On our way to Cuba, God in the airport

We're in the airport on our way to Cuba.
A few days ago I started praying that we would meet special people - people we don't necessarily know we will meet, but people and encounters that we will remember the most. Magical ones.

I'm a little afraid that we won't make real, deep friendships with anyone. So I started to pray that we would.

It was slow when we checked in our bags. The service lady asked where we were going in Cuba.  We answered slowly, not knowing if she wanted to hear the whole story, especially the religious part. But she kept asking. How did we make the connections? What were we going? Bit by bit the story came out.

Then we found out that her husband is/was a pastor. At a church my brother went to. "When I saw Hoover on your ticket I wondered if you were related to Jason." Then she asked God to bless us, and we were on our way.

Can God create divine moments of friendship?

Power, love, and self discipline

The first sermon I ever preached was from 2 Timothy 1.7. "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power love and self discipline." It was at a youth retreat when I was 21.  

Power, or the being able to do things, love, and self discipline. I guess in the 20 years since then I've come to believe that these three things are even more important.

Power. Not power as in control of something, but power in the ability to do things, to affect change, to accomplish things. What person doesn't ask the question, "Can I do that? I don't know if I have the ability. I don't think I can." Yet Jesus doesn't call us to things without a means to do them. We don't have unlimited abilities, but we are able to do what God asks us to do, in the way that he intends.  We are much more capable than we feel. The exact word is dynamite.

Love. Isn't this the best thing that's before everything? The person who grows in love is the person who is mature, and wise, and godly, and spiritual. We think that we can be all these things without growing in love, but this is foolishness. Love is the goal, and the measuring stick, of how human we are.

Self discipline. No one becomes who they want to be or who God wants them to be without self discipline. This is the ability to make yourself do what you need to do. Instead we are too often pushed around by the expectations of others, distracted by the meaninglessness of Google and gaming, lazy and weak-spirited. And then we become frustrated either with ourselves or with the situation around us because we are unable to make ourselves and do what we want to do. We become like the little ball in a Pong game. Self discipline is the ability to control your abilities.

Continue on. I am convinced that this faith lives in you.

God watches Facebook

My family goes to Cuba in a week to visit a church that we've made friends with. I asked them if there's anything specific they would like us to bring. The pastor said he needs a suit for official church occasions like weddings and funerals and anniversaries. He gave me his size - 34 inch waist, 5'10" tall. It's not my size, and I don't have any suits to give him anyway.

I posted the request on Facebook to see if there was anybody with an old suit of the same size. Within a couple hours I had a response.

My friend Jin is a snappy dressed Korean guy. He's friendly and generous. If there is anybody who would be dream donor, it would be Jin. And he just happened to be the same size as my pastor friend in Cuba.

I stopped by Jim's house to pick up a suit last night. He had not one, but two suits for me to take. The pastor will say thank you to me, but I'm not the giver, I'm only the delivery boy. God is the giver, in partnership with my friend Jin.

Praying for someone

I woke up at 545 this morning, wide awake.

A week ago a friend told me a story about lounging on the beach in Hawaii. All of a sudden he and his wife felt I need to pray for a friend. They didn't know it at the time, but the friend was actually in the hospital having serious surgery on his leg. They felt that their desire to pray was led by God, to aid their friend.

I didn't know what to think when I woke up so early without my alarm. But I wondered if it was a call to pray for somebody. I wasn't sure who to pray for. I thought of one friend who is having some difficulty. So I started to pray for them. And then I fell back asleep.

Was this God? I don't know. But, I suppose anytime you pray for somebody, you're interacting with, working with, experiencing God.

Learning language/conduct

1st Timothy says "Be diligent in these issues. Surrender fully to these things so that others can see that you are progressing. Watch out for your conduct and teaching. Persevere in these things, because this is salvation for both you and those that hear you." 4.15-16

I'm not very good at diligence and perseverance. I like to read something, understand it in my head, and then run off and do something else. In some ways I'm like the person that looks at himself in the mirror, realizes he forgot to shave, and then goes to work anyway. I don't consistently and persistently work on my conduct and teaching, not in a way that everybody can see my growth.

I'm reading these verses in my Spanish Bible this morning. In my attempt to learn Spanish I'm having my time with God with my Spanish Bible, & I have to translate it as I go. Learning a language is terrible work. It takes so much effort, so much time, and diligence and persistence. The only way to learn a language is to do it consistently, every day, throughout the year, and into the next year. If you try to shortcut and not put in the effort, you will learn a few words and phrases but never master the language. 

I take my spiritual growth and development the same way. I can't say that I work at it persistently and consistently, in a way that everybody can see how I am progressing. If I worked diligently at my conduct and my teaching, what a different person I would be.

Expenses for Cuba

Darcia and I were making our preparations to go to Cuba in 3 weeks. We were looking at hotel rooms and finding out how much it would cost to stay everywhere. When we originally made plans, we thought the hotel rooms would be cheaper and they are. But because they're not quite as cheap as we hoped, and because they often don't allow four people to stay in the same room, it's more expensive than we had budgeted.

So of course we were a little discouraged and stressed about how much the trip is going to cost.

The next morning I woke up I'm still thinking about it. And then I remembered when we bought the plane tickets. At Christmas WestJet had a sale of 20% off all flights. So we actually paid $150 less per ticket can we had planned. We were thankful and grateful to God that we were able to save that.

Now that we're looking at the other end, that hotels might cost more than we thought, we get stressed. However, when we accept God's grace at one end, then we need to continue to believe that God is looking after us, that were following his plan, and that we can still trust him, even if we hit a speed bump.

Serving and maturity

The biggest leap in my understanding of God, and in understanding what it means to follow Jesus, trust God, and be human, is that God serves, and this our heart, our life, is to serve others. Maturity is in serving others. Growing in godliness is by serving others. True humanity is in serving others. Forget yourself, deny yourself, and serve others. This is the heart of everything.

Yet this is where I struggle. With my family - Do I do everything to serve them? My church - Do I do everything to serve them? People I work with, mentor - Do I do everything to serve them?

In my head I know this is the way it must be. I seek to know God, spiritual maturity.  The way to this is by serving others.

I want great things to be done through my life. To do this I fear I try to get others to serve me. It's backwards. I perpetually fight this. Get my family to fit my schedule. Bring others into my plans. Fight in the tension between doing what I want, and begrudging others when I have to do things for them.