Pastor Jim Also Has a Blog Here:
A different take on motherhood…
In preparing for the Mother’s Day message on Proverbs 31, I was humbled by this different take on motherhood by Jenell Williams Paris, entitled “When Mother’s Day Is Hard”
“A quick look at our culture shows that idealized images of motherhood are inaccurate, and Scripture reveals the same. Ruth was left childless and widowed at a young age. Rachel, Hannah, and Sarah were infertile. Eve and Mary lost sons under terrible circumstances. Two mothers of two kings, both named Ahaziah, encouraged their sons to be wicked and unjust. The Prodigal Son acted with terrible disrespect toward each of his parents. Scripture tells stories like those in our churches: women in diverse life circumstances, sometimes thriving, sometimes coping, and sometimes going under.
The fairy tale of marriage and motherhood is just that-a fairy tale. Our culture is one of motherhood deferred due to later childbearing, motherhood disrupted by divorce, motherhood lost by infant/child death and miscarriage, and motherhood unachieved due to infertility and undesired singleness. Of course, our culture also includes wonderful families with strong marriages and happy children. The point is that there is not a one-size-fits-all journey of womanhood, and we hurt women in our churches by venerating one path over all others. .
So let’s be gentle with each other this Mother’s Day. Let’s celebrate with the women who have happy families. Let’s remember the women, men, girls, and boys who are hurt by their mothers. Let’s remember the mothers who have lost their children. Let’s remember the women who long to be wives and mothers, but aren’t. Let’s come together and worship Jesus alone, not idealized images of our mothers or ourselves.”
Haiti Earthquake- Collateral Damage
Last week a team from Christ Community spent a week in Haiti with our sister church in Fond Deron, in the mountains of southern Haiti. We drove from Port Au Prince to Cayes, and saw a lot of the tent cities and the damage from the earthquake in January of 2010. Remember, in Haiti there is no “Public Works Department” that comes to clean up the streets on a regular basis! So there is still a lot of rubble and trash left there. Here are a few photos from the drive through Port Au Prince:
What struck me when we visited Fond Deron, however, was the collateral damage caused by the earthquake. People displaced from their homes, children orphaned, families split up, lives changed forever. On of the boys I met in Fond Deron was named Gary.
After talking to him through a translator I learned that Gary’s parents had died in the earthquake, and that his uncle had come to get him and take him to live on Fond Deron. He is now living with his aunt and uncle but is not enrolled in school yet. Gary is an example of those that God has a special place for in his heart- the orphaned and fatherless. As Christians we also have a responsibility to look after those in similar circumstances. James calls this “true religion” (James 1:27) “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Recently in Ocala there was a family who lost both parents within a year’s time- 5 children now without a mother and father. The church they attended took up a collection to buy a large van so that another family in the church could take in all 5 children for the time being. That is the church in action- taking seriously our responsibility to care about the things God cares about, to sacrifice our comforts so that others can see the true love of Christ. I hope we can take opportunities each day to look around and see how God might want to use us to serve his children.
Winning the Battle of Faith- Mike Zegarski
Emily and I went to Mike and Michelle’s wedding the year before we were married. Mike suffered a .brain bleed that has left him unable to do most things. This inspirational video shows that by focus,bring on the small victories in life, we can have joy in the midst of trials, as painful as they are.