Monday, May 08, 2006

A Little More From Ortberg

From "God is Closer Than You Think"

On our task as His kids...

Our task, in order to stay in the flow of God's presence, is to pay attention. to refuse the blindness that comes with self-preoccupation. To allow the God who is in us to point to and rejoice in his presence all around us. to ask him to keep us from sleep walking through his world; to refuse to give in to a pace of life that reduces his handiwork to a blur. (pg 145)

On our desires...

The capacity for desire is itself a gift from God. His original plan was that our desires be strong and passionate - and coincide perfectly with his will for us. But because our desires have been poisoned by sin, they are not fully reliable guides. We have always to be willing to sacrifice less worthy desires for greater ones. (pg 148)

On seeing His kingdom come...

God doesn't reveal himself to us just to make us happy or to deliver us from loneliness. He also comes to us so that we can in turn be conduits of his presence to other people He invites us to join him in making things down here the way they are up there. (pg 176)

Then Ortberg ask his readers to ask:
  1. Where do I want to see God's presence and power break into my world?
  2. Where would I especially like God to use me to make things down here run the way they do up there?

That's a lot of what I've been thinking about as I look for my purpose and my next steps and as Journey begins to develop further. Steve started preaching about 'kingdom reign' over a year ago at Oak Park. It's a statement that captured what I was already convicted about at that point and put wheels on it. I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. What part do I play in the kingdom? How can I share His kingdom? How can I join God is what he's doing in the world?

This story caught my attention in a big way...

"God, make up there come down here." Three women from the church I serve prayed this prayer one day. They were on a women's retreat, but they were playing hooky from a session that was being taught by my wife, and they started dreaming together about being "kingdom-bringers." Eventually they came to one of our pastors, called "J.D.," and told him about their dreams.

"What do you want to do?" he asked. They told him they wanted to save all the babies in Africa.

J.D. told them that was kind of big for a starter project, so would they be willing to begin by trying to spend a day helping out an under-resourced school?

So the women started to pray: "God, make up there come down here for this little school in East Palo Alto." ...Palo Alto is the home of Stanford University and Silicon Valley; it was listed recently in Forbes magazine as the number one area in the world to live in if you want to get rich. East Palo Alto is an under-resourced community right next door; a few years ago it led the nation in murders per capita.

This group of women schemed and prayed and planned and came up with a challenge: How about having one thousand people from our church give up a day to plant trees and tile floors and paint murals at this school?

I didn't think there was any way we could get a thousand people to do this, but I said I would announce it and see what happens. We ended up having to cut off the sign-ups at twelve hundred people because we couldn't handle any more volunteers.

The best part was watching God present and at work in ways none of us could have planned.

A young coed was visiting our church from college and heard about this plan. Not only did she want to come, but when she went back to school and told her sorority, they wanted to come too. So we ended up with over a thousand people from our church-and thirty sorority sisters. This meant that scores of single young males suddenly felt God prompting them to serve also.

Some people were talking to an East Palo Alto city official about this at a Starbucks, and he told the store manager, "You ought to donate enough coffee for all these people on Saturday morning."

And the Starbucks guy said, "Okay."

The city official decided to go for broke: "You ought to deliver it too."

And the Starbucks guy said, "Okay."

The three women went to Home Depot. They had no titles or credentials, just a conviction that God would help them bring up there to down here. They told the Home Depot guy what they were up to, and then said: "We need $10,000 worth of equipment. We don't have any money for this-you ought to just donate it."

And the Home Depot guy said, "Okay."

So they got $10,000 worth of material free.

They were talking to a woman who doesn't attend the church. By now you can fill in the conversational details by yourself: the school ended up getting $20,000 worth of playground material for free.

For a whole day there was music blaring and balloons flying and five-year-olds serving next to eighty-five-year-olds and people working together from churches of every stripe and ethnicity. It was the single most joyous day I have seen a church have. Those of us who served were blessed far beyond those we offered services to. And it was because of a single prayer: "Help us make up there come down here."

These three women have actually adopted a mission statement for their friendship that leaves the mission statements I have seen for most churches and corporations all behind: "To identify our neighbors' greatest needs, and surprise our church into hilarious giving by providing impact-full, totally happenin' and celebratory opportunities to serve." (pg 177)

Three women. A big prayer. The kingdom came down.

No comments: