Approaching the New Year

I just finished reading A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans.  My daughter Kathryn is friends with Rachel and got me started reading Rachel’s blog.  Her writings have had a big impact on both Phil and me.  We have gotten to meet Rachel and her husband Dan on several occasions, and we have enjoyed getting to know them. Her book is an experiment she embarked upon to look at what the Bible specifically says to and about women. 

As a result of reading her book I have decided to embark upon my own “experiment.”  It is one that I have had on my mind before, but I could not figure out how to make it work.  Rachel’s book has given me an outline for how to structure my own project.

Over the next year I am going to begin to try each month to focus on a spiritual discipline.  The list of disciplines will be based upon The Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster.  I will select a topic for the month and post a list of practical suggestions on how to apply that particular discipline.  After that I will try to live with that discipline in focus.

Before I begin this project in January I have decided to take another passage from Rachel’s book and apply it.  In the final chapter she observes Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish New Year celebration.  In leading up to the new year, Jews take time during this celebration to reflect on the past year and confess their sins.  I intend to do this, taking stock of the past year and confessing where I have failed and fallen short.  I will put those sins behind me as I look forward to a new year of opportunity to live a life more and more pleasing to the Lord.

I am looking for some partners in this undertaking.  I need some friends to accompany me to keep me accountable and also just to share the impact of these things in their lives.  I would happy to have friends near by who can meet with me to discuss what we are learning, but would also invite my online friends to join me virtually.  You can let me know if you’re in by emailing me or contacting me on Facebook.

The whole purpose of this project is to draw nearer to our Lord Jesus and to know Him better in the process.  The better we know Him, the better we will love Him, and the better we’ll be able to reflect His love to the world around us.

Sunday's Comin'

I just finished reading yet another Philip Yancey book, The Jesus I Never Knew.  As I read the concluding passage of the book I could not help but think how applicable it is in light of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In the book, Yancy references a famous sermon that you may be familiar with called "It's Friday, but Sunday's comin.'"  The sermon contrasts Good Friday with Resurrection Sunday.  Yancy takes it a step further saying that today we live in that in-between day, the Saturday of darkness, grieving, confusion, and uncertainty.

 “Can we trust that God can make something holy and beautiful and good out of a world that includes Bosnia and Rwanda [and the Holocaust] and inner-city ghettoes and jammed prisons (and now Sandy Hook) in the richest nation on earth?  It’s Saturday on planet earth; will Sunday ever come?

That dark, Golgothan Friday can only be called Good because of what happened on Easter Sunday, a day which gives a tantalizing clue to the riddle of the universe.  Easter opened up a crack in a universe winding down toward entropy and decay, sealing the promise that someday God will enlarge the miracle of Easter to cosmic scale.

It is a good thing to remember that in the cosmic drama, we live out our days on Saturday, the in-between day with no name.”

Why are we left in this state?  Yancy’s conclusion is that this is the cost of giving humans a free will, a will to choose God’s love or to reject it.  Through the tragedy of this particular Friday in Connecticut, we see once again the high cost this proposition brings to the world, and the idea is unfathomable from our perspective.

All we can do is cling to this hope… “Sunday’s comin’.”

Eshet chayil! Woman of Valor!

Kim with her granddaughter

“Eshet chayil—woman of valor— has long been a blessing of praise in the Jewish community. Husbands often sing the line from Proverbs 31 to their wives at Sabbath meals. Women cheer one another on through accomplishments in homemaking, career, education, parenting, and justice by shouting a hearty “eshet chayil!” after each milestone.  Great women of the faith, like Sarah and Ruth and Deborah, are identified as women of valor.”

--Rachel Held Evans

My friend Rachel, who makes her living as a writer and hosts a blog, has a series dedicated to women of valor.  She highlights women she knows, and also had a contest in which other women could write a tribute to a “woman of valor” in their own life.  I have been inspired by these stories and want to share this story as my own reflection on a “woman of valor” who I have come to know.

Nine years ago Kim VanDyken had a problem.  Her daughter was having difficulty in dealing with another girl at school. As Kim learned about the problems facing the difficult girl, she recognized some great needs in the girl’s life.  This girl needed someone to care about her, someone to reach out to her, someone to be a positive influence in her life. This situation was very troubling to all those involved, but in the end God used it to create something beautiful.  Kim felt God’s call to be a part of reaching out as a mentor to girls who have great needs in their lives.

The program Kim created was called Tender Loving Care (TLC).  Kim began by asking the schools to refer girls in need to TLC.  Each girl who agrees to become part of the program gets a sponsor (women from different churches in our community) who sends a gift once a month throughout the school year.  This gift is a way of reaching out to the girl with the love of Christ.  Kim also holds events four or five times during the school year to which all the girls who have become a part of TLC are invited.

On Thursday there was a Christmas party for the girls.  I was able to attend this party and observe some remarkable things.  Almost 50 girls of assorted ages came to the party hosted by Kim and her crew of faithful helpers.  There was a spaghetti supper, gift exchange, devotions, a movie and some games.  During the devotion, the girls were asked to respond to several questions about how God might be working in their lives.  One of the questions was, “Which of you girls just needs a hug?”  The response was overwhelming.  So there was just a time for giving and receiving hugs, reaching out and wrapping the arms of God around girls in need of love.

And in the midst of it was a line…girls waiting in line to get a hug from Kim.

The connection Kim has created with this group of girls is remarkable.   You can see her love for the girls and their great affection for her.  She consistently shines the light of the gospel of Christ into their lives.  Many of the girls have been coming for several years and are stepping up to become leaders and mentors in their own right.

I am thankful that I’ve been able to be a small part of this ministry from the beginning.  And I’m more than proud of my sister Kim who took a difficulty she encountered and turned it into a beautiful outpouring of God’s love into the lives of some very needy girls.

And so to Kim I say…

Eshet chayil!