Focus

I find it extremly hard some days to focus on any one thing. There are so many thougts flooding through my mind that I often waste so much time doing what ends up to be well... nothing.
Still at the beginning of a new year it is at time for trying new things, getting into new grooves, making an effort to do things better. I have been trying to get in a daily devotional/prayer time yet so often I fail to do it. There are other things I have been better at - eating breakfast, doing some leisure reading before bed, but the God time is just not something I can ever seem to get focused on.
I put a picture of a candle because it means so many different things. Hope, light, warmth, yet all so focused in the one flame. When I light a candle I do much better at focusing on God. To try and quiet my mind and my spirit. Let go of my concerns and my worries and let God in.
The delima I feel like I face every day is when I do get to that relaxed state of letting God into my life, how do I keep it? A thought I so often get caught up on is from John 15 and also mentioned in Pauls letters to the Corinthians. The idea that we live in the world, but we must not be (or behave) of the world. That we as christians are different. The only way this difference is acheived is if we keep that presence of God with us and let him live through us. Sounds so great and wonderful, yet we all know how easy it is to get caught up in things of this world.
So i reflect on the candle, and pray for God to be with me, as I also pray he is with you.

God Bless,
your sister in Christ
Erin

Technology ?!?

SO many conversations have come up lately wondering if technology is a good thing or a bad thing... no one seems to know. Our younger generations can't seem to live "unplugged". Assignments are given online and expected to be printed and brought to class or simply handed in online making it neccessary to have a computer with internet access for education. Communication has gone from home phones to cell phones to email to instant messenging and networking sites therefore to stay in touch with anyone the fastest and most convient way is online. Then there is the personal comforts of text messenging, digital cameras, and ipods which can now be obtained all in one gaget! We can all see great advatages in these changes, but probably also problems.

Just some interesting things I think about as I surf other blogs and sites. I often struggle as a young adult in the church feeling like there aren't many around me "like me". But as I over analyze everything (i know i know, but i can't help it) I wonder it has anything to do with our poor personal communication skills? I find hope in sites online where there seem to be people who are excited about their faith and young.

Sigh, like most hard topics I don't think there is an answer. However, one thing I learned as a young child, everything in moderation - technology may be like chocolate cake, fabulous and wonderful but not the relational nutrition that comes from a good dinner.

God Bless,
Erin
your sister in Christ

1 Timothy 4:12 (paraphrased) Don't let them put you down just because your are younger! But love them and set an example in the faith with your actions of love, purity, honesty, and integrity.

Making a Difference

Oh the world of challenges. I have spent the last hour on a variety of Methodist sites just trying to wrap my head around any resources I can use to help get our Wesley Foundation off the ground. Yesterday at church I felt God challenging me again, that now I'm comfortably settled in here it's time to get stuff going again.

In my last community, it didn't take long before I was acustomed to the church, campus ministry, and staring a youth ministry. So many people were excited and God was present. It was beautiful - challenging, yet beautiful.

However I try to keep the focus on God and not myself, but I feel a calling to do something in my new community of Stevens Point, Wi. I have already begun teaching sunday school and getting aquainted with other church members, there is already a youth ministry in progress, and there is a form of a campus ministry entitled "Wesley Society".

I love being Methodist and I love reaching out to others providing (especially to young people) an open environment where they can openly ask questions about faith and their beliefs and thoughts in the world. Saddly our churches do not often offer this opened enviornment that our young people so desperatley need. I do not always know how I feel about faith or God or how social issues fit into my beliefs and I need to have open discussion about these questions.

I also feel that besides an open warm loving environment our young people need to be challenged. Mind, body, and Spirit. Bible studies!! Even if they are by e-mail or blogs or once a week we need to be keeping our young people in the word. Service- we are blessed with so much more than the rest of the world and even as a poor college student I have alot to give. My time, my effort, my prayers, my presence, my encouragement, and I will work for food! Bring on the work projects! Spirit, I also feel that it is important to help other young people find a worship opportunity that helps them feel the spirit. Be it music, a contemporary service, art in worship, skits, dance teams, or services - it is important that our young people find a connection with worship and opportunities to serve here.

Yes this can be alot of work leading a group for young people. Yes young people are unpridictable in when and where and how often they can meet. So what if many of us are hard to pin down. There are ways to help meet the needs of our young people and most of us are not going to seek them out in the church. They need to be provided in an open flexible way that it is not intimidating. And for those out there who are trying know it takes time. It takes about 3 years for a program to get off it's feet, so keep at it! Keep praying, and keep asking God what he needs from us to provide ministry to our young adults.

1 Timothy 4:12
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.


So to my problems. . . (if you don't mind)
The wesley society here seems singularily focused on Peace and Social Justice. No bible study, no worship, it is not considered a campus ministry, but a special student group. Sigh, I have an issue with this. I think peace and social justice is a great focus for a group, but that was not Wesleys only focus. Peace and social justice came out of ministries. A way to express our christian love towards others and fight for their rights. A great mission but not the starting point, right?

I would like to have an online bible study (college students are busy). Set up a place to have discussion, switch it to who has what day. and keep it short and simple.

I would like to share an open meal together. Try to have a general subject of converstation (love, peace, injustice, study tips) but just time to be in christian community with each other.

I would like to join other groups on campus to reach out and do mission work. Volunteer at the salvation army, work with Habitat for Humanity, go on mission trips.

I would like to also focus on special events. Educating others about different faiths, christian views on sexuality, social issues, have open discussions with speakers who know more about topics. But other events as well such as Dinner and a Movie night, retreats, sledding extravaganzas, time to make personal relationships.

Then I notice these are all things "I" want to do, but is this what I am called to do? Sigh, I feel that this is a yes. . . God has given me the opportunities to learn about group development and human relationships and how to make them better and give people a good environment. I feel confident that he has given me this experience and knowledge so I might use it in ministry.

Hopefully the needs of young people will continue being met and cared for more than ever.

Peace
your sister in Christ,
Erin

Ephesians

Sometimes when I am doing Bible studies on my own or with a friend I like to start at chapter one of a book and read the whole thing. Today I started Ephesians. Very interesting words in that first chapter as Paul simply encourages the people. Nothing to profound or complex, just simply praising God and encouraging them to praise and bless God as well for all of the great things in their lives.

I can take a positive lesson from Paul today as well. As much as it is very important for each of us to have others in our lives that encourage us and are there for us to help us grow and pick us up when we fall, I often forget that God is there to do these things as well. He does deserve to be praised and blessed simply because he is God. He has given me more than I could ever ask for, yet somedays I am still not happy. Today I was saddened by the cold rain, waking up early, and having classes, but look at how many of those things are blessings in my life! The rain helps feed the beautiful plants and forests all around me that I like to enjoy. I get to wake up in my own bedroom in a beautiful house to prepare for a day of learning and growing. And I have some excellent classes in subjects that will lead me to a career that I love and can teach children about God everyday. and for all of this I complain?

Praise God for you are a gracious father providing us with more than we can imagine and sometimes even notice. Thank you for being there for me forever and always.

Much love,
Erin
your sister in Christ

Change, Changing, and Changeless

As a college student change is my life. I change jobs or homes or something big about every 4 months. I have just made a change in schools and am trying to adjust. Things all around me keep changing and sometimes in the river of change I just want to grab a rock and keep things the same for a minute!

Reguardless of how we feel life is forever changing around us and when we try to recreate an awesome experience from the past it almost always comes crashing down around us. Each day is different, yet sometimes can seem monotomously the same. When we get into habits we can get into ruts and sometimes lose the sense of wonder around us at the little things. This I feel is when I get the most frustrated with change.

I want to relax and hang out with friends like I used to - but I have to go meet friends. I have to go to class, but the path to class and the beauty outdoors can be a pleasant new surprise if I let it be. I can affect some change for the better just with my attitude.

The idea of a changeless God is one that has caused me some difficult thought. Here are some scriptures about it:
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
1 Samuel 15:29
He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."
Malachi 3:6
"I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

and often in philosophy or theology discussions the fact that God is eternal (always was, is, and out of time) is understood as changeless, a constant.

Not sure if you can see where I struggle with this concept, but I do. At times it seems as if the God referred to in the old testament and the new are two different people. Is that not a change? To go from commanding the dystruction of whole towns or peoples to teaching a Gospel of love toward all and peace? Where the situations just so that He knew ahead of time that at this time He needed to be harsh and unforgiving while later he would choose a different path? Does He always know what the future will hold and the choices we are going to make? The ideas we will create and as a human race advance the world? Did he know of computers and airplanes and medicines?

ALl of these thoughts continue to evolve around the free will question. Do we really have free will make choices that change our future or does God know us so well that he simply knows what choices we will make?

Just some random thoughts to spread into the vast universe. God Bless you and yours,
In Peace
Erin
your sister in Christ

an ending verse
Jeremiah 33:3: "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."