Great Prayer to bless your home and say with your family

Photo of a door in Antigua, Guatemala taen by Angela Duggan on the Wellshire Youth Mission Trip Summer 2010

O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship; narrow enough to shut out all envy pride and strife, Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to children nor straying feet, but rugged and strong enough to turn back the tempter's power. God make the door of this house the gateway to thine eternal kingdom.

AMEN.

Coincidence, Luck or God's Divine Providence

 The work team on the short-term HWI/ADU Mission Trip to Guatemala

In August of 2010, I led a short-term mission trip for Healing Waters International to Guatemala. Leading these trips was one of the most favorite parts of my job when I worked for Healing Waters.

During one of the days on the trip I was having a great conversation with one of the participants. She talked about something that happened on the trip, or something that brought her to Guatemala that was a great coincidence. Immediately the words, "God doesn't do coincidence" slipped out of my mouth. I don't know why I said it and it wasn't a concious thought, I just kind of blurted it out.

Chatting with the work team about "coincidence vs. providence"

During the rest of the trip and in the months since then, I have reflected on this phrase a lot. "God doesn't do coincidence." This really speaks to the idea of God's providence, which is a fancy word for guardianship, power, control and care that is exercised by God. The Princeton Dictionary online defines it as, "a manifestation (demonstration) of God's foresightful care for his creatures"

By acknowledging an event as God's Providence instead of as a coincidence or luck, we are able to shift the focus from us to Him. We are acknowledging a God who cares for us deeply and personally enough to show us that care in our every day lives.

At a high level I am reminded of this through my "career path." To an outsider, it looks a lot less like a path and a lot more like a zig-zagging, switchback trail that is all over the place. But putting it into the God's providence perspective, it becomes a straight road, almost a super-highway. I spent 3 years working in private industry and developed some valuable business skill-sets. I spent 4 years working as an academic advisor and professor at at University which taught me project management, counseling and life-coaching as well as teaching and public speaking. I spent 3 years with Healing Waters, doing development projects in Latin America where I used my business skill sets and my project management skill sets. In my job at Healing Waters I also grew in my faith to prepare to come to seminary where I am using all of my skills and experiences in preparing to become a pastor. I was reminded of this throughout my application process and decision to come to seminary as well. Over and over again there were signs and affirmations pointing me and my family to come here.God's divine providence has been at work in my life.

When I was home in Denver last month, I was reminded again. This is going to sound like a silly example of God's providence, but hear me out. We were visiting with our tenants in our house that we are renting out. While we were there visiting our house, I heard the heater in the house mis-firing. I knew the sound well from the time we had lived in the house, and I knew how to fix it. The timing of the problem, and the fact that we were physically there in Denver, IN THE HOUSE, when the problem occured goes way beyond coincidence. I was able to fix the problem, the tenants in our house were able to stay warm during a very cold week, and we saved having to call a heater repair company and the $150 service call. My neighbors remarked about how fortuitous it was that we were there at that moment. But I really believe it was not luck or coincidence, it was God's providence. It is evidence of a God who demonstrates foresightful care for his creatures.

To close out this blog post, I tried to do a search for "Providence Prayers" on google. Most everything that came up was Catholic prayers. I will save a discussion of denominational differences for another day, but I do think we can learn something from our Catholic brothers and sisters when it comes to recognizing and acknowledging God's Providence in our lives. Below is a prayer I adapted from an older text written by Saint Jane Frances De Chantal. You can see the original text HERE or read my adaptation below. Pray this prayer and learn to SEE and SEEK God's power and presence in your life:

I pray to the powerful and unending goodness of you, oh God. I abandon myself forever to your arms. Whether your direction is easy or hard, lead me where you will. I will rely on your guidance, oh God. My soul is at peace only when I acknowledge that I am wrapped in your warm and protecting embrace.


I commit myself, with your help, oh God, to follow your desire and will for me and my life, seeking to follow you more truly and authentically, working to tune into your will and letting that drive my decisions and my life. More of you and less of me oh God.

I commit to giving you my all, oh God, my everything. I ask that you help direct my desires and my heart to long for you. . . your will, your wishes for my life. I offer you my desires and my heart, oh God, and ask that you bless them.


I choose to live my life with you, relying on your goodness and your mercy and I place my entire trust and confidence in you, oh God, acknowledging my own weakness and shortcomings.

Amen!

A few quotes about prayer. . .

I saw a quote about prayer on the blog of my friend Peter Mahoney and really liked it. So I grabbed it and decided to post it and then dug up a few more quotes on prayer. Enjoy!

No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.

-Leonard Ravenhill

Don't pray for lighter burdens, pray for stronger backs.

-African Proverb

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

-Gandhi

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Pray, and let God worry

-Attributed to Martin Luther (Protestant Reformation)

Jesus was matter-of-fact: "Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, 'Go jump in the lake'—no shuffling or shilly-shallying—and it's as good as done. That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it's not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins."

-Mark 11: 22-25 (from The Message)

Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

-Ephesians 6:13-18 (from The Message)

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

-Phillipians 4: 6-7 (from The Message)

13-15Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out.
16-18Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

-James 5:13-16 (from The Message)

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

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.

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.

Saludos de Guatemala! (Greetings from Guatemala!)

This is the daughter and granddaughter of Esther, the recipient of the Habitat for Humanity House that the Wellshire group built in March. I had a chance to go back and visit the family and see their completed house. You can read more below.

I am sitting down relaxing in the lobby of my little hotel in Antigua for the first time since I arrived on Sunday night. I finally have a little free time to sit down and update my blog, so here goes!

I am spending a week in Guatemala and a week in Mexico working with the local staff and offices of Aguas de Unidad/Healing Waters International. I arrived here in Guatemala late Sunday night and will be catching a bus to Mexico this Sunday. For my seven days here in Guatemala, I have a pretty packed itinerary.

After my plane landed at 11pm on Sunday, Daniela Rosales from our Guatemala office picked me up at the airport and we made the 45 minute long drive to Antigua (this drive takes only 45 minutes when there is no traffic, more on that later.) She dropped me off at the hotel and I crashed. I woke up Monday morning at 5:15am to shower, get dressed and be ready to go at 5:45am. I had a meeting planned with a member of the Aguas de Unidad Guatemala board of directors at 7:30am in Guatemala city and because of the rush hour traffic, it takes an hour and a half to get from Antigua to Guatemala City in the mornings.

The meeting was very successful. I had the chance to thank our board member for his service to the organization, update him on what was going on with Healing Waters and he shared some great ideas and thought that he had about how to make Aguas de Unidad better in Guatemala.

After this meeting, I drove to our office (which is on the road between Guatemala City and Antigua.) I held a staff meeting with all of our Guatemala staff, got brought up to speed on the happenings of the Guatemala office, helped establish and set some priorities, and enjoyed some quality time with our amazing Guatemala Aguas de Unidad team.

After a delicious lunch, I headed to one of our water systems that is located with a church in the "La Florida" neighborhood. I sat down with the pastor of the church and talked through some operational changes that we have while getting updated on how the water system was going for his church. The opportunity to be in the field seeing the water systems and meeting with the pastors is always amazing and really recharges my batteries in the work that I do for Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad.

This pastor has been using the water system to bless his neighborhood and his church, and it was amazing to see the love in his eyes for Jesus and for his community. After the meeting at the water system in La Florida, I headed back to the office and spent an hour working with Ben, our director of maintenance for Guatemala.

We are in the process of hiring an assistant for Ben and he and I had to sit down and write the job description and employment contract. While this may sound dry and boring, it was also an opportunity to get caught up with Ben. I have talked about him before in my blog: http://blogadegregorio.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-in-life-of-healing-waters-field.html He is a great guy and it was a lot of fun to work with him, even on a project that might seem boring.

After we wrapped up at 6:30pm, we headed back to Antigua. These 10-13 hour work days can be long when I am in the field, but they are worth it. Because my plane ticket and hotel are paid for by our generous donors, I really feel like I need to be a good steward of those donations and take full advantage of my time in the field, so I tend to work very long but very fulfilling days.

When I got back to Antigua, I went out for tacos with Dani, Ben and Ben's wife Krista. We shared some great stories over some Gallo beers and tacos. All in all, it was a great day in the field!

On Tuesday morning, I had to get up at 5:15am again for a 5:45am departure to Guatemala city. I went to meet with the national denominational council for the "Verbo" churches, which is a big denomination of evangelical churches that started here in Guatemala. The denomination has over 30 churches here, and many in other countries including Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and they have even planted churches in Spain, Canada and the United States. I love this sort of "reverse missionary" work when Latin America is sending missionaries to do church planting in "developed" countries like Canada, the United States and Europe. It turns the whole missionary perspective on its head and I just love it!

The meeting with the denominational leadership for the Verbo churches went very well, far better than expected. We have 2 water systems currently at Verbo churches, and after this meeting with their national council, I hope we will consider expanding into more Verbo churches in the future.

We headed back to the office and then I took our whole ADU Guatemala staff out to lunch. After a delicious lunch, I headed to the community of Villa Verde in Ciudad Quetzal. This is where we are going to be installing one of our next water systems. I had the chance to meet with some members of the church, tour the community and see the location where the water system will be installed.

It is very exciting that despite the tough economic times, Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad is still expanding as an organization and we will be installing three new water systems in Guatemala this year. (Along with 3-4 in Mexico and 10 in the Dominican Republic.) I hope to visit one of the other new water system sites later in the week.

I returned to the office late in the afternoon and then called our headquarters in Denver to check in and update everyone there and finally made it back to my hotel at about 6:30pm, racking up another 12+ hour day but excited both for what was accomplished and for what the rest of the week held in store.

Wednesday morning (this morning) I actually got to sleep in until 6:30am, imagine that! My first meeting was an 8am breakfast meeting with a pastor, but it was in a town between Antigua and Guatemala city, so I didn't have to fight the rush-hour traffic going into Guatemala City.

The meeting with the pastor was incredible. He told me stories of some of the amazing things happening at his church, at the water system and in the community. This is one of those pastors that just knocks your socks off with his vision for serving his community and his amazing work ethic.

We departed the breakfast meeting to go to Chimaltenango, which is a town about 30 minutes from Antigua where we have two water systems. This is the town where we went with the group from Wellshire Presbyterian church for a trip in March.

We arrived about 30 minutes early, so we drove to the Habitat for Humanity house that the group from Wellshire helped to build back in March. I had the chance to see the completed house and spend a few minutes talking with the family, it was great to see the project come to completion and see the family moved into their house. I really respect organizations like Habitat for Humanity because they provide such a basic thing (dignified housing) but really work to empower the recipients of the houses and charge no interest or very low interest loans to the new homeowners, truly a "hand up" and not a "hand out."

After visiting with Esther (the new homeowner) we headed to one of the churches in Chimaltenango where we have a water system. We met with the pastor for over two hours, and got an update on the state of the water system and the church. Once again the pastor shared some great stories about what they have been able to do in their community because of the water system. It was invigorating!

After a quick lunch, we met with the other pastor at the other church in Chimaltenango that has a Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad system. I hadn't met this pastor before and it was great to sit and talk with him and hear his vision for transforming his community.

We returned to the office at about 4:30pm and I checked back in with the Denver office and got caught up on e-mails. After leaving the office at 6pm, I have been sitting in the hotel relaxing.

I am going to go grab some dinner and then drive down to Guatemala City to pick up my parents who come in on a flight tonight.

They are going to hang out here in Guatemala for the next few days while I am working and then join me on the bus trip from Guatemala to Chiapas, Mexico on Sunday. I am blessed to have them come down here to spend some time with me, enjoy all that Antigua has to offer and keep me company in the 12 hour bus ride on Sunday.

I will try to update once or twice more before I leave for Mexico on Sunday. I will also try to get some more photos in here too. Take care and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!

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!

Great ministry in Guatemala

This is a photo of me, Mario (Healing Waters

Regional Director for Guatemala and Mexico)

Brock and Kerrie of Deepstream Guatemala

ministries and Claro, a Guatemalan who is having

a house built for him by Brock and Kerrie's ministry.

When I was in Guatemala back in October I met a family that had just moved there to work as missionaries. They have an amazing story and I have mentioned them in my blog before. You can read a little bit about them here:

The Johnson's are Brock, Kerrie, Madi (11), Brooke (10), and Jake (7). God called us to Guatemala to help those whose needs are far greater than our own.

Our eyes have been opened to true poverty, suffering children, and desperate need - which has changed us to the core.

Living in Guatemala has been a wild faith journey thus far. Arriving here without a "ministry plan", we have simply been zeroed in on following the voice of Jesus.

You can read a brief summary about our calling to Guatemala, or a series of blog postings where we have shared our last year or so.

When I returned to Guatemala in March with a group from Wellshire Presbyterian church, I visited the family again, this time with my whole group, and saw some of the projects they are working on. I continue to be impressed with their ministry, not a typical "missionary" model, really trying to get in to the community where they work and meet the most basic needs of the people, letting the love of Christ shine through their actions.

This is a photo of the group from Wellshire church

praying with Brock and his family in the community

of Buena Vista where they work building houses and

changing lives.

They have put together a short video that highlights their work and I want to share it with you:

Playing for change - street musicians making a difference

I heard a story about this on NPR yesterday and after a little bit of digging, found these videos. This is AMAZING!

There is this guy named Mark Johnson who recorded and filmed a street musician in California singing "Stand by me" and then decided to start filming musicians in all corners of the world singing the same song. He states, " The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world."

This first video is the "Stand by me" video. I will post a few others over the next few days/weeks. Really cool stuff!

Jumping on the Susan Boyle Bandwagon

Ok, so I know I am a little bit behind the times here, finally blogging about Susan Boyle. I had actually bookmarked the video on YouTube more than two weeks ago, but just didn't feel inspired to write a blog post about it. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, watch the video above.

At the most basic level, I love the musical Les Miserables and enjoy the music from it when it is sung well. So I enjoyed the peformance for that reason, but that certainly wasn't enough to insipire a blog post and it wasn't what everyone else was talking about either.

There was the surface level analysis of the performance "the ultimate don't judge a book by its cover" statement that I could have made. But that seemed a little trite and cliché, more CNN.com stuff than bloga de gregorio stuff.

So I sat on the video and thought about it some more, looking for inspiration. As it turned out, the pastors at my church have incorporated the Susan Boyle story in to their sermons for the past three weeks. On Sunday morning, pastor Pattie Kitchen talked about it again and even showed the video for those who hadn't seen it. It was her sermon and analysis that finally inspired me to post something about this.

So much in this world and in our lives centers around striving for acceptance. We don't want to be laughed at, made fun of, mocked, or disrespected. We want to be accepted and feel loved.

This is a nearly universal human desire, to feel accepted and loved. And we have all struggled with it, some more than others. I have no doubt that Susan Boyle has had her share of struggle wanting to feel accepted or loved.

Seeing the way the crowd initially reacts to her when she comes on stage made me sick to my stomach. It brought back flashbacks of awkward and painful moments in high school. Somehow I was relating to a 48 year old woman in Britain on a very basic level. Susan Boyle and I had something in common, we had both been treated unfairly by people who didn't even know us. People made assumptions about us based on appearance or on one or two things we had said without caring enough to get to know who we really are.

And then, the glorious redemption! As soon as she opens her mouth and begins singing, the crowd cheers for her and is brought to tears. A standing ovation follows! But why did it take an angelic voice for people to treat Susan Boyle with basic respect and dignity?

Dig deep here, think about yourself, the way that you treat and interact with people, strangers, or people who you have only exchanged a few words with. Now reflect on your faith and what accepting the love of Jesus calls you to do and defines how you should treat people.

I hope and pray that the Susan Boyle example can impact the way that you treat people. Be the person that God created you to be and let the love of Jesus shine through you, especially in how you treat other people.

Cool Prayer, really puts things in perspective

Photo of a child in Guatemala that, despite not having a lot, has a great perspective on life (and a great smile!)

I am forever working at trying to have a positive outlook and perspective on things. I love coming across things that flip a negative perspective on its head. One great example of this is a friend of mind who was driving home and complaining to someone on his cell phone about the rush hour/commuting traffic. His friend commented, "What a blessing that you are stuck in commuting traffic. It means you have a commute, which means you have a job."

BOOM! It hits you over the head like a 2x4. I am blessed.

My friend sent me the attached prayer that kind of reasserts that. Enjoy!

Even though I clutch my blanket and growl when the alarm rings. Thank you, Lord, that I can hear. There are many who are deaf.

Even though I keep my eyes closed against the morning light as long as possible. Thank you, Lord , that I can see. Many are blind.

Even though I huddle in my bed and put off rising. Thank you, Lord, that I have the strength to rise. There are many who are bedridden.

Even though the first hour of my day is hectic, when socks are lost, toast is burned, tempers are short, and my children are so loud. Thank you, Lord, for my family. There are many who are lonely.

Even though our breakfast table never looks like the picture in magazines and the menu is at times unbalanced Thank you, Lord, for the food we have. There are many who are hungry.

Even though the routine of my job often is monotonous. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to work. There are many who have no job.

Even though I grumble and bemoan my fate from day to day and wish my circumstances were not so modest. Thank you, Lord, for life.

A Franciscan Blessing for the New Year

A photo of kids in Guatemala I took near a Healing Waters water system

This is my motto for the new year:

A Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with discomfort…
at easy answers, half –truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within your heart

May God bless you with Anger…
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people
so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with Tears…
to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness…
To believe that you can make a difference in their world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen.