Vacations Are a Good Thing From the Lord

Short post today. I realize that it's been pretty quiet around here lately, but life's gotten pretty crazy. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few posts out in the upcoming weeks.


Anyway, today I'm going on a short vacation to DC to visit friends. It's been a while since I took a weekend off, and I'm realizing that I've really been looking forward to the time to relax and fellowship. So all of that is to say that I think that vacations are one way in which we can follow God's call to trust in him and rest. I've got plenty of things that I could be doing this weekend at home, but now it's nice to take a break, rest in the Lord and rest hard.

Horay for vacations being a good thing from the Lord!

"God At Work"

So I'm currently reading an awesome book by Gene Veith titled "God at Work." The subtitle says more about it, "Your Christian Vocation in All of Life." (HT: Josh for giving me he and Kristen's extra copy)


Basically it's about the Doctrine of Vocation as found in the Bible. I'm in the middle of it so I won't share many reflections yet until I'm done. But the main reason why I'm excited about it is that it's really easy to forget about the big picture that God has for our role as we live in the world and that God is sovereignly in control for our good over where he has us in our current vocation. That's really good and encouraging news to say someone like me who could think that my vocation is away after medical school which I'm not even in yet, but in reality God has called me a vocation right now in my current occupation, as a citizen, a church member and family member. And that is exactly where He intends for me to be.

Two cool quotes that should whet your whistle for later:

"The purpose of vocation is to love and serve one's neighbor. This is the test, the criteriion, and the guide for how to live out each and every vocation anyone can be called to: How does my calling serve my neighbor? Who are my neighbors in my particular vocation, and how can I serve them with the love of God?" (pp. 39-40)

and

"..., Christians need to realize that the present is the moment in which we are called to be faithful...This means that vocation is played out not just in extraordinary acts - the great things we will do for the Lord, the great success we envision in our careers someday - but in the realms of the ordinary." (pp. 59)

Responding to Life Being "On Hold"

Well as many of you know I've spent the last few weeks waiting to see if I would be pulled off of a waitlist for medical school. In God's providence however I have not been and now my focus has shifted to reapplication and continuing my research on PIV5.

One of the hardest things about this though is that in the past week Facebook has reminded me that I have many, many dear friends who did get accepted and spent the past week moving in, participating in orientations and attending their "White Coat Ceremonies" (This is where entering first year students "officially" begin med school and receive their white lab coats). In many ways I think that that's been kind of hard because my question is, "Well Lord why have you put my life on hold?"

In many of the same ways the Lord has been using this stage much like when I first started receiving wait-list letters to expose my pride and replace it with a joyful, humble trust in Him. He also ordained that in my quiet times this week one of the Psalms that I would read would be Ps. 107, where the final verse has been life and sustenance for me as I wrestle with my pride:

"Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord." (Ps. 107:43 ESV)

The whole beginning on the psalm is a beautiful meditation on the sovereignty, power and mercy of the Lord. It as a whole the Psalmist's meditation and song of his consideration of the steadfast love of the Lord. And then at the end the Psalmist calls the reader then to do likewise: Consider and meditate on the steadfast love of the Lord.

It's not a quick fix, but I want to encourage you all that the Lord has been reminding me of this when I'm frustrated or begin to mull over this when I've got down time or am doing one of the more menial tasks during the day. And instead of this being a moment for wallowing in pride, God has been so merciful to teach me so much about his steadfast love that governs even my medical school reapplication and status that it leads me to praise rather than grumbling.

What other passages or verses have helped you to remember and trust in the Lord when you're tempted to grumble against Him?

Sweaty, Mercy Sweatshirts

One nice thing about being a researcher is that God's given me hours upon hours each week to meditate on sermons and music from great pastors, speakers and artists while I'm on the clock. So this week I was listening to some great audio from the "Marriage and the Mercy of God" conference (audio is in the link).

I am not married, but I think that the teaching was super helpful in thinking about what does it look like to be impacted by the mercy of God to me in all of my everyday relationships. (For which it doesn't matter if you're married or not)

But in Dr. Tripp's message he gave the analogy that we are soaked in God's grace. It's almost like we are soaked to the point of wearing a sweaty, soggy sweatshirt soaked in God's grace and we just need to look around and see how to get other people "wet."

Now apart from the great humor of that image (like me running around my lab here in a sweaty sweatshirt trying to get my coworkers wet), it's a good image. There really is no "trick" to us "doing" mercy to others. God has supremely showered us and shown us mercy in Christ. Being merciful is just showering people with what we've already been showered with.

That's really helpful especially to me as I struggle with how to share the Gospel with my coworkers (and some of us have worked together for a few years now!) I can blame it on the language and cultural barriers, but in the end am I really loving and showing mercy to my coworkers? Would sharing the Gospel with them be more beneficial using mercy shown to them as a starting point?

Just some of my thoughts while I'm on break. I'd also encourage you listening to the messages too (single or married) as the underlying teaching on mercy would edify us all. Plus since I didn't have a transcript and was going off of memory of Dr. Tripp's analogy too I probably butchered it so go and listen to it there for the full analogy!

Really, Really Long Geneologies

While the Bible is God's Word, I have to admit that my devotionals this week have been pretty challenging. For some reason I think that many mornings I would gladly take all of the many passages on various sacrifices in Leviticus to genealogies. I can understand more easily how Leviticus points to God's holiness, than why it is necessary to have excruciating detail the genealogies of 1 Chronicles. There are 9 straight chapters of genealogies, and my struggle this week was asking almost constantly, "Okay God I understand that you are making the point that you are preserving your people, but why such detail? The author himself notes that these genealogies are recorded elsewhere; Why are all of these ones necessarily needed here?"

So my initial reactions are that this is to show how the Lord has gone to great lengths to preserve his people in mercy in spite of their rebellion. By looking at these genealogies we see irrefutable proof of what the Lord has done to preserve his people.

Any one else have any other insights into 1 Chronicles 1-9? What else can we learn from these genealogies?

Grimmaces, Texting, Long Routes....

So a few weeks ago I asked for prayer for the new students arriving at Penn State. Well the Lord is doing a very good work and we can see how He is bringing many to hear his Word. Even those who are self-proclaimed non-Christians!

But one thought that I wanted to share is that, the Good News of Jesus or even being associated with him really is offensive and the stench of death many whom the Lord has not saved.

This was made very real to a few of us when we were at a table in the one lobby here at Penn State asking students if any of them would like to learn more about the Bible or to get involved in a Christian fellowship. Many took long routes around us when they found out what we were about. Others got very visibly engrossed in a text message. And others actually visibly grimaced and/or wrinkled their noses when we asked them unoffensively if that might be something they would be interested in. Paul said "to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life." 2 Cor. 2:16 (ESV)

It was interesting to actually see it, but Paul was right: To those who are dying the life we have in Christ really does reek of death. Death to self, death to pride, death to our sinful idolatry.

Those of us who are believers however were once no different too! The only reason we don't wrinkle our nose and run away from the Lord is because "6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-9 (ESV)

Please continue praying for our outreach on campus!

The Craziness of Life

Well the Lord has been marvelously good. In spite of the craziness of life right now, He has continued to be constant and unchanging, merciful and good. Over the past two weeks two of the schools I was waitlisted at closed their waitlists, leaving only Hershey as a medical school option for Fall 09.

However God has really been good and has been providing for me in ways a year ago I wouldn't have expected! In all of this He has been working this for my good, and ultimately so that I would know Him better.

Many times throughout this process I've been tempted to, or have been relying solely on the surety of some new thing or the waitlists. However, God had been faithful to continue to teach and remind me that He is the only one that I can stand on, not any circumstance or person.

So you can be praying for wisdom for me as I make decisions right now. Also for contentment too please. Especially as one major option is to potentially move to Athens, GA by January 1st. I really would not like to leave my family and friends here in Pennsylvania, but if that is the Lord's will I'm beginning to see how it might be a wonderful thing in His plan. However, bitterness at possibly having to leave will be a sore competitor against contentment in Christ. So please be praying for me!

In what ways have you seen the Lord turn difficult circumstances for an amazingly God glorifying end?