the organization that you become indispensable.

2) Resistance to Change
Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck asserted, "It is the nature of man as he grows older to protect against change, particularly change for the better." By its very nature, empowerment brings constant change in that it encourages people to grow and innovate. Change is the price of progress.

Insecure leaders view change as a threat rather than an opportunity. They fear change rather than inviting it. As a consequence, insecure leaders have been known to act coldly toward newcomers. They cling to the established order and generally resent anyone who may disrupt it. Instead of empowering incoming personnel, they avoid working with them.

3) Lack of Self-Worth
Many people derive personal value and esteem from their title or position. When either is threatened, they feel as if their self-worth is under assault. Accordingly, they will firmly resist anyone or anything that could reduce their status.

On the other hand, author Buck Rogers says, "To those who have confidence in themselves, change is a stimulus because they believe one person can make a difference and influence what goes on around them. These people are the doers and the motivators." They are also the empowerers.


Summary

Enlarging others makes you larger. The purpose of power is to be distributed, not hoarded, but only secure leaders are able to give their power away. Recognize and resist the natural inclinations to keep a tight grip on power. In the long run, you'll be rewarded for letting go.

I'll close with a quotation on empowerment from decorated war hero and former vice presidential candidate, James B. Stockdale:

"Leadership must be based on goodwill... It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers... What we need for leaders are men of heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away."

One of the greatest influences on my life

Me and grandma sitting with her dog in the garden

My grandma died about two years ago, just two weeks shy of her 100th birthday.

I have been reflecting on major influences in my life, and she defintely makes the top 5 list.

Below is the eulogy I delivered at her funeral. I sure learned a lot from my grandma:

Grandma taught me so many things about life, but as I have been reflecting back over the past two weeks, there are four things that really come to mind.

First, Grandma taught me how to love. She did this by example, never overtly coming out and saying “this is how you treat people,” she just showed me how to treat people with unconditional love every day. I had the benefit of getting this from two generations of Picketts, because she taught my dad how to love too. So every day growing up I had shining examples of how to love unconditionally and how to treat people right, through my dad and through my Grandma.

When I was in the sixth grade, my mom would drop me off at Grandma’s house every morning on her way to school. I would spend an hour with Grandma before walking to school, and then usually I would walk back to her house at the end of the school day. I came to love these mornings in sixth grade. I would wake up at my house and have breakfast with my mom, dad and sister. Then I would get dropped off at Grandma’s house and she would have breakfast waiting for me. We would eat breakfast together and then play checkers or Chinese checkers or cards. Sometimes Grandma would help me with my homework. Each morning Grandma always greeted me with a smile and a warm meal. I probably didn’t thank her very often, I certainly did not thank her often enough. But she still showed me unconditional love every day, and through her example taught me what love looked like.

Another life lesson that Grandma taught me was to keep a positive outlook on life. She exemplified this in all that she would do. If it was raining, she would be excited about the rain. If it was sunny and warm, she saw that as a blessing. If it was cold and blustery, that was great too because it was an excuse to stay inside and eat soup. Grandma epitomizes the phrase “If life hands you lemons, make lemonade!” She always saw the silver lining in every cloud. The story my dad told about the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. is a great example of this.

The third life lesson that Grandma instilled in me was a strong work ethic. Keep in mind that Grandma was 70 when I was born, so for my formative years my Grandma was in her 80s. She had long since retired from running her health food store or working in a traditional job, but she still had a powerful work ethic that she shared with me. When Grandma lived in Black Canyon City, she had five or six citrus trees in her yard. Anytime that we visited her during fruit season, we would be out in the yard picking the fruit from the trees. We had had an endless supply of grapefruit, tangerines and oranges. Grandma moved to Flagstaff in 1989 when I was 11 years old, she was 81. Grandma’s house in Flagstaff had a lawn, so we wanted to get her a lawn mower. We shopped around for gas and electric mowers, but grandma insisted on a hand powered manual mower. This made a lasting impression on an 11 year old boy. She taught me how to use that mower, but more often than not she would cut her lawn in the summer before I could get down to her house. The same was true with shoveling the snow. If we had a big snowstorm overnight and I did not rush down to her house first thing in the morning, she would have already shoveled a path from her front door to her mailbox and also shoveled off the back patio for the dogs. She did this through her 80s and I watched and learned as a teenager. Once again I had the benefit of two generations of Picketts, because Grandma also instilled this work ethic in my dad, who shared it with me.

The final thing that I remember most about Grandma was her love and appreciation for God’s creatures and God’s creation. Grandma’s love of animals knew no bounds. She would put her dog’s wellbeing in front of anything else. She was the original “dog whisperer” as she had a keen ability to communicate with her animals. Grandma taught me how to treat animals with respect and kindness, and demonstrated to me the beauty and depth of a bond between humans and our furry companions. I grew up with a great dog named Zephyr, but she was my parent’s dog. After much pleading I got my own dog just before Grandma moved to Flagstaff. His name was Royal and it was Grandma that really showed me how to bond with him and treat him like family. We used to sit for hours and watch Royal and Grandma’s Dalmatian Lady play in the yard. When Grandma would read on the couch in the afternoons, she would always drape her hand down to the floor and Royal or Lady would always lie there Grandma would pet them for hours.

Grandma also had an amazing appreciation for nature. She was a gardener extraordinaire and had the greenest thumb of anyone I have ever met. She could make anything grow. We used to get grapefruit from Black Canyon City the size of small watermelons. I remember one time she even planted Kiwi seeds (because I asked her if it could be done) and before you knew it she had a kiwi plant. Grandma’s love for gardening and nature had a profound impact on me. I ended up doing yard care during high school as a summer job and tending the garden at my house.

When we bought our first house in Denver, there were two important criteria: We needed a good space for our dog and I knew it had to have lots of plants and trees and space for gardening. Clearly Grandma has had a huge impact on my life.

So when I reflect back over Grandma and her life, these are the four life lessons that Grandma has taught me:
-She taught me how to love, how to love unconditionally
-She taught me to keep a positive outlook on life, no matter what the circumstances
-Grandma instilled in me a strong work ethic
-Grandma taught me an intense respect for nature, both for God’s creatures and creation

Despite Grandma’s departure from this earth, her legacy will live on. It lives on through everyone she ever came into contact with, everyone who experienced her unconditional love, everyone who encountered her positive outlook, and every creature and plant that she nurtured. And she nurtured me. I love you Grandma, thank you for what you instilled in me. You are missed, but your light will keep shining on through all of us.

I am finally getting to the end of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. Below is a bible study I led this morning on Chapter 13, a study on HUMILITY and Psalm 131. (You can read Psalm 131 by clicking on any of this sentence.)

Below is my bible study with quotes from the book:
“Christian faith needs continuous maintenance. . . Psalm 131 is a maintenance psalm. . . two things that Psalm 131 prunes away are unruly ambition and infantile dependency. . .” p. 149

“It is no easier to be a Chinese Christian than to be a Spanish Christian than to be a Russian Christian than to be a Brazilian Christian than to be an American Christian – nor more difficult. The way of faith deals with realities in whatever time and whatever culture.” P. 150

Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

“Our culture encourages and rewards ambition without qualification. We are surrounded by a way of life in which betterment is understood as expansion, as acquisition, as fame. Everyone wants to get more. To be on top, no matter what it is the top of, is admired. There is nothing recent about the temptation. It is the oldest sin in the book, the one that got Adam thrown out of the garden and Lucifer tossed out of heaven. What is fairly new about it is the general admiration and approval it receives.” P. 151

Is ambition a sin? What about ambition to see the success of a ministry? What makes it a sin if you think it is?

“The legend of Faustus, useful for so long in pointing out the folly of a god-defying pride, now is practically unrecognizable because the assumption of our whole society (our educational models, our economic expectations, even our popular religion) are Faustian. ¶ It is difficult to recognize pride as a sin when it is held up on every side as a virtue, urged as profitable and rewarded as an achievement.” P. 152

Does our culture value and glorify pride and ambition? If it is a sin, how do we get away from it if it is so embedded in our culture, down to our education system, economic system and popular religion?

Peterson defines aspiration as valuable, but ambition and arrogance as sins. (p. 152-153) How do you make a distinction between these two?

“There are some who conclude that since the great Christian temptation is to try to be everything, the perfect Christian solution is to be nothing. And so we have the problem of the doormat Christian and the dishrag saint. . .” p. 154

How do we strike this balance?

“Our Lord gave us the picture of the child as a model for Christian faith (Mk 10:14-16) not because of the child’s helplessness but because of the child’s willingness to be led, to be taught, to be blessed. God does not reduce us to a set a Pavlovian reflexes so that we mindlessly worship and pray and obey on signal; he establishes us with a dignity in which we are free to receive his word, his gifts, his grace. . . For God does not want us neurotically dependent on him but willingly trustful in him. And so he weans us. The period of infancy will not be sentimentally extended beyond what is necessary. The time of weaning is very often noisy and marked by misunderstandings: I no longer feel like I did when I was first a Christian. Does that mean I am no longer a Christian? Has God abandoned me? Have I done something terribly wrong?” P. 155-156

Is this weaning a one time occurrence or do we go through it again and again?

Because Eugene Peterson mentions having "faith like a child" so much in this chapter, it reminded me of the Jars of Clay Song:



Finally, I took some excerpts from the book and wrote the closing prayer below:
Prayer (p. 153-154): I accept God as my maker and creator; I will strive to grow day by day into an increasingly glorious creature in Christ, developing joy, experiencing love, maturing in peace. I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others; that is God’s business, I will not pretend to invent the meaning of the universe; I will accept what God has shown it meaning to be; I will not strut about demanding that I be treated as the center of my family or my neighborhood or my work, but seek to discover where I fit and do what I am good at.

Have a great weekend!

God Smiles when we use our abilities (and when we are smiling too!)

Some happy kids in the Dominican Republic, smiling a lot despite having so little.

JJ Gomez, the National Director for Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad in the Dominican Republic, shared the bible study/reflection below with me. It really resonated with me so I want to share it with you. Enjoy!

GOD SMILES WHEN WE USE OUR ABILITIES

"He has shaped each person in turn; now he watches everything we do" (Psalm 33:15 MSG).

After the flood, God gave Noah these simple instructions: "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything" Genesis 9:1,3

God said, "It's time to get on with your life! Do the things I designed humans to do. Make love to your spouse. Have babies. Raise families. Plant crops and eat meals. This is what I made you to be!"

You may feel that the only time God is pleased with you is when you're doing "spiritual" activities like reading the Bible, attending church, praying, or sharing your faith, and that he is unconcerned about the other parts of your life. Actually, God enjoys watching everything you do, whether you are working, playing, resting, or eating. The Bible tells us, "The steps of the godly are directed by the LORD. He delights in every detail of their lives" (Psalm 37:23, NLT)

God especially enjoys watching you use the talents and abilities he has given you. God intentionally gifted each of us differently for his enjoyment. You may be gifted at mechanics or mathematics or music or a thousand other skills. All of these activities can bring a smile to God's face.

You don't bring glory or pleasure to God by hiding your abilities or by trying to be someone else. You only bring him enjoyment by being you. Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting God's wisdom and sovereignty in creating you. God says, "You have no right to argue with your Creator. You are merely a clay pot shaped by a potter. The clay doesn't ask, ?Why did you make me this way?'" (Isaiah 45:9, CEV)

In the film Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God's pleasure." Later he says, "To give up running would be to hold him in contempt." There are no unspiritual abilities, just misused ones. Start using yours for God's pleasure.