The Lord's Prayer

A week ago my ReIMAGINE group gathered to hear the stories of Melanie and Julie as they returned from Africa. As we closed the night we prayed for them and for Africa. Below is a version of the Lord's Prayer I rewrote for the night.

One thing I love about prayer is that I believe it is more about us being opened to God to allow God to change us than it is about us getting God to change. As I started to read the prayer I wrote, tears filled my eyes and I had to change some of the words I wrote. I felt God tell me to pray a prayer with more love and grace for my own community than the words I originally wrote. Honestly, as soon as the prayer was over I had already forgotten the exact new words that I had spoken- so this is the almost version of what I read that night.

Our Redeemer in heaven,
Reconciler is your name,
May your Peace come, your desire be done,
in all nations as it is in your presence,
Provide every stomach the sustenance needed, food and water,
and teach us to be grateful for enough,
Forgive us our judgment and humble us to love others,
Lead us not into indifference,
Rescue us from pride,
For Thine is the presence, hope and the renewal, for all time
forever and ever
Let it be so

So this is my prayer for Africa, for the world, for my community, and for myself.

A slightly Different Take on the Woman at the Well

Slut or Survivor?

Sitting in church this morning I listened to a well crafted sermon that a few years ago I would have taken in with no question. This morning it made me cringe a bit. This is not to say that I find fault with the pastor that toiled over the text to create the lesson he taught. It is more a commentary on how we have been taught to see the women of the Bible. With that said I want to express some of my thoughts on the nameless woman at the well. A woman so rejected by society that she came to the well in the heat of the day to avoid their judgment and still he has been judged in almost every reading of this text for 2,000 years. I would like us to show her the same grace Jesus did and consider that maybe, she is a victim as much as she is a sinner.

John 4:16-18 <sup>(NIV)

16</sup>He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

Reading this passage all my life I have read this word between the lines:
slut.

Obviously she is of low moral character, right?

What if instead I read between the lines:
survivor.

In a society where women have no control over their married lives she has been abandoned by 5 men, used and thrown to the side. After each man she found a new one in hopes that this one would stay, this one would treat her well. After each man she wondered: where her next meal would come from, where she would sleep that night, where she would be able to get clothes. In a society where practically the only paid work for women is prostitution she has chosen not to sell her body. Instead she has found a man willing to provide for her, but he is unwilling to marry her. She has accepted this arrangement. After all she has been through, what use does she have for a marriage contract when 5 men before have broken that contract?

On top of all of these emotional crimes against her the other woman have rejected her and gossiped about her. Imagine the well side conversations: "I wonder what she did to run this man off?" "Maybe if she took better care of herself her men wouldn't leave?" "Did you the last man she was with? Wow, what a looser. She must be desperate, pathetic."

Then one day she meets Jesus. He speaks to her. He knows her pain. He speaks the truth. "You have had five husbands." We read this statement as an accusation, it sounds like an exposure of sin. What if instead it is a consolation? Instead of hearing his knowledge as judgment, what if He is looking at her saying with compassion: "I know you have been rejected, I know you have been heart broken 5 times over, and you have found food and shelter the only way you know how. I am your savior and know how to love you. I know how to care for the broken and rejected. I know your pain. I want you to know that despite all this I still think you matter. All of those men have left you, but I will not. I know you are living in sin, but I will not reject you for your choice. I know society has cast you to the side, but I have chosen at this moment to speak with you, because I love you."

In the passage John does not give her the dignity of a name. Still, she is one of the first preachers to her community. Her town comes to know their Messiah because the Messiah believed that she mattered. I do not want to give her undo sainthood. I do however, want to propose that when this story was recorded John was not intending to ensure that she suffer the rejection of all Christian society. I believe that in our current treatment of the text we judge her in a way that grieves the heart of God. I believe that we are unjust when we treat a woman who has suffered as much as this woman as a criminal. Instead, we should love her as a victim, that is healing and loved by her creator. We should see her as the voice of truth running back to her home to share the love of Jesus with the very same people who had rejected her.

We have for thousands of years re-victimized a victim. With respect to this woman that is nothing short of a survivor, I would like us all to reconsider the way we see the 'sluts' of scripture, and while we are reconsidering our view of them lets rethink the way we treat the survivors we know.

The Health Care Issue

This post is in response to some recent conversations about Health Care Reform. If you are offended- that is fine with me, I just need a space to get this off my chest and clarify some of my thoughts.

Honestly, I don't know near as much as I would like to. I trust organizations like The Sojourners to help me think about these issues from a Christ like perspective, but I do feel less informed than I would like to be. Still, I want to come out with a very important issue for me when it comes to affordable health care.

I CANNOT GET ANY.

I have a chronic illness. Insurance companies don't actually like to pay medical bills for people who are actually sick. Although I am currently unemployed, I have been a contributing to the betterment of society all my life. I volunteer and work non-profit. Not that those things make me any more deserving of health care, but I do feel that they debunk the idea that only lazy poor people don't have health insurance.

Further to the question of: "Why are people trying to let illegal immigrants have health care?"

My response is this: "Do you think they should die?"

That is not a rhetorical question. Affordable health care is a matter of life and death. If you are saying that illegal immigrants and people who cannot afford health care should not get health care, you are saying they do not deserve to live.

At some point in the future my health care will be a matter of my life and death.

So please, please, please support health care reform.

grace and peace

Simple Pleasure

I lifted the book off the shelf and began reading. It was a book of poems and I read them dramatically. We laughed as I enacted the drama of Emily Dickenson's words, at times convinced that Emily was making up words to fit her need.

It was simple pleasure, reading and enjoying poetry. I wonder what life was like when people spent their evenings in parlors reading to each other?

In honor of this fabulous memory I am posting a poem that I loved from that afternoon.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
~Emily Dickenson

Letter Writing

So you need a fun activity with some friends and funemployment has you broke?

Here is an idea: Write a Letter!! and not just any letter write your congressperson or your senator.

You can tell them how our foreign assistance programs are out of date (www.bread.org will tell you more about that)

You can ask them to protect children victimized by trafficking (www.IJM.org is doing some good work)

You can thank them for the many good things they have done already. (You'll have to research them yourselves for that.)

You can encourage them to work with our President on Health Care Reform. (Barack Obama's Organizing for Heath Care Page and www.sojo.net If you have more good sources for this please feel free to post them as a comment.)

You can encourage the to get some real work done on environmental issues. (Sorry I got nothing; if you know anything you can post it as a comment and I promise I will write a letter.)

There are lots of things you can tell them. My point is TELL THEM. They need to hear what we are thinking so they can do something.

Tonight my ReImagine people and I sat in a friend's living room and as part of our weekly gathering; after a meal, prayer, communion, and scripture reading we wrote Senator Boxer and Congressperson Pelosi. We asked them both to support a bill that should soon be introduced to make our foreign aid more effective. It took us maybe 20 minutes (and that is because we all talk allot).

So do it. It is easy, cheap (supplies: paper, pen, envelop and stamp), you have the time, and it matters. We are in the worst recession since the Great Depression. This crisis is an amazing opportunity for the world to change. We need to be part of the change.

Also when you are done writing your letter, you should take it to their office! Set up an appointment, they want to meet you!

Love

A dear friend of mine needs support

Below is a letter from a good friend of mine that is working with IJM. Please read it and pray about giving!

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing because I have exciting news and I want to invite you to share in the work I have ahead of me. As many of you may know, I graduated from Baylor this spring and I have been praying about the next step. The Lord has answered my prayer and provided a remarkable opportunity to pursue my dream of helping those the world has neglected. The Lord grants the desires of our hearts in what He ordains. I am so excited to launch into the next phase of my life.

Enslaved and downtrodden, the Hebrew people suffered in bondage. Until the God of Abraham heard their cry for freedom and demanded that Pharaoh release His people. Let my people go! He ordered. Loathing injustice, the Lord God intervened on behalf of the oppressed and led them into a land of promise and freedom. Tragically, slavery is not an abstract crime of the past. It is real and happening every day all over the world. In fact, there are more slaves today than were sold in the 400 years of transatlantic slave trade (National Geographic). This injustice is heartbreaking and I am asking you to join the fight against such evil. Families have a right to live free lives and work to support themselves instead of a master. My heart’s cry is that perpetrators of slavery would “Let God’s people, all people go!” I want to be an instrument in the Lord’s hand as He rescues the slaves of our generation. I have learned of the plight of the oppressed and their fight has become my fight. I cannot be silent; I must do my part. The heart of God is to set the captives free and establish his righteousness and justice on the earth. I believe that His calling on my life as a Christian is to carry out His great purposes of redemption in our world. Jesus has worked to heal the broken places in my own life and my heart is to extend His Gospel of freedom to those the world has rejected.

Thus, I am humbly joining the ranks of those who fight injustice and serving for a year in South Asia as an intern with International Justice Mission. IJM is a Christian human rights group with a four-fold purpose:
• Victim Relief
• Perpetrator Accountability
• Structural Prevention
• Victim Aftercare
Specifically, my job will be as an Administrative Intern. I will be supporting the field office by providing assistance with casework, records and files.

I have the amazing opportunity to serve those the world forgets and I want to invite you to join me in the work of the Lord. My needs for a year in South Asia include:
• Financial support - $25, 000
o Airfare, housing, visa processing, immunizations, transportation, food, etc.
• Prayer
o Confidence and protection

I know this sounds overwhelming, but I believe that our God is faithful and will supply all my needs to do His will. It is for this reason that I ask you to prayerfully consider helping me. This can be a one-time or monthly gift. Additionally, a contribution such as $10 would help me eat one more meal or pay for part of my electricity bill. No gift is too small.

If you’d like to join me financially, please read the details on “How to Provide Financial Support” below. All donations are tax-deductible if made out to International Justice Mission and do NOT have my name anywhere on the check, including the memo line. IJM has full discretion over the use of the funds and will reimburse me for my various expenses.

If you’d like to learn more about justice and using your time and talents to rescue the oppressed, check out IJM’s website: www.ijm.org.

Thank you dear friends!
Lela

How to Provide Financial Support:

1. Give online using a debit/credit card at: www.ijm.org/getinvolved/in

ternshipsupport
Select my name from the dropbox menu or type my name into the comment box

2. Set up monthly giving. More info can be found on the link above.

3. Write a check. Write it out to IJM and DO NOT put my name anywhere on it. Then send it to:
101 South Ave
Edmond OK 73013

Some trafficking stuff you should know about!

1) The Child Protection Compact Act of 2009
IJM is working on some important changes. Check out the status of their work.

2) In the past the US has failed to monitor itself when it comes to our trafficking issues.
According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this is going to change!!

3) check out the SOLD blog for updates on an American paedophile arrested in Chiang Mai

I want to write so much more but I need to get to work on getting work...

love