Praying for Haiti

There have been so many great posts written about the horrible tragedy that happened just 1 week ago... I seriously considered not writing anything because I didn't want to be perceived as "jumping on the bandwagon."
That said, this whole situation has touched me and my heart is breaking for the people of this impoverished nation.

Last night Healing Place Church joined with 30 other churches -- live & online -- for a special prayer gathering for Haiti.
As anyone who has lived through something awful may know, sometimes a tragedy can end in victory.
This is my prayer for Haiti.

This tiny, island nation has lived with, and through, so much... the level of poverty there is beyond comprehension.
Like their problems before the earthquake struck, Haiti's current predicament can seem so overwhelming... people begin to feel there is nothing they can really do.

Do not be deceived; PRAYER WORKS and we have seen that, firsthand, from our own experiences with tragedy here in Louisiana. So if you think you have nothing to offer... and little to give... just pray.

Pray for the people who are suffering like never before.
Pray for the volunteers who are exhausted and hungry and overwhelmed by the need.
Pray for supplies to be plentiful & to reach their intended destinations.
Pray for an end to the looting and lawlessness.
Pray that God's love and peace would settle on this tiny island nation and that this place once known mostly for voodoo, would become a triumphant nation of hope in Christ.

And when the cause begins to fade and it's no longer cool or popular to support the efforts there... keep praying because that's when they'll need it most.

For more information on how you can help, go HERE.

Angry Christians In a Hurting World

I recently engaged in an email debate with an angry commenter here on my blog. I do not know this person, and it is very apparent (from his highly erroneous remarks) that he does not know me.
Don't bother looking for it; I've already deleted his comment.

I now seriously regret ever writing anything -- on his blog, or in response to his emails. I should have known that it would only lead to aggravation and a waste of my time.

You see, I believe there is nothing worse than a self-righteous Christian with a moral agenda.
And to take the bait and try and persuade or correct them is (usually) a lost cause.

I should know; I used to be one.
I used to have a lot of anger about a lot of things.
There's no need to go into it all here, but things from my childhood, my adolescence, and even some frustrating church experiences all fed the anger and bitterness I had inside. Hypocrisy in church leadership and anything-but-Jesus-like behavior from those who sat beside me each Sunday did little to extinguish my smoldering heart.

Because (I'd like to think) I am a kind person with a decent heart, I channeled my anger into noble causes. Rather than just be angry and hateful to everyone, I directed my wrath toward those who were racist, sexist, or in any other way, prejudiced. I denounced those who called themselves Christian while engaging in behavior unworthy of that title.
The blatant irony escaped me.

The problem was not in my noticing their wrong, but in my failure to look inside myself and see my own hypocrisy and poor example.
I called myself a Christian and I still believed in "loving my neighbor," but I had never learned the concept of "GRACE before justice."

For me -- and for most angry Christians -- JUSTICE is the battle cry.
It took years of pain and soul-searching for me to finally realize that God is not all that interested in justice. At least, not in the immediate sense.

If justice were His primary goal & concern, none of us would be given salvation because none of us -- no, not one -- deserves the gift He gave us.
We have done nothing to earn it.
Moreover, He has not given us what we *really* deserve!

While I agree that the Bible gives us a mandate to expose heresy and wrongdoing within our ranks, it does not grant us the right to damn everyone to hades or beat them over the head with our club of righteousness.
Really, what (exactly) do we think that will accomplish?

Anger -- in and of, itself -- is not a sin.
It's what we do in that state of anger that exposes the very nature of our own hearts.
Jesus, Himself, showed righteous anger in the temple.
But the story doesn't end with Jesus driving out the money-changers!
Indeed, of all the many stories and parables we are given to demonstrate how we are to live, righteous anger is only one small part.
Much greater in His teaching and example are the commissions to love one another, forgive one another, and extend one another the grace that we have been given. There are more examples of Jesus' COMPASSION than there are of His anger!

Now, instead of looking for the mistakes of others, I try to see myself the way others perceive me. Do they see Jesus in me or do they only see anger and a passion for justice? My prayer is that God would help me change the faults in my own heart, in my own lack of mercy.

Look, if we are filled with such vile contempt for our fellow man -- even toward those we think most deserve it (our errant brothers and sisters in Christ!) -- then how can we ever represent Jesus to the world who doesn't know Him?
If all the world ever sees is the back-biting and slander and poisonous arrows we fling toward one another, they will never believe our message of love, peace, and hope.
And who could blame them?
In the end, we become the biggest hypocrites of all!
Honestly, I'm surprised that God doesn't just "fire" us all for being such poor representatives of His love and mercy.
But there, again, is a testament to His grace.

What will the world see in you?

Color BLIND

Racism is a two-way street.
It is not just a white against black offense.

I was born a vehement anti-racist.

From a very early age, I remember hating injustice and prejudice and I flat-out could not understand why people made such a big deal about SKIN COLOR.
I mean, all we're talking about here is differing levels of melanin, people! What's the big deal???

Growing up in the South, I have been exposed to my fair share of racism and I vowed -- as a young girl -- that MY children would not grow up with the same prejudices I had to endure as a kid.
I took African-American history classes in college and studied the writings and words of Malcolm X, W.E.B. Dubois, Frederick Douglas, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

We home school our children and I have employed women's history and African-American history from the very beginning. I want my children to have a well-rounded view of history, not a slanted, one-sided view.

And, more than anything, I have tried to teach my children to be color-blind.
I NEVER want them to discriminate against another person for any reason, but especially not for something as irrelevant as skin color.

Some days (like today) are definitely harder than others in my endeavor to do this. I'll admit; I'm frustrated right now... It's pretty difficult to teach my children not to judge by nationality or skin color when we, ourselves, are being judged -- on a fairly regular basis -- by those same, superficial standards.

Look, I have many friends -- all different colors & nationalities; this is not a blanket statement aimed at any whole group, but this diatribe is directed at the individuals who exhibit this behavior:

Being rude to someone you don't even know simply because they are a different race than you -- that's racism.

Acting annoyed that someone of another race deigned to speak to you -- that's racism.

Being friendly to customers of your own race, but completely ignoring or acting brusque toward those who are not -- that is racism.

And assuming that any criticism or concerns regarding our new president are based solely on his skin color, that is racism, too!
(Interestingly, this offense is committed mostly by overzealous, WHITE liberals!)

I have voiced concerns and criticisms of EVERY president that has been in office since I began voting -- including the ones I voted for, by the way.
I am PROUD that our nation has its first African-American President. It was long overdue!
But I still have concerns and that does NOT make me a racist.

And even though history paints a very ugly picture of racist behavior, sanctioned by laws and government, there is no defense for such behavior -- by ANYONE -- today.
I am not responsible for the actions of >4oo years of idiots. If I could erase the pain and anger and injustice, believe me, I would wipe it out in a heartbeat.

There is only one thing you need to know about me:
I am a Christian.
That is ALL that should matter.
I want THAT to be what you see when you look at me.

I believe that Jesus died for every person and because of that, every person should be valuable in our sight.
We are all made in God's image, no matter what color our skin may be.

And we will ALL -- black, white, olive, ruddy -- have to answer for the way we treat other people and the attitudes of our hearts.
ALL of us.

Honestly, I wish that we could all just blend into one, nondescript skin tone.
But then, I suppose, we would just find something else on which to set ourselves apart.
And as long as we do, hate will continue to win.
We all have to make a conscious decision to hang up those attitudes which work to drive us apart.

Can't we all just be color blind???

Giving Your Heart

It has taken me most of the weekend to recover from Friday ;^) but it's a good kind of exhaustion.

As you know, Friday we had our Valentine's Midnight Outreach and we started bright and early, Friday morning.
I was at Sam's Club when the doors opened at 7 am to buy the 150+ roses for the outreach. Then, I met with a young mothers' play group at 9:30 to de-thorn and tag each one of the roses. We snipped thorns, tied on HPC cards, and curled ribbons for more than an hour.

I went home for a brief respite before I had to meet the rest of the team at a club we've never gone into before. This is probably the "biggest" club in the Baton Rouge area -- not in terms of square footage, but in terms of working girls and (sadly) patronage.
We have been trying to get in for several years, but all we have ever done before was leave the roses and chocolates at the door with the bouncers.

Well, on Friday afternoon, they actually let us come in to decorate the girls' dressing room! It was a pretty large room so we left balloons and roses and flower petals, chocolates and candy hearts and chocolate-dipped strawberries. And we wrote on the mirrors:

"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM HEALING PLACE CHURCH"

We also gave them a bunch of gifts -- earrings from the Mom's lifegroup & cute water bottles and makeup cases that were left over from our Live The Dream Women's Conference.

We met a couple of hours later to go decorate the dressing rooms of our other two "regular" clubs, then met again at 8 pm to go to the clubs and hand out roses to the ladies.
It's always so amazing to me how warmly they receive us -- the incredible favor that is granted us. And it seems that we always manage to touch someone's heart.

One young girl who was getting ready to work, asked us, "Who are you all? Why are you doing this?"
When we told her that we were the church and we just wanted her to know that she was loved and valued, she was visibly shocked. It was her 4th day on the job. Who knows the long-term impact of that encounter?

To me, this is what Valentine's Day should really be about: Giving your heart -- a heart for Christ -- to those who have never known His love. It's about showing them they are VALUABLE and worthy to be loved. It's not about preaching or shaming or acting "holier than thou..."

It's about being the hands and feet of Jesus.

It's just one small part of the Servolution.

Some of the gorgeous ladies who worked so hard to get the roses ready Friday morning!

Alliece and I at S.K.

Decorating at G.C.

Live the Dream!

Setting up at K's

Alliece checking the decor at K's
Look what was still hanging on the mirror at S.K.'s!!!!
Pastors Dino & DeLynn's Christmas card!

Just a small part of the MIDNIGHT "Dream Team:"
Me, Alliece, Jillian, & Donna (Charity is taking the photo)

Amazing, Undeserved Grace

"Lord, I don't deserve this."
His reply: Nobody does.

Those are the thoughts that have filled my head this week -- this unbelievably glorious week of GRACE.

Ok, so Monday night was the return of
Healing Place Women for the fall semester.
Thanks to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, it was delayed for several weeks.
On Monday, they interviewed 10 of us onstage about our life groups that are starting THIS WEEK.
If you have been keeping up with my blog, you already know about mine.

Well, for several days the enemy was messing with me, saying: "You still have so far to go; what makes you think you can teach those ladies anything?"
It's true; I AM still on this journey.

Sure, I have lost (at least) 50 pounds since February, but I still have a ways to go til I get to my goal. And yes, I have had successful weight loss attempts before, but this time is different.

This time, I'm under God's authority and power -- not my own, limited, human power -- and I just KNOW that I will succeed.
That doesn't mean that I don't have my moments of doubt!
Goodness knows that when you have battled a weight issue for more than 25 years, it does some SERIOUS work on you, psychologically.
But God knows all that and He understands and He keeps picking me up and cheering me on.

Monday afternoon, I was kind of stressing; what will I wear tonight onstage???
I had bought these REALLY cute black denim pants and top the week before but they were really tight when I bought them. I put them away and vowed to wear them to our Women's Conference in October.
Well, Monday afternoon -- after a full day of discouraging thoughts -- I saw those jean capris sitting in my closet and a little voice (no, not literally -- don't send for Haldol just yet!), a little voice said, "Try them on."

Now, LOGICALLY, I knew -- KNEW -- they could not possibly fit me already. It had only been 5 days since I purchased them!
But I did it anyway.
They fit.
And they fit WELL!
And this is a size I have not worn in NINE YEARS.
Yeah, baby!

That was totally a gift from God -- completely undeserved.
But then again, EVERY gift we receive is undeserved and His grace is all we need.