
(It was really bright in DC that day, thus the closed eyes)
The thought recently dawned on me that we’re actually halfway through 2008. This made me think about a couple things… First, my birthday is coming up pretty soon (JULY 23RD), and second (perhaps a deeper thought…) half of another year is over—how has it gone? Remembering back to New Year’s Eve, sitting around at midnight, praying the new year in with my sister and a good friend while eating Christmas cookies sent from home. Okay, maybe the praying wasn’t simultaneous with the eating of the cookies—kinda hard to talk to God with your mouth full of coconut macaroon. Anyway, I was just thinking about how quickly time passes and how easy it is to miss it. Thinking about all the things I was praying and asking God for at the beginning of the year, how are those things going now? And I don’t mean “God please give me a husband” or “God I need money”—I mean more along the lines of ways I want to grow in Him this year, paths I’m hoping He’ll take me down, where He’s leading me. Have I been sticking to what I’ve asked Him to help me with? Am I holding up my end of the bargain? I think it’s really easy to go to God with requests and sit back and wait for a miraculous change to take place. But I think even though that’s easy to do, it’s really important to keep up with it myself. To constantly check myself to see where I’m progressing and where I’m falling behind. In Amos, there is a point where God shows Amos an image of a plumb line and a wall built true to plumb. God then tells Amos that Israel is no longer true to plumb and describes the judgment about to befall them. As someone who has worked laying blocks in Mexico I can appreciate this imagery. I know what will happen if you allow even one row to be unlevel… as you build up on unlevel blocks, the whole wall gets progressively worse and before you know it the wall is bowing out (or in) and you have to remove several rows of block that you’ve laid to be sure of the structural integrity. This is the kind of thing I mean…it’s very easy to just keep building and “eye-balling” whether you’re level or not. But if you’re off, it’s going to be a lot more work down the road to get yourself back in line than if you had been really checking and monitoring little by little as you work. It’s the same with life…what’s my plumb line (or level)? Am I checking myself against it? When I do check am I in line or do I need to go back and tear down all the ‘progress’ I thought I was making? Just something I've been thinking about lately.
In other news, it looks like we're finally getting the feeding program for the elderly off the ground, which is really exciting! Please pray for us as we really launch into this--it's an exciting time, but it also requires a lot of work and we really want this to bless the community."And I'll take with me the memories, To be my sunshine after the rain, It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday." Boys 2 Men
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature " 2 Peter 1:3-4b
So I’m going to be one of those people who talks all about how great it is not to be around you. What? Are there really people like that? Okay, maybe that came out wrong. Let me start over.
I remember my High School graduation. One of my fellow classmates (there were only nine of us, mind you) got up to sing the Boys II Men song “It’s so hard to say goodbye”. It was very sweet and touching, until he started to give his speech after he sang. He started out by saying, “It’s really not hard to say goodbye, it’s time to go…” Now he was right of course, we couldn’t very well stay in high school forever and the time had come for us to leave. But, man, what a way to say it! Just to boldly proclaim “It’s easy to go!” That’s how I feel lately. In case you didn’t see me there or you didn’t know, I recently took a trip home for about a month before returning to
Aside from trips to the orphanages, I’ve also been working on the filing system for
I’ve really been blessed by something over the last couple of months. In the past couple of years I’ve managed to accumulate friends that have ended up flung far and wide across the globe. Not that long ago, the only possible international call I could have considered making would have been to
One last note before I leave you…while I was home, I did not keep up the habit I had started here of jogging every day before dawn (the earliness was more to avoid the heat of the sun than any great ambition of mine). This was a very, very, very big mistake. Can I just say that if you have started exercising regularly (or any other disciplined activity for that matter) you should NEVER stop for a month at a time. It’s a lot harder to get going again once you’ve stopped and you often have to start back on a lower level than where you left off. That being said, I have started back up and am now just trying to get up earlier… seriously, by 6:40 the sun is up in almost full force and you get tired a lot quicker.
Grace and Peace to you all!
Rachel