Power with Purpose!

From Tom White (VOM, 9/2011): "Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who survived communist dictator Joseph Stalin's labor camps, angered many with a speech in 1978 at Harvard University. He accused the West of losing its courage, stating, 'From ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the first symtom of the end.' He argued that when we revert to a system of laws to determine righteousness, the laws become a substitution for sacrifice and selfless risk. Solzhenitsyn pointed out that such an approach will paralyze the West into spiritual mediocrity."

I realize that, even though there are over 500 million people on Facebook, and even more with access to other web resources, this pokey little blog will hardly get noticed. I guess I'm writing this more for myself anyway because writing seems to be a way for me to get things "through my system." Instead of letting them sit inside me and boil over into unhealthy thoughts, words, and actions, writing is my mental exercise, just like prayer and study of the word is exercise for the spirit, and P90 and P90X are for the body.

I try to read VOM every month. What's VOM? Take the time to look it up. It is one of the resources that gives me insight into how Christians today are living just as they did in the first and second centuries - under persecution and threat of harm and death constantly. In places like Columbia, Indonesia, India, and even America's new best pal, China, Christians are being hassled, arrested, have jobs and possessions taken from them, and are even being killed just for declaring their faith. What a far cry from our armchair Christianity where our prayers consist mainly of "Help my air conditioner to work today." or "Lord I have a headache. Please make it stop so I can enjoy the rest of the game."

Remember, I'm writing this to myself. You have no part nor lot in this matter, right? Courage is something I severely lack. It's something I pray for often, and it's something that I believe only the spirit can awaken in me. I know the one or two of you that will actually take the time to read this have all the courage you will ever need to do anything you want to do. I applaud you. Now let me get on with the rest of my rant...

I wish God would give me the liberty to send my tithe money to places that I know are using the money to help people who really need help instead of the self-centered, entertainment-based waste we call 'church' today. People who are suffering for the name of Jesus and have no other source or supply. There are plenty out there. In fact, I believe that if the American Christian community would stop putting God's tithe into huge mega churches (And go house to house like the first church did.), obscene salaries for pastors and staff, private jets for the biggest of these (Yes, I'm calling you out Brother Dollar), and all the other Westernized junk that American Christians call blessings, and start giving to our brothers and sisters in places where they will never know such luxuries, I think God might just be a little more inclined to hear what we bring to Him in prayer in the way of broken fingernails and sore feet.

I'm looking at the macrocosm of our Christian existence here. I am not looking at one American Christian giving to another Christian in China who is hiding from the government. No, I am looking at the entire American Christian population coming together as one and financially supporting the entire persecuted brotherhood. Will it ever happen? Probably not, but that's what is driving my to this desk this morning.

It's the desk that I come to almost every morning. A desk where I spend time with God in prayer, reading, grieving, healing, thoughtfulness, conversation, and yes, writing. I am writing this as much to God as to myself, and yes; to the few other people who will bother to give it a cursory glance before they move on to other, more important things. If I get any criticism at all, it will most likely be for my prose, and not the actual content itself.

I've gone on long enough. I've gotten it out of my system for now so I guess it doesn't matter how I end this. God and I are the only readers anyway so:

I thank you Lord for another day. I thank you for renewed mercies because I need them more than anyone else I know. I am thankful for a wonderful family that loves you. I am thankful for the talents you have given me and the opportunity to use them around the local area. I am thankful for your Spirit and want our converations to go deeper.

I pray for my local church and it's leadership and members. I pray for all of my brothers and sister in the assurance that you are on time, every time, for everyone who is yours. I pray that you will awaken whatever is in my soul that needs to come alive in order for me to have the courage to live out my convictions because today I feel totally inadequate for the task. As Joni Eareckson Tada once confessed, "I am so weak and cannot get through the day without your resources. Will you please give me of your resources to do today what you would have me to do?"

Sister Joni has Power with Purpose. I sure wish I did. I am "the West." I need courage. We all do. Amen.