While sitting in the plane about 10 minutes from landing, I looked out my window down at the city lights and all the cars driving and realized how many people actually live in just Los Angeles.
There were countless houses, tons of cars streaming down every highway, each containing one or more people with lives just as complete and significant, and insignificant, as my own. And each of the nearly ten million people I was looking down at sees from their own set of eyes just like me.
Going through our daily lives, its easy to get to thinking that our world is The World. Seeing and experiencing everything from the one perspective we have, we're fooled into thinking that our lives are more important than anything else anyone else could be experiencing.
But looking out that window at Los Angeles, whose inhabitants only make up about 0.15% of the entire world population (yes, I did just look up the statistics on Google and calculate the percentage with my calculator), I felt infinitesimally small, powerless, and nonessential.
Praise to El Roi, the God who Sees each and every one of the 6,692,030,277 lives that inhabit the world.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Jehovah Jireh - "the Lord will provide"
I stayed overnight at Northwestern last night with a student host (which, to me, was way more nerve-racking an idea than my interview that morning had been, primarily due to the fact that I am somewhat of a terribly awkward social pariah). The people I met in her res college were pretty legit. Everyone at Northwestern seems to speak in witty remarks. And I don't mean *conversation going on.... -witty remark made- ... everyone laughs... conversation goes on*. I mean, the Entire conversation is conducted in quirky, sarcastic comments. It's super entertaining, but somewhat exhausting trying to decipher what people actually mean to say and confusing when clever allusions are beyond my knowledge of modern culture, and I kind of started to wish someone would say something straight-forward just once.
Last night while we were outside it started to snow (again), but the snow was different from the dandruffy snow that was falling earlier that day. It was in teeeenytiny little while balls, and SO AMAZINGLY SOFT and fluffy I wanted to put it in my bag and bring it home. The snow on the ground was so white my eyes hurt to look at it in the sun, and everything looked pure and perfect. = Breathtakingly Beautiful
I followed one of my friend's friends to large group (kind of like small group but as its name suggests, large. much like friday night bible study/fellowship meetings), and there I heard a girl share her testimony. Her life had been the epitome of suffering and pain, both physical and mental, for the past few months. She had lost her grandmother, her father was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and was going blind, her mother lost her job, she was close to failing out of her major, and while studying for her MCATs she became terribly ill. At the hospital doctors tested for everything, including cancers, but weren't able to find what was wrong with her, and told her it would only get worse. She was going broke, too sick to work, and was unable to even sit through some of her exams. Tired, broken, and hurting deeply, she was at a point where she couldn't get through the day by her own strength. And she fell on her knees before God, prayed to Him everyday for the strength to go on, gave herself up to Him and asked for mercy. I couldn't believe the extent of her faith. Through everything she faced, she trusted wholeheartedly in His goodness and believed in His great understanding. But she was exhausted waiting for God to respond to her prayer, and in desperation made a prayer that she would accept whatever He took away from her, her health, her family, her future, as long as He would just hear her. She had had a dream of the demons of her life standing in her room, blocking her way out so she couldn't go to worship, no matter how hard she pushed and shouted at them in panic. But while at Winterfest (retreat/seminar type event their fellowship group goes to), God gave her a vision while she was in deep prayer. In her vision she saw Jesus walking along a peaceful beach, picking up seashells. When the vision expanded she saw herself as well, but far down from the beach on a rocky path, struggling to make her way. She wanted so badly to meet Jesus on the beach, but like the demons in her dream, the rocks made a wall that blocked her way. She felt helpless trapped on the rocky path, but Jesus spoke to her and said, "Maya, stop. You don't have to do anything. I'll come to you." She broke down at the grace and mercy of Christ, the Great and Powerful God who would stop to save a weak and insignificant human like herself. At that she urged us to remember to use the most powerful resource we've been given by God - prayer. Through prayer we are heard by the One who can do all that we cannot, who can fix all of our brokenness. She was a living Job, had endured all the suffering in her life, had accepted all the pain that ravaged her life, all in the trust that God had a plan, and one that was Good and right for her.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15
Please pray for Maya, that He would give her strength, renew her health, and that her heart would continue to trust in His goodness through all pain and joy in her life.
Last night while we were outside it started to snow (again), but the snow was different from the dandruffy snow that was falling earlier that day. It was in teeeenytiny little while balls, and SO AMAZINGLY SOFT and fluffy I wanted to put it in my bag and bring it home. The snow on the ground was so white my eyes hurt to look at it in the sun, and everything looked pure and perfect. = Breathtakingly Beautiful
I followed one of my friend's friends to large group (kind of like small group but as its name suggests, large. much like friday night bible study/fellowship meetings), and there I heard a girl share her testimony. Her life had been the epitome of suffering and pain, both physical and mental, for the past few months. She had lost her grandmother, her father was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and was going blind, her mother lost her job, she was close to failing out of her major, and while studying for her MCATs she became terribly ill. At the hospital doctors tested for everything, including cancers, but weren't able to find what was wrong with her, and told her it would only get worse. She was going broke, too sick to work, and was unable to even sit through some of her exams. Tired, broken, and hurting deeply, she was at a point where she couldn't get through the day by her own strength. And she fell on her knees before God, prayed to Him everyday for the strength to go on, gave herself up to Him and asked for mercy. I couldn't believe the extent of her faith. Through everything she faced, she trusted wholeheartedly in His goodness and believed in His great understanding. But she was exhausted waiting for God to respond to her prayer, and in desperation made a prayer that she would accept whatever He took away from her, her health, her family, her future, as long as He would just hear her. She had had a dream of the demons of her life standing in her room, blocking her way out so she couldn't go to worship, no matter how hard she pushed and shouted at them in panic. But while at Winterfest (retreat/seminar type event their fellowship group goes to), God gave her a vision while she was in deep prayer. In her vision she saw Jesus walking along a peaceful beach, picking up seashells. When the vision expanded she saw herself as well, but far down from the beach on a rocky path, struggling to make her way. She wanted so badly to meet Jesus on the beach, but like the demons in her dream, the rocks made a wall that blocked her way. She felt helpless trapped on the rocky path, but Jesus spoke to her and said, "Maya, stop. You don't have to do anything. I'll come to you." She broke down at the grace and mercy of Christ, the Great and Powerful God who would stop to save a weak and insignificant human like herself. At that she urged us to remember to use the most powerful resource we've been given by God - prayer. Through prayer we are heard by the One who can do all that we cannot, who can fix all of our brokenness. She was a living Job, had endured all the suffering in her life, had accepted all the pain that ravaged her life, all in the trust that God had a plan, and one that was Good and right for her.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15
Please pray for Maya, that He would give her strength, renew her health, and that her heart would continue to trust in His goodness through all pain and joy in her life.
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