Title Redux

Okay, some people have questioned the title of my blog again, thinking that it sounds confusing. I think it sounds poetic. It comes from a passage in the Bible, and it's written slightly differently depending on the translation you use.

I'm currently reading the English Standard Version (ESV) in a Bible that was given to me three years ago by my friends Paul and Libby. As an aside, their blog is fabulous! I'm really still learning how to write one (and witness the scattered pictures in the last entry that I don't know how to fix), but go to theirs to learn how to pick a car that runs on vegetable oil, use a solar oven, or paint Ukranian Easter eggs, all accompanied by beautiful photography. TheFullCup.blogspot.com

Here we go: the ESV says, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (Jesus)." So, I was wondering today why I had remembered the odd but poetic (I insist!) "promises are yes." I looked in the Message, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, but it says, "Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus." Nope, not there. So, I went to my new resource, BibleGateway.com, where I found the trusty New International Version (NIV), by far the most popular translation at Christian bookstores these days. With an "ahem!" to all of you who questioned the phrasing of my blog title, here it is from the NIV, emphasis mine: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." So there you go -- promises are yes.

As I continue to have so much to do, I do not what to lose sight of the promises being yes, that these things that I am doing right now are to prepare me for another step in my life that I think will be delightful, difficult, and exciting. As I was packing away some books I found a journal from February 2002. Since I rarely journal, there are very few entries. However, some of the ones from my first trip to Haiti help me to remember where I'm coming from. I traveled there to visit Bibiana, a medical missionary with whom I'd corresponded (and who will be my supervisor in my new role this fall). It was a 10-day trip for which I used my vacation during my first year of family medicine residency. My luggage did not arrive until day six. Some of the comments sound naive to me now, of course, but that is my journey. I also have come to appreciate and enjoy lots of what family practice entails, but perhaps that's just because I'm in the non-traditional setting of corrections and work with immigrants.

"Lord, these people here actually think it's possible and indeed normal to go to the mission field (obviously). What a contrast from my family, friends, and colleagues..." and later, "Tonight I was on the terrace with you, Lord, and I don't want to lose sight of my sense of what you were telling me...I was chit-chatting with you about really liking this lifestyle (time, variety, palm trees...simplicity with clothing, etc. -- I don't miss my clothing except the sandals) and thinking about how much I really don't care for any of my FP [family practice] experiences in th US and how Bibiana talked about her passion/philosophy really being with prevention/public health -- and I cried out to you to show me if this was all silliness and for you to show me if these were unimportant things and not your focus and I was struck with the thought that you would really fulfill the desire of my heart (Proverbs 3) and that you really had prepared what was best for me and probably were not going to have me work in the death of 15-minute appointments with unreceptive patients. And I bawled because this really might be possible."

I left that terrace still not knowing if I would ever go full-time to a developing country to do holistic work. However, I left with the distinct sense that God's promises are yes, that God knows in the deepest possible way what will simultaneously fulfill us and be a benefit to others.

Extreme Home Makeover

Wow -- I am so impressed today! My community group (twelve people I see at least once during the week to "do life together," including sharing about our lives, studying the Bible, and praying) came over today to work on my house to get it ready to sell. I had been putting it off since it was so overwhelming to me. I had never really painted before, and I had not even considered the extreme yardwork exhibited today. I had planned for a day of mostly painting with a little bit of shrubbery-trimming, but what I got was far more than that. I am so thankful to my group and grateful for their wide-ranging skills.

• We painted the inside of the house including the garage (which had not been prepped and was rather scary). It looks beautiful!
• Replaced outlet covers, furniture, and blinds after painting
• Replaced sprinkler heads
• Adjusted and cleaned drip heads (term?)
• Thatched the grass
• Edged semicircles around the sprinkler heads to allow for proper watering
• Re-mounted birdfeeder
• Installed missing smoke detector
• Radically cut back the mesquite tree
• Moved the compost bins and killed the underlying cockroaches
• Cleaned all windows and screens inside and out
• Cleaned the entryway to the house
• Trimmed at least twelve bushes, including the two rosemary ones I was unable to do
• Vacuumed/blew away yard waste

I am so thrilled that everyone came from my community group (except two people who were out of town) and even some of their kids came and helped. It was also a beautiful experience, not just because it was on my house but because it was lots of people working together to accomplish a goal. Some of us talked about how in the past people gathered for barn-raisings and other farm activities that needed to happen together. Not only did we benefit by the company but we also each had different skills and tools. I'm not suggesting that we spend eight hours at our neighbors' houses every weekend, but on a modified scale it makes sense to do more things together.

I am also really beginning to understand that this new phase of my life is necessarily one of community. I am not going to Argentina on my own, and everything surrounding this journey is part of others' lives as well. Last week Chrissy (in my community group) wrote to me about what today's activities meant: "I do not want you to rebel against that high calling of needing us, of needing me. I cannot go to Argentina, though I might desire to. I desire that I could somehow be a part of the going. I do not want to be robbed of the gift of being a part of your going-- of our going. I get to come and be a part of it on Saturday. I hope that you can see this "need" of yours as more a high calling than a burden or an anxiety or something to apologize for. That way it can be beautiful for you, and me, and all of us who get to be a part of this grand thing that He is doing."

The high calling of needing others -- something to ponder.