Why is it that this quote speaks so strongly to me, and has for years, and yet I sit in my slum and make my own mud pies so frequently?

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy has been offered to us. We are far too easily pleased, like an ignorant child who goes on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea.
-C. S. Lewis

Both Hands is a great name for this organization, but I keep wanting to call it something else. When you hear more about it, you will know why (in my mind) the alternative name for Both Hands is Extreme Makeover: Widow and Orphan edition!

According to a message from their founder J.T. Olson,  Both Hands began when a friend refused to sponsor him in a Charity Golf Game. The friend denied J.T’s request saying that he wouldn’t sponsor him for the golf game, but the friend did say that if J.T. was doing something like working on a widow’s home to raise funds for the charity, he would be interested in sponsoring that.  While I am certain that was not the response J.T. expected, it was certainly a response that provoked some thought.  Out of those thoughts, Both Hands was born.  From their website http://bothhandsfoundation.org/, “Both Hands is a non-profit organization with a two-fold mission. We serve widows in a very practical way in our communities, while raising funds to help willing families adopt.”  Both Hands work with Lifesong for Orphans http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/ to make this innovative fund-raising method a blessing for widows and adoptive families.

Imagine being a widow with limited ability to do home repairs or landscape projects, what a joy it would be to have a team arrive excited and prepared to do just what you need. Imagine being an adoptive family working hard to save for an adoption. Wouldn’t this type of project be a great way to help and be helped at the same time?

Lifesong explains the program like this, “When adoptive families are accepted into this program, Lifesong and Both Hands helps the family to remove financial barriers to their adoption and help benefit a widow’s home.” In this program, an adoptive family asks for 10 volunteers to work on a widow’s home for one day. Prior to the work day, those volunteers send out sponsorship letters to ask friends to sponsor them in the work on the widow’s home. Those sponsorship funds go to Lifesong who gives these funds in the form of a grant to the adoptive family.  These projects raise an average of $10,000 for the adoptive family.  What a great way for so many to get involved helping widows and orphans!

Of course, there are many more details in the online manual for this project.  http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bothHands.html  There you will find instructions on things like recruiting volunteers, choosing a widow’s home-improvement or landscaping project, finding a superintendent (any retired skilled construction workers among you?), making a project timeline, finding materials,  and much more.

Local families, if you are considering a project with Both Hands, let us know!  We think there are some of you out there considering this.  We would love to help. Also, if you would be interested in being a construction superintendent on this kind of job or if you know of a widow with a project, can you let us know?  Maybe we can help connect everyone to make one or more of these projects a go! 

Gee, you all are going to think I’m some kind of raging wacko… but now you can add angry to my list of tired and discouraged.  Although, praise God, He is lifting out of the discouraged part of it.  And that’s the worst.  Remember in the Christmas classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life, when Gabriel calls Angel 2nd class Clarence to give him instructions, Clarence asks about the problem with George Bailey: “Is he sick?”  Gabriel replies: “Worse… he’s discouraged”.  The most true and profound words in that entire movie, although often overlooked.  Our enemy knows what saps our will to do what we need to do, so he uses that weapon often.  We need to see it as that.

So now I’m angry.  Easy enough to happen when someone wrongs me and treats me poorly.  But today, someone wronged my wife and treated her poorly.  Thus angry is not really a strong enough word if I let my instincts take over. 

But that is not God’s way, and I have no excuse for that reaction, or to feed my natural emotion.  Jesus told me to love my enemies, to do good to those who intentionally, spitefully do me ill.  WHAT!...  WHAT!  Not just to find a way not to stew over it, but to DO GOOD to those who intentionally do me ill.  Just one more reminder of a biblical theme that should have so many implications to us every day, every moment.  Our lives should not make sense to the world.  If we act like Jesus did, if we act like he commanded us to act, the world should be SHOCKED at our behavior.  If those around me think I am normal, I believe I have a problem with God (by the way, on the surface I am very safe here - no one has EVER thought I was normal - although not always for the right reasons).

We should not fit in.  Our giving, our compassion, our forgiveness, our grace, our self-sacrifice, should stand out to the extent that we look like we’re certifiably insane to the world.  Jesus’ grace toward me looks like that.  And when asked how to pray, Jesus included the line “...forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…”.  This applies to our lives at work, at home, and in the context of KnownToMe, it applies in the arena of giving of our time and our money.  If my financial plan, budget, expenses, savings, giving, etc. make sense to the world, fit in any way into the world’s range of “normal” scenarios, then I beleive I am failing to meet God’s extraordinary calling to those who follow Him - all of us - it’s in His Word for all of us, not just a special calling for a select few. 

Good news - He promises extraordinary joy and blessings in return to those who follow him in this way… things good beyond our comprehension such that they make even less sense to the world around us.  His way is not the world’s way.  Those who would be first will be last, and the last first.  He turns all of this around for our benefit in glorious ways if we allow ourselves to become the last… true servants to others.

“I close my eyes, only for a moment… and the moment’s gone.
All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity…”

One of my favorite songs ever - Dust in the Wind, by Kansas.  A haunting expression of the fleeting nature of life and the lack of meaning and permanence of all that is of the earth.  But, as Kerry Livgren (later of Kerry Livgren & A.D. - an 80s era Christian rock band) was trying to implicitly express with this song, there is much that we can do that is of permanent value.  Following Jesus’ commands is how we love him, how we build treasures in heaven, and how we can help others do the same.  We can allow our lives to be “dust in the wind”, or we can change the world forever, and lead others to eternal life by showing real care for them here and now.

It should be an easy choice if we truly understand that everything that we do and build that is not part of God’s eternal plan is dust in the wind.  But even for me, as I’ve experienced the joy of starting… not completing by any means… but just barely starting to follow Jesus in this way… even having seen and felt the joy in this… I get tired and discouraged.  I’m tired and discouraged today.  No real reason, no excuses.  Just keeping it real.  You see, for me, it has always been obvious that our earthly pursuits are nothing more than dust in the wind.  It’s just been hard for me throughout my life to have hope that I can do anything that is not going to blow away in a moment.  That’s where obedience comes in.  Sometimes that’s all we have to keep us doing what we have been commanded to do.  It should be enough.

A KTM member posted this on her FB this morning. Thank you, Christine.
Thought I would share here! Pass it on!

Most of us are overcome with concern as we read about the devastation resulting from the earthquake in Haiti.  I have read the stories, seen the pictures, and taken the ache of it to my Father in Heaven.  Still, I can’t help but think of James 2:15-16, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”  But what are we to do from the safety of our American homes?  I have considered this a lot.  Part of me feels so helpless.  I wish I could be moving rubble alongside the mothers looking for their children, though I would certainly be inadequate to the task.  I can’t do that, but compassion and James 2 don’t allow me to do nothing. 

Thankfully, as a body of Christ we are able to do what it takes to get actual physical aid to the people of Haiti.  If we all give, even tiny dollar amounts will make a big difference.  Our job is to bring our loaves and fishes.  It is God’s pleasure to multiply it to his purposes. 

This morning I read the amazing account of 4 typical moms from North Carolina who arrived in Haiti just one hour before the earthquake occurred.  I was inspired to hear how our Lord has been using these moms in the midst of this crisis.  Isn’t it exciting to think that he has planned out works for each of His children to do for the kingdom.

From http://www.mothertheworld.org
See the original post here:
http://www.mothertheworld.org/2010/01/american-moms-deliver-babies-of.html

Written by Deanna Jones
I spent Sunday after church in the usual manner, trying to gather all of my 6 kids from their various Sunday school classes. All of us church moms quickly whisk by each other with our quick “hey Linda I have your casserole pan in the car.” Or “Are you coming next Friday?” while grabbing our kids, placing Sunday school craft projects in our purses or under our arms as we put on jackets and hats of our little ones. We greet our closest friends quickly with our focus on making sure our families all are in one place so we can march back into our SUV’s or minivans and ‘off we go’ to our slow cooker lunches. Our quality adult time seems to be in small group meetings on Friday or Saturday nights when we can arrange baby sitters. Or we meet our girlfriends over coffee at Starbucks during the week or set up lunch dates. This past Sunday I called out to Linda, my church ‘sister’ and said “hey Linda we have to get together it has been almost a month.” Linda says “Come over today at 1:45 and pray for Lisa, Kellee and myself.” I call out “are you okay?” She says “Yeah, just having some prayer time.” I say “I have to stay with the kids.” Linda assumed that I was aware that she was taking off on a mission trip that Tuesday. I had no idea. We belong to a church in Durham, NC called Kings Park International Church. We take the ‘international” part very seriously. It isn’t unusual for someone to be in Ethiopia, Uganda, Guatemala and for my friend Linda it isn’t unusual for her to be in China, Japan or any of the Asian countries. Linda and her husband have seen earthquakes in China been in the middle of hurricanes/typhoons and are not novices to mission work But what I did not know due to our multi tasking ‘busy mom’ schedules is that Linda had planned to go to Haiti on Tuesday with two of our other church friends and a dentist from Raleigh. So, the prayer time that I missed was to bless the trip.

So, on Tuesday when I received a text from my husband midday saying “how is Linda?” I was perplexed. How is Linda? She is probably fine, I think. Why wouldn’t Linda be fine? I start to worry. Then I look in my email for prayer requests letting me know that my friend Linda and two of my other church ‘sisters’ are in Haiti on a mission trip and landed at the airport one hour prior to the 7.2 massive earthquake. They were traveling on missions for the Christianville Foundation. One of their travelers, Julia is a dentist. They had collected donations that were dental instruments, gauze, pain relievers, cold meds…band aids, antibiotic creams. It was known that they had arrived around 3:50 but Tuesday night we spent wondering where they were, having no communication. Were they still at the damaged airport? Were they okay? Were they on the road? Were they okay? My friend who did go to prayer time with Linda, Kellee, and Lisa said the prayer time was powerful and she felt like they would be protected. Linda’s husband’s facebook page said “I am full of faith.” I also felt ‘full of faith.’ But after not sleeping on Tuesday night, I started to wonder and worry a little today. Between the women they are parents to 10 children or more (I don’t know Julia). I started to be concerned that there was more damage to the airport that could have hurt someone. Or I worried about them being hurt by debris in a car-ride etc. So, when would we hear from them? Today I felt compelled to pray with my friend from 2-2:30. At 2:40 we received a phone call from Linda’s 12 year old son Matthew that Linda had made a call via SKYPE. They were alive!!! Praise God! Not only were they alive but they had found their way to a soccer field adjacent to a hospital where many wounded were. Linda’s son said “They are like doctors and nurses!” Matthew’s voice was so filled with pride. Linda, Kellee, Lisa and Julia had already delivered two babies. All of this brought tears to my eyes. I was mainly relieved but also in awe with God. He had scheduled the mothers to land in Haiti with medical supplies in their bags one hour before the worst earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years. The Lord had sent 4 mothers from North Carolina to be first responders to this catastrophe. No longer were we worried, instead we were humbled at the extent of care God would go to in order to save His children. Why them? What did they have to offer? I am the type of mother who can put a band aid on my child or take out a sliver. I am capable of placing bacitracin on a scratch or make sure the tooth fairy remembers to visit. But I can’t imagine dressing a major trauma head wound or assisting in giving birth. What I have learned is that the team of 4 women is pretty awesome. Linda did study at UNC for awhile in premed. Julia is a dentist so must know how to stitch things up or give CPR and most likely has medical training. Kellee has been to Haiti several times and speaks creole. I don’t know Lisa very well but can imagine that God has appointed her as well due to her unique gifts. Mothers from North Carolina in a make shift hospital in the middle of Haiti saving lives….these women are truly Mothering the World. I am sure that Linda, Kellee, Lisa and Julia will be able to tell a much more amazing story after they return. But as information comes in talking about how the building at the airport collapsed minutes after they walked out of the door (thank you Jesus for bringing in the flight early)….for going before them and covering them in protection. Sometimes this world seems chaotic and without any kind of order ….GOD is still on the throne. The take away for me is that God continues to use people equipped with faith but by the world’s standards are lacking in official worldly capacity or titles. He cares and is aware of even the smallest of details and that even mothers from north Carolina can Mother the World and be she-ros using their ‘band-aid…boo-boo” skills to save lives…..

Just ordinary moms on a mission trip used by God in a big way. 

Wanting to send off some of your loaves and fishes to Haiti, today?  Here is a list from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability of 36 faith-based non-profit disaster organizations operating in Haiti. Categories of aid include hunger relief, humanitarian relief and water. Compassion Intl. is listed here, Samaritan’s Purse is listed here and many, many others.  http://www.ecfa.org/ServantMatch.aspx?Type=Haiti

(At least I think so… considering the context.  Read on before you judge the title.)

I’ve written about John 14-15 before, but I would like to revisit these chapters.  The context is so important.  Jesus knows that He will soon “pass the torch” to His disciples, and leave them physically alone.  He is about to face the torment in the garden, and his heart is breaking for the trial He faces, and for the anguish of leaving those He loves.  Think about the discussion you’d have with your spouse or kids if you knew you would be separated and die within hours (really, stop and think about it - this should take a minute or two).  I know I’d pick one or two things that mattered above all else, and I’d repeat those things over and over to be sure that I did not fail to pass them along, and that I could leave this world knowing that key message was understood.

That’s the context here.  So I believe that what He says is what He considered the most important summary of His message that He could express.  I’m moved to tears by the tone of Jesus’ message in these chapters.  I can hear and feel his desperate desire to leave those that He loved with the key to their spritiual survival and success as he repeats the same message over and over.  The message:  I’ve told you what to do.  Do it.  If the instructions didn’t register, you’ve seen my life – duplicate it in your own lives.  If you do that, I will provide all that you need.  Your joy will be full.

I’ve included excerpts from Jonh 14-15 (NIV).  I count nine times where Jesus tells His disciples, in some form or another, that everything hinges on doing what he has told them to do – following His commands, bearing fruit, etc.  Pull out your bibles and read this in its entiretly.  The repetition is striking.  And just in case, just in case, His disciples (or us) were really slow, and we missed what He told us to do, and we missed how He lived… He gives us one last reminder: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

There is a lot of discussion of grace vs. condemnation with respect to the role of works in our lives.  I’m going to leave that aside for a time, because Jesus did here.  Why did Jesus tell us that we must obey His commands nine times in one conversation?  He answers that: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

One last thought related to laying our lives down for those that we love.  We macho guys like to puff our chests out and say “I’d give up my life to save those I love”… picturing ourselves as heros taking a bullet, or rushing into a burning house.  Jesus did that on the cross, but more applicable to us, Jesus gave up home, career, recreation, (probably TV too – at least I think he probably didn’t watch it every evening and weekend), every day of His life.  That’s giving up your life for others.  Not in death.  But in life - giving up our lives by LIVING for others.  And never forget - this is a command.  Not a request, not an ideal… a command that Jesus seems to say all else hinges on.

Now the excerpts:

John 14

12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.

21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

John 15

4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.

16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.

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Christmas is recently past, but everyday could and perhaps should be Christmas.  In the spirit of keeping Christmas going, I would like to share this precious story of Jesus’ birth from at least one orphan’s perspective…

An Orphan’s version of CHRISTMAS STORY reference link

After the fall of communism, the Russian government welcomed many American Christians to be guest teachers in Russian schools and to help restore a respect for moral and ethics. In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. They related the following story in their own words:

It was nearing the holiday season in 1994, and time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.

Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. (No colored paper was available in the city.) Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States. The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help.

All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat – he looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I look at the little boy’s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the part where Mary put baby Jesus in the manger.

Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, “And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay.” I told him I have no mama and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, “If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?” And Jesus told me, “If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.” “So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him – forever.”

As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him – forever.

As shared by Richard Lian, Milwaukee.