Aw stink! Da Bears lost this weekend. AT HOME. (only the 4th time that has happened in conference history) I'm bummin. I went to the game.. maybe shouldn't have. Lester B Hopps and I both wanted to suit up so badly. They couldn't buy a lay up, and only ended up losing by 4. GOO. Now they are in a three way tie for second place in the UAA.
Voice in my head says... Linz, no one cares about womens division III basketball except for you.. remember it's like watching paint dry...
Bright side of the weekend, I got pants. Tall pants. And I cooked dinner for 10, which was fun.
Uh, Linz.. seriously...that's fascinating.. did you then find five dollars? Yeah you are right.
More bright side of the weekend, talk on Sunday was excellent again. The good Samaritan story brought to life in, amazingly, a way I've never heard before. Just a breath of fresh air. Conservative vs. Liberal. Talking about how Jesus was a liberal in that his heart bleeds for the poor and oppressed, and how he is conservative in the truth. The talk was entitled, The Gospel and Loving a Struggler.
That alone is a great title because it has the word "struggler" in it. Which was a phrase we used to use in college describing, well, everyone. We had this stuffed monkey that we named "struggle monkey" and passed it around to the person on the team who was having the worst luck as of late. I had it once when the tape I used on my shin splints gave me contact dermatitis and from knee to toe I had this wicked rash. Yep, struggle monkey was mine. After we won the Championship that year, we retired the struggle monkey to a spot in coach's office. But I digress...
The talk was rather timely because it had touched on something I was just debating recently about serving people as the body of Christ versus things that don't cause lasting change in people in impoverished situations. On one hand, giving and serving stretches and changes us as people. It helps replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh and helps us make a connection with our fellow man and builds community, makes you appreciate your many blessings. Garth, my man, says it well I think:
"And I hear them saying you'll never change things
And no matter what you do it's still the same thing
But it's not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world will know
That it will not change me"
On the other, it often times is not enough to cause lasting change. The bits of your life you can 'afford' to lay down are not enough to sustain a people group in need. They need to be taught to be responsible where they can, and be shown where they can 'learn' to fish, versus being given a fish. Which takes much more time and energy than most people have or are willing to try to have. We make it the governments problem and leave it to politics to be ironed out. People need grace to get out of situations, but they also need to be empowered and encouraged to take action and responsibility.
Yeah.. that's it. What.. you though I had an answer? Neh... not really.
But in the debate of sacrifice versus effectiveness, if I had to choose, I think I'd lean toward sacrifice, because I think God is a better judge of our effectiveness than we are, and uses every bit of sacrifice for his kingdom gain, maybe in ways that are not as blaring to us.
But that's just me.
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