Accomplished

Wow...it didn't occur to me how much I got accomplished yesterday until I was able to talk for nearly an hour about all that happened. It seems that offering to help a community--even by handing out candy--is a mind-blowing experience for the recipient these days. It makes me really happy to be a part of a church whose heart is to serve the community. It makes me really sad that we are original. Why aren't there more people willing to serve the community? Even when I was a kid I think I remember more of a sense of community. Perhaps my vantage point is that of someone who grew up in a town so small that it seems that everyone knows everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. I remember coming home at 2 AM and having my neighbors ask me why I was out so late. Now, I don't even know my neighbors on both sides, let alone to have one of them ask me why I returned home at a certain hour. When did we become so isolated? The world is growing smaller. I can be in China by the end of the day, Australia by tomorrow, but my neighbors elude me. Hmmm...maybe progress isn't always good.

I've been listening to the podcasts from Gordon Conwell. The beginning of the month was Mission Focus Week. A woman by the name of Teri McCarthy spoke. Wow. She's an interesting woman, to say the least. Listening to her life seemed to make sense. Then, to add to the mix, the set of podcasts that I've downloaded from NCC are focused on missions. I didn't intentionally put 7 sermons on missions in my mp3 player. Right now I'm in a place where I am looking to reach out to our community. I'm just trying to apply to seminary so that I can do some good on our soil. Yet, when I listen to these messages, all of a sudden I feel alive again. There are only a few moments on which I can look back and recall the feeling of my heart beating as one with the Father--England, Mexico, Florida, Arizona. I cannot deny the call on my life. Yet I have to live here full time for such a time as this. I have to be here in this moment so that I can do what I've been called to do here. Yet my heart beats to be elsewhere. I suppose this is what we are supposed to feel, to experience. God wants us to be in the world but not of the world. We are to have our mind on heavenly things while keeping ourselves fully focused on where we are. God really could have worked this thing out so that it would be a little simpler.

Oh, to have the faith of a child.