Endtime indications - 1/7/8
Weak dollar undercuts missionaries, relief workers*
By Bob Smietana, The (Nashville) Tennessean
For many American exporters, the weak dollar is good news. As the
dollar's value falls, U.S. made-products become cheaper, which could
give them a boost overseas, said David Parsley, professor of
management
at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.
"If you are a U.S. exporter, it's a good time," Parsley said.
That is, unless you are in the faith business.
For missionaries and faith-based relief groups, the weak dollar has
been
a major headache. It's caused them to cut back on budgets and cancel
projects around the world. And it's made the small things of daily
life,
like buying groceries or gas, more difficult.
David Steverson, vice president for finance of the Southern Baptist
Convention's International Mission Board, says the effect has been
drastic.
"Unlike most U.S. exporters who benefit from a weak dollar that makes
their goods cheaper on international markets, our export is our
missionaries -- who are spending U.S. dollars," Steverson told Baptist
Press in November.
Euro raises costs
The main challenge is the strength of the euro. In 2002, the dollar
and
the euro were equal. It takes $1.47 to match a euro -- a loss of more
than 35% in buying power. The cost of everything from saltine
crackers
to the monthly heating bill has skyrocketed.
In response, missionaries have cut back wherever they can.
Susan Jett, a Southern Baptist missionary to Germany currently on
furlough in Knoxville, says she quit buying necessities like clothes
and
even sending mail. "I don't mail anything back home," she said. "I
wait
for someone who is flying back and send it with them."
Jett said it's the cost of small things, such as day-to-day basics,
like
milk and bread, that add up. "I have to think twice before buying
anything."
That means forgoing small familiar pleasures like going to
McDonald's.
Like many Americans living overseas, missionaries relish the chance
to
visit the golden arches.
"It smells like home," says Dennis Barton, a missionary who recently
returned to the United States after more than 20 years in Europe. But
even the bargain menu is now too pricey, Jett said. "For a family of
four, it's more than 25 euros," Jett said. That's more than $36 in
U.S.
currency.
The weak dollar is also troublesome in some Asian countries, says
David
C. Clary, a Southern Baptist field administrator.
For missionaries in Thailand, where the dollar has dropped 20% in two
years, something as simple as a can of Crisco shortening costs $8.33.
Missionaries in South Korea pay more than $6 a gallon for gasoline.
Steverson said the International Mission Board plans occasional
cost-of-living increases for its 5,300 missionaries worldwide to cope
with currency fluctuations.
The organization allocated $17 million for those increases in 2007,
yet
still found itself going $1.5 million over budget.
While the board helps with household expenses, ministry budgets --
which
buy Bibles, pay for printing or handle other expenses -- have not been
increased. For some missionaries, this means getting creative.
For example, each year, the Jetts run a live Nativity scene at a
German
Christmas mart. At the event, the missionaries take Polaroid
snapshots
for spectators and hand them out in folders with a Christmas message
printed on them. This year, they asked volunteers visiting from the
states to bring film along, rather than buying it locally.
In other cases, Steverson said, missionaries have simply had to cut
back. Going forward, he added, missionaries will have to expect fewer
resources.
Steverson cited Southern Baptist's annual Lottie Moon missions
offering
as an example. In 2006, that offering raised $150 million. This
year's
goal was $165 million.
"I told the board that if we meet that goal," he said, "we will have
less buying power with $165 million than we did last year with $150
million."
One thing the International Mission Board hasn't considered is
recalling
missionaries.
"We have no contingency plans for that," Steverson said. If the
budget
ever reached a crisis point, "a more likely scenario is that we'd
make
an appeal to churches, and say, 'Here is the situation.' I have every
confidence that they would respond."
Disaster relief suffers
Faith-based humanitarian groups like Church World Service are dealing
with shortfalls from the weak dollar at the same time when they have
been responding to a string of long-term catastrophes, such as
Hurricane
Katrina, the 2004 tsunami, and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
"In a normal year, we'll do $30 million in emergency response work,"
said Donna Derr, international emergency-response program director
for
Church World Service, which gets about $18 million annually from the
United States. "In the Katrina and tsunami years, we were doubling
that
or more."
"In any response planning, we always try to figure on exchange gains
and
losses, based on current trends," she said. "What we are finding with
our larger-scale emergency responses -- when you have to plan for
three
or four years out, that's a little hard to do."
Derr's group has been forced to cut back.
In Bosnia, for example, the group has been building simple homes for
refugees who are finally able to return home. Those homes had been
projected to cost around $15,000. But the weak dollar boosted the
cost
by more than $2,000 per unit, so the group will build fewer shelters
than planned, Derr said.
In Pakistan, Church World Service had to cancel nine water and
sanitation projects in communities of between 10,000 and 25,000
people.
In the future, Church World Service will have to "look very
carefully,"
at exchange rates and probably ask for more money, Derr said.
"The dollar may be worth less, but the problems and needs haven't
lessened on the part of the world's poorest and most vulnerable," Jan
Dragin, the group's press contact, said in an e-mail. "So, in
addition
to finding ways to 'stretch the budgets,' U.S. donors may have to be
even more generous -- in the face of our own economic slowdown."
XVI. Why would a Father allow bad things to happen-Part 2
Think of the misery that comes into our lives by our restless gnawing
greed. We plunge ourselves into enormous debt and then take two and
three jobs to stay afloat. We uproot our Families with unnecessary
moves just so we can have a more prestigious house. We grasp and grab
and never have enough. And most destructive of all our flashy cars
and sports spectaculars and backyard pools have a way of crowding out
much interest in the family, love of people, and those areas and
virtues that make life worth living. How clearly the Apostle Paul saw
this when he warned that our lust for wealth causes us to fall into
Many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and
destruction" (1 Tim. 6:9).
But we do not need to be imprisoned to greed. We can be ushered into
a life of peace and serenity.
We weary of competing commitments and exhausting schedules. We desire
to be obedient to God in all things, and have a growing knowledge that
this frantic scramble is not his will. We yearn to enter the deep
silences that give unity and direction to our lives.
Desire, however, is not enough. If we expect to enter the inward
peace for which we were created, we will need to order our lives in
specific ways. The things we do will not give us peace, but they will
put us in the training program where we can receive it.
It is wonderful - this resting in God, this stilling of frantic
activity this seeking first His Kingdom.
We must have a time to still the churning, to quiet the restlessness,
to meditate on the almighty God who dwells in our hearts.
The experience of pressure is an intrinsic aspect of all Christian
living and it appears that this has always been so. You are invited
to identify with one or more traits or experiences of biblical leaders
under pressure, and seek to apply new learning in specific areas of
your own life. There is a flow of experience and wisdom in the
community of faith there is much that we can learn from the past. In
particular, the varied dimensions of brokenness portrayed in the lives
of biblical leaders, and the rich learning - and sometimes healings -
which they experienced by the grace and love of God, may inform and
give profound insight to servant - children in the modern church.
The varied dimensions of pressure:
1. Loss of meaning in a living situation.
Many servant - children admit to feelings of meaninglessness in their
living. Such an expression of loss of meaning in the living to which
they believe they have been called by God either initiates or helps
sustain experiences of stress. Biblical figures such as Jeremiah and
David illustrate such feelings of meaninglessness.
Jeremiah is unusual among the Hebrew prophets because of the extent to
which the biblical record reveals his personal feelings. From the
outset of his ministry, he experienced a real sense of desperation
when confronted with the almost hopeless task of ministering to Judah
in her apostasy. His pent-up mental anguish found expression in
passionate outbursts against his lot in life (read Jeremiah 5:10;
20:8, 14, 18).
Repeatedly, Jeremiah is pictured as perceiving his own ministry to be
at variance with that of the priests. He questions both the validity
of their ministry, and the capacity of the people to respond
appropriately to his own prophetic ministry. He believes in the
validity of his own ministry passionately, but realizes that others do
not concur with his estimate.
David reveals himself to be a person who believes that God had been
richly present to his ancestors, but experiences an apparent absence
of the blessing of God upon his own life. Elsewhere in Psalm 22,
David exposes his feelings of pain and irrelevance as well as
concluding that, in an ultimate sense, his ministry is not pointless.
Feelings of inadequacy and irrelevance in living are hardly new; they
unfold naturally as part of the biblical story.
2. Loneliness and burden-bearing.
Experiences of personal loneliness by Christians, and the weight of
burdens they carry, are common. Similar experiences of isolation and
the weight of suffering are attested by biblical figures.
The book of Jeremiah depicts the agony of Jeremiah as interlocked with
the agony of Yahweh himself at Israel's rejection of him. Yahweh
calls the people his daughter, they provoke him to agony, yet Jeremiah
feels the wound, and the sickness grabs hold of his own heart and
fills him with anguish and even weeping for what he sees ahead.
Five great confessions of Jeremiah have been identified; take the time
to read and reflect on these:
11:18-23 and 12:1-6;
15: 10-21;
19: 12-18;
18: 18-23;
20: 7-28.
All share a highly personal description of Jeremiah's own sufferings
and events of lively despair, mixed with a trust in God that reaches
out in the dark for help. Jeremiah's deep feelings well up from his
spiritual anguish.
Perhaps the most significant contributing factor to Jeremiah's agony
was his intense identification with the people to whom he had to
proclaim the judgment of God:
My heart, my heart! Let me writhe!
O walls of my heart!
My heart is in tumult within:
I cannot keep still,
For the sound of the horn do I hear,
The blast of battle!
Crash upon crash it comes -
For all the land is ravaged
Of a sudden my tent is ravaged
In an instant my curtains.
The poems of Jeremiah's inner life do not depict prophetic truth as a
bolt from the blue, but as something with a history in the prophet's
psyche. The revelation of God was appropriated by Jeremiah deep
within his mind and his spirit, amid personal anguish. Moreover, this
anguish was used repeatedly by God to shape and refine Jeremiah's
life.
The burden of his call drove Jeremiah relentlessly towards the
fulfillment of his prophetic mission. He experienced the tension of
belief in that call over against the personal agony associated with
the response to that call. On one occasion, he went so far as to say
that he would never again speak in the divine name.
Jeremiah might well have been tempted to shrink from the call of God
when it summoned him to attack the religious and commercial vested
interests of Jerusalem in his day. The outer circumstances of his
life were the context in which Jeremiah's inner, lonely suffering took
place.
The New Testament letter of Paul illustrate the pressures of
loneliness and burden-bearing. Nowhere are the dimensions of pressure
experienced by Paul so clearly etched as in 2 Corinthians:
In 1:3-11 he refers to his afflictions in Asia (v.8...for we were so
utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself).
In 2:1-4 and 7:5-13 Paul mentions the agony of offering disciplinary
advice to the Christians in Corinth (v.4 'For I wrote to you out of
much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause
you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you').
In 2:12-13 the longing of Paul for the coming of his brother preacher
(Titus) bringing news about the state of affairs in the church at
Corinth not only causes him deep mental distress but prevents him from
taking up opportunities for ministry that lay before him.
In 4:7-18 and 6:3-13, the physical sufferings and inner turmoil of
Paul and his companions in ministry are described in terms of costly
suffering for the spiritual benefit of others.
in 11:28, after cataloging the many external difficulties he faced in
carrying out his ministry, Paul refers to the 'daily
pressure' (burden, concern of his anxiety for 'the churches.'
Pastoral oversight is a heavy load to carry.
Paul also is described as experiencing the grief of having to lose a
close companion (Barnabas): and of needing to take tough decisions.
Paul, if he was the author of 2 Timothy, was disappointed and grieved
over the departure of Demas, and was apparently lonely because only
Luke of all his close friends was with him at the time of writing his
second letter to Timothy. In this context, Paul needed the fellowship
of his younger brother in Christ ('Do you best to come to me soon').
In addition, Paul had to endure many false accusations, sometimes from
those who were widely respected in the church.
3. Personal limitations
One of the paradoxes of being engaged in Christian living is that the
person, may frequently experience severe personal limitations and
weakness.
The biblical record contains evidence of the leaders of God's people
experiencing feelings of personal limitation. Moses, in the face of
God's call to lead the children of Israel into liberation from Egypt,
felt utterly incapable of being the spokesman and representative of
his People to pharaoh. Another example is that of Isaiah, who
experienced a sense of deep unworthiness before the vision of a holy
God. Also, Jeremiah believed, like Moses, that he was not gifted in
such a way as he thought would be appropriate for the particular
nature of God's call for him.
Recent studies in Christology have placed heavy emphasis on the
humanity of Jesus. While these studies, it may be argued, overlook
the reality of the divinity of Jesus, they have heightened our
contemporary awareness of the full humanness of Jesus which has tended
to be at least partly obscured by traditional Christology with its one-
sided emphasis on the divinity of Christ. Because of this emphasis on
the divinity of Christ, the relevance of New Testament material
attesting the human limitation and experience of Jesus to the ministry
of his followers is more apparent.
In Matthew, chapters 8 and 9, Jesus was unable to cater to the needs
of the crowds and escaped across the lake from them. He pointed out
to a scribe that to follow him was to step out into insecurity and to
share his fate.
Jesus perceived the needs of the crowds were so great that there would
be a continuing need over the coming days, and years, for more
disciples in order that the crowds might receive effective ministry.
He felt the pressure of his limitations.
A somewhat similar experience of personal limitation is described by
the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians. The discovery of spiritual power
coincidental with physical suffering is described as a humiliation,
feelings of inadequacy, and all forms of suffering, as powerful
instruments revealing the presence of God.
The credibility of Christian living is at stake if it is assumed that
such leaders should be perfect and invulnerable creatures - persons
"apart." The validity of a theology operating upon such an assumption
would be highly questionable. It is worth recalling that the gospel
has been communicated iin spite of the frailty of human flesh. God is
able to communicate through sensual, fragile and destructible flesh;
'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show the transcendent
power belongs to God and not to us.'
For the apostle Paul, power in ministry was experienced in terms of
dependence upon the sovereign Lord. In Paul's understanding, the
attributes of his ministry had more to do with an 'unprofessional'
understanding of ministry, as that word is usually understood. Paul
considered that the effectiveness of his ministry could not be
accounted for in terms of his personal skills, his eloquence, his
confidence or any such factor; rather his own performance in ministry
was seen by him to be a stumbling demonstration of his incapacity to
minister effectively, when contrasted with the power of the Spirit of
God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Paul was very aware of his own weakness
(the 'thorn in the flesh', 2 Corinthians 12:7-9; his difficulty in
writing, Galatians 6:11; his confrontations with difficulty in
writing, Galatians 6:11; his confrontations withy opponents in the
church, Galatians 2 and 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 4: 11-13).
The amazing fact is that the gospel is communicated through that which
is human finite, and despite sin and illness. The word of God has
been powerfully communicated in spite of Davit's sensual life (2
Samuel 12), Elijah's weariness (1 Kings 19), Jeremiah's sense of
burden (Jeremiah 20:7-10), Ezekiel's probable schizophrenia (Ezekiel
1:1), Timothy's digestive problems (1 Timothy 5:23), as well as
Francis of Assisi's profligate youth, Luther's self-doubts, and
Kierkegaard's and J. B. Phillips' depressions. It may be that those
who acknowledge their place in the midst of suffering humanity are
even better equipped to live the gospel that those who compulsively -
strive for perfection.
Thus there is no theological justification for an understanding of
Christian living being undertaken by peculiar human beings who are
beyond mental, spiritual or emotional conflict. On the other hand the
realization that human limitation and weakness may be viewed as an
ingredient of, rather than a barrier to effective living is a very
liberating one.
4. Extreme Stress
While the designation 'burnout' is a modern one, the condition it
describes is as old as events depicted in the Bible. For example,, in
the Psalms, David describes himself as being totally worn out:
"O Lord, rebuke me not in thy anger,
nor chasten me in the wrath.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am Languishing;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is sorely troubled.
My soul also is sorely troubled.
But, O Lord, how long?"
(Psalm 6:1-3. See also 25:19-21, 31:9, 10; 32:3, 4; 38:3, 4; 39:1-3,
7-11).
Jeremiah also appears to have experienced the dark depths of despair
and feelings of helplessness and exhaustion implicit in
'burnout' (Jeremiah 4:19-21, 8:18; 9:1; 11:18, 19).
Jesus, especially in the spiritual and emotional battle at the Mount
of Olives (Luke 22:42-44) and on Golgotha, is similarly tortured and
pressured. The intensity of that struggle, represented physically by
Luke in his reference to Jesus' sweat being 'like great drops of blood
falling down upon the ground' (verse 44), must be noted.
The cry of Jesus on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" (Matthew 27:46), echoing the opening words of Psalm 22,
underscores the extent of Jesus' experience of bitter isolation as he
approached death. Already feeling alienated from almost all human
companionship, Jesus embraces the darkest desertion of all: alienation
from the Father.
These biblical examples suggest that 'burnout' is an acute development
of the individual's reaction to other dimensions of pressure.
Certainly, there are echoes of this condition in the forgoing
discussion of biblical material.
Ways of Coping
Scripture not only depicts the problem of pressure experienced by
God's servant: it also highlights ways of coping with the problem. We
have seen that the biblical record does not minimize the existence of
pressure, or the value of it. Certainly, the suggestion is to be
found there that it is possible to 'solve' the problem of pressure for
Christians by adopting some kind of life-style that would be free of
any such pressure. The Bible contains insights into various ways in
which such pressure can be coped with, and even turned to profit.
1. Name the problem
Biblical characters, on occasion, are described as enduring extreme
stress. For example, Elijah experienced sheer exhaustion after the
Mount Carmel event (1 Kings 19). Also, Jeremiah's outburst, claiming
that at one point in his ministry he had enough and was near to
breaking point (Jeremiah 20) illustrates the intensity of this
experience: 'Cursed be the day on which I was born. The day when my
mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought
the news to my father, "A son is born to you..."'.
In the New Testament record, Jesus is depicted as undergoing deep
agony on the Mount of Olives prior to his arrest, and he begs his
Father, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup (of suffering)
pass from me...' Also, Paul indicates by letter the sufferings he and
his missionary companions had experienced in Asia:'... for we were so
utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we
felt that we had received the sentence of death...'
While there are examples of biblical figures who apparently had no
hesitation about articulating to God, and to others, areas of stress,
modern Christians are often reticent to do the same. yet basic to
all endeavors to cope with stress is the willingness to 'own' the
stress: to recognize it with or without the help of others, and to
express it in some way. To be able to name the problem is a
significant undergirding factor which predisposes to healthy coping
behavior.
2. Balance between rest and activity.
for humans to engage in work is to experience pain. The fatigue of
work is its pain. Only the lilies of the field neither "toil' nor are
in pain, because they have no anxiety. The Bible affirms that God,
understanding the fatigue experienced by us, gives rest. Rest,
theologically, is both needed by men and women in living, and has its
source beyond them. Such rest is not merely a suspension of activity,
but also signifies refreshment, and is to be seen as a corrective over
and against the frenzied activism of much living. While in an
ultimate sense 'rest' is an experience, relaxation and refreshment it
is also part of God's provision for all people. Such divine provision
must be claimed by Christians making the choices necessary if they are
to receive this portion of God's gift of sustenance. Intentionality
on the part of Christians is required.
Such biblical figures as Jeremiah, Jesus and Paul model for us the way
a leader in a demanding ministry situation may still retain the
initiative to call for 'timeout', and deliberately making
opportunities for withdrawal from ministry with others to engage in
prayer and adopt a quiet, contemplative disposition.
3. From weakness to power; from works to grace.
Whenever a Christian faces and accepts his or her inadequacies,
limitations and frustrations, the way is open for a deep nourishment
of spirit by the Spirit promised us. ('For when I am weak, then I am
strong' - 2 Corinthians 12:10). Christians, as part of the community
of the church, need to share with all their brothers and sisters in
this life-sustaining dependency which in turn creates renewal and
growth.
Rather than the fragility and humanity of the Christian being viewed
in scripture in terms of negativity only (as obstacles to spiritual
life and authentic living), they are depicted as aspects of God's
grace, as instruments of his action in and through the life of his
servants. In this way, scripture encourages Christians to view the
varied aspects of their personal vulnerability not as enemies that
seek only to destroy effective living, but as allies which, if
acknowledged and accepted, may be powerful agents of the Spirit of
God, utterly alone and helplessness, which becomes the first step to
the recovery of his confidence and hope.
in some cases, servant-children operate in daily life as though they
do not stand under the gospel of the unconditional acceptance of them
by God. It is often difficult for Christians to claim and live by
grace.
4. Creative relationships.
Frequently, individuals who are described in scripture as exercising
spiritual leadership, are portrayed as being supported in community.
As well as others providing encouragement for them, they provide an
accepting environment in which confession may be made.
The benefits of true fellowship with peers or with others are implied
in scripture. Relationships require the expenditure of energy, but it
is apparent in the biblical records that such energy is rewarded with
the gift of additional energy in return.
The primitive church endeavored to sustain caring relationships that
included supportive friendships between key leaders (for example, for
some years, between Barnabas and Paul; the apostles in Jerusalem; and
Paul and his companions). It appears that leaders in the primitive
church did not operate in total isolation from other Christians and
that they would not have desired such a 'lone-ranger' approach in
their ministry. Rather, it was natural for them to consult, support
and even dispute with each other for their own good, and the good of
the church.
Paul provides an illuminating insight into his personal priority in
his ministry of spending time with the elders of the church in
Ephesus. In this, Paul's farewell message to the Ephesian elders, he
reminds them of his practice, over three years when in Ephesus, of
counseling and weeping with them and with others in the church at
Ephesus, 'day and night'. No demonstration of the value and
significance of creative relationships for Christians could be more
instructive.
Individual Reflection
Having considered in this Lesson some of the dimensions of pressure in
which biblical servant-child experienced the love of God bathing their
areas of brokenness, promoting endurance and healing:
1. Write down one or two dimensions of pressure referred to in this
Chapter which you know to be true, either now or recently, in your own
life:
2. From this section in this Lesson headed 'Ways of Coping', are
there some issues which you believe the Holy Spirit is drawing to your
attention?
If so, jot them down:
What are you now going to do, specifically, in order to cope better
with pressure? (Your 'action plans' may range beyond the principles
discussed in this Lesson).
With whom can you now share these insights and plans (by e-mail, face
to face, phone call, etc.)?
3. At this point in this course, it will be beneficial to take a
evaluation. The following questions will help you perform some
further evaluation:
Thinking about yourself at present. What gave your life meaning?
What makes life worth living for you?
At present what relationship seems most important for your life?
Have you experienced losses, crises or suffering that have changed
your life in special ways?
have you had moments of joy, ecstasy, peak experience or breakthrough
that have shaped or changed your life? (e.g., in nature, in sexual
experience or in the presence of inspiring beauty or communication)?
What experiences have affirmed your sense of meaning in life?
What experiences have shaken or disturbed your sense of meaning?
Can you describe the beliefs and values or attitudes that are most
important in guiding your own life?
What is the purpose of human life?
What relationships or groups are most important as support for your
values and beliefs?
How important are your values and beliefs? In what ways do these
beliefs and values find expression in your life?
is there a "plan" for human lives? Are we affected in our lives by
power beyond human control?
When life seems most discouraging and hopeless, what holds you up or
renews your hope?
When you think about the future, what makes you feel most anxious or
uneasy (for yourself and those you love, for society or institutions,
for the world)?
What does death mean to you? What becomes of us when we die?
Why do some persons and groups suffer more than others?
Some people believe that we will always have poor people among us, and
that in general life rewards people according to their efforts. What
are your feelings about this?
Do you have or have you had important religious experiences?
What feelings do you have when you think of God?
Do you consider yourself a religious person?
If you pray, what do you feel is going on when you pray?
Some people believe that without religion, morality breaks down? What
do you feel about this?
Where do you feel that you are changing, growing, struggling or
wrestling with doubt in your life at the present time? Where is your
growing edge?
What is your image (or idea) of mature faith?
4. At this point you should discuss with your trainer any problem
areas that you may still have in your spiritual growth and in
preparing and implementing God's plan for you in your life.
Christian Model
Harry Truman
While Harry Truman was in the White House, the kitchen staff baked him
a birthday cake. After the meal, Truman excused himself from the
table and went to the kitchen to thank the cook. This was the first
time any of the staff could remember a president entering the kitchen
for any reason, let alone to say thank you. On a much larger scale,
Truman knew that Europe would need to be reconstructed after World War
II. Truman's secretary of state, George Marshall, presented a
seventeen-billion-dollar European Recovery Program plan that would
help to rebuild Europe and would hurtle the United States into world
prominence. Truman's advisors encouraged him to dub it the "Truman
Plan," named after the president who authorized it. Truman deferred,
insisting that it be called the "Marshall Plan" after the man who had
helped develop it. Truman would often be quoted as saying, "It is
remarkable how much could be accomplished when you don't mind who
receives the credit." Such self-effacing leadership endeared Truman
to people.
Student Prayer
Father, please help me to walk in the way of the humble and meek.
Keep me from straying into pride and envy. Help me to see the
blessings I have been given, rather than long for the thins I must do
without. Amen.
Email address:
The Plan Ahead
Obedience
The fruit of holy obedience is the simplicity of the children of God.
(Thomas kelly)
"T. S. Eliot speaks of Christianity as "'A condition of complete
simplicity / Costing not less than everything).' Holy obedience is
stamped with that enormous price tag. Holy obedience is the
insatiable God-hunger that will make a person dissatisfied with
anything less than the pearl of great price. Holy obedience is the
joyful abandon of the person who will sell absolutely everything to
buy the field. It is the obedience of an Abraham willing to plunge
the knife into his own dear son at the Kol Yahweh, the voice of the
Lord. It is three Hebrew children who refused to bow the knee to the
golden image. It is a Daniel who would die before he would stop
praying to the one true God."
"Holy obedience is the single eye that bathes the entire personality
in light. It is the purity of heart that can desire only one thing -
the good. It is a God - intoxicated life that can embrace wealth or
poverty, hunger or plenty, crucifixion or acclaim with equal ease at
the word of Christ" (Freedom of Simplicity-Richard J. Foster).
Meister Eckhard wrote, "There are plenty to follow our Lord Half-way,
but not the other half. They will give up possessions, friends, and
honors, but it touches them too closely to disown themselves." As we
cross over the line and venture into this area, we find ourselves in
the land of holy obedience. To qladly disown control over your life,
to live in joyful servanthood or childhood, is the other half from
which we so often draw back. Jesus declared, "If any man would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me" (Mark 8:34).
What we have failed to see is this amazing paradox: true self
fulfillment comes only through self-denial. There is no other way.
The most certain way to miss self-fulfillment is to pursue it. "He
who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake
will find it" (Matt. 10:39).
No one has written with greater vigor or more perception on the
connection between selflessness and childhood than the seventeenth-
century Archbishop of Cambrai, Francois Fenelon. In his sensitive
little book Christian Perfection, Fenelon identifies three stages
through which we travel on our way into the servanthood of self-
blindness. The first stage involves freeing ourselves from an
"intoxication" to material or outward things and becoming sensitive to
the things of the spirit, especially our own inward condition. We are
no longer dazzled by the outward, the superficial. Impressive
buildings, bulging budgets, flashy programs simply fail to move us.
We give up on all the outward human systems to accomplish the work of
God. Our attention is drawn to the more internal work of the Spirit.
We become absorbed with the work of God upon the soul. It is a good
and healthy step, but deeply self centered and far from genuine
childhood.
In the second stage we move away from total absorption in ourselves
and our eternal destiny to be centered in the fear and love of God.
It is a step forward but it is, as Fenelon said, "a weak commencement
of true wisdom," since we are "still wrapped up in self." In this
stage it is not enough for us to fear God, we must be sure that we
fear and love him. We have a kind of spiritual rigor that is
determined to obey God. We are constantly returning to our own
behavior to see if we can find a kind of spiritual rigor that is
determined to obey God. We are constantly returning to our own
behavior to see if we can find any dregs of pride or self control.
There is a great longing for humility, and we work with all our might
to attain it.
As we move along, God will lead us into the third stage, in which our
attention becomes more and more drawn to being His child and servant.
"It begins to consider God more often than it considers self, and
insensibly it tends to forget self in order to become more concerned
with God, with a love devoid of self-interest."
The third stage is a marvelous virtue, and something sublime. It is
the natural charm and unpretentious exuberance of childhood. We
admire children who walk in this way, and enjoy their company. Gone
is the forced behavior and sticky righteousness.
Do you know the wonderful new freedom this childhood brings? No
longer is there the stifling preoccupation with ourselves. Now there
are new liberating graces to care deeply for the needs of the Family
of God. And most wonderful of all, we can lay down the crushing
burden of the opinions of others. Fenelon witnessed, "With this
purity of heart, we are no longer troubled by what others think of us,
except that in charity we avoid scandalizing them." We do not have to
be liked. We do not have to succeed. We can enjoy obscurity as
easily as fame.
In all of this we can sometimes get the mistaken impression of
uninterrupted progress forward. Even the use of the term "stages" can
unwittingly convey the idea of leaving one level for a higher one
never to return again. I have not found it to be so. My experience
has been much more fluid and changing. One day I may be experiencing
an intimate attention to Christ's presence that is well nigh amazing,
and the next day I am in the feeling of depression. I can alternate
between being meekly submissive and stubbornly rebellious with
surprising speed. And I find many of the devotional masters record
similar experiences. The stages are not hard and fast. There is a
lot of movement back and forth, up and down.
But it is not a spiritual roller coaster either, because through all
the motion there is a sense of progress and growth. The feeling of
intermitten communion begins to give way to more sustained fellowship.
Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience. We need to be
lighthearted in what we do to avoid taking ourselves too seriously.
It is a cheerful revolt against self and pride. Our work is jubilant,
carefree, merry. utter abandonment to God is done freely and with
celebration. And so I urge you to enjoy this training of self-
surrender. Don't push too hard. Hold this training lightly,
joyfully.
The saints throughout the ages have witnessed to this reality. Think
of St. Francis, the poor little monk of Assisi, inebriated with the
love of God and filled with ecstasy. Those early Franciscans walked
in holy obedience with the most incredible exuberance and merry
abandon. Jubilant, they lived rapt in God by the overflow of divine
grace that descended upon them. Juliana of Norwich in her beautiful
Revelations of Divine Love said that she was filled with "delight and
security so blessedly and so powerfully that there was no fear, nor
sorrow, no pain physical or spiritual, that one could suffer which
might have disturbed me."
Thomas Kelly wrote, "Humility rests upon a Holy blindness, like the
blindness of him who looks steadily into the sun. The God-blinded
soul sees naught of personal degradation or of person"
We have seen the humility of others and ached to know its ease and
freedom. How deeply we have desired to obey the word of Scripture to
take on the mind of Christ, who through God the Son did not grasp for
equality, but rather "emptied himself, taking the form of a
servant... And being found in human form he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:7-8).
How wonderful now to see the connection between humility and
obedience. Jesus "humbled himself and became obedient." There is a
way into humility and it is through Holy obedience. The God-possessed
soul knows only one purpose, one goal, one desire. God is not some
figure in our field of vision, sometimes blurred, sometimes focused;
he IS our vision. Our eye is a single, our whole body is committed to
be His Child.
For further information go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeramiahs_back_again/
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