Give Thanks

Hello.  Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope you all are in the company of those who love you and care for you.  We obviously are not meeting tomorrow due to the holiday.  So, I wanted to write a hopefully quick blog post about giving thanks.  What is it?  As any mathematician would do (I majored in it in college), we start with a definition.  From the Websters 1828 online dictionary, thanksgiving means "Rendering thanks for goods received."  Thanks means an "expression of gratitude and acknowledgment made to express a sense of favor or kindness received. Gratitude is the feeling or sentiment excited by kindness; thanks are the expression of that sentiment. Luke 6."  This dictionary is cool because bible verses are given as the example sentences.

Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory. 1 Cor.15.

Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Cor.9.

He took bread and gave thanks to God. Acts.27.

Giving thanks is an emotional and logical recognition that one has received good things from God and willingly acknowledges that He gave them to us.  It can be likened to one moved to compassion to help some one in need.  We are that one in need whom God has reached out to and given the blessings of heaven - pouring them out upon our heads and into our lives...into our hearts.  Do we recognize it?  Or do we mentally assent - only acknowledging His favor with our minds and moving onto other thoughts within the next thought moment?  Whether we are thankful in our hearts or we need to be, let us walk and continue to walk in an attitude and posture of thanksgiving.  In a song my dad used to sing as a child the chorus went like this: "Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings see what God has done."  Whether you like to do it in your head, write it out or take pictures of it, count your blessings.  Name them one by one.  Acknowledge God who has given you all these things.  It will place your heart in the right place, undo habits of complaining, and give you a joyful and happy heart.

Inductive Bible Study & Lectio Devina

Hello! Over the course of the last two Charge meetings, we have been learn and practicing ways to read the bible and pray.  As the core disciplines of the Christian faith, it is essential that we focus on them.  Reading the bible is one way that God speaks to us, and prayer is one way we can talk to God.

Inductive Bible Study
We learned how to study the bible by practicing inductive bible study.  Inductive, for all of us who need a definition, means "characterized by the inference of general laws from particular instances."  We read the bible and marked up the passage on paper, asked questions, answered them from the passage we read, and then made applications to our lives.  We used a passage of scripture without verses.  But don't let that stop you, verses or no verses, print out scripture from such websites as biblegateway.com or blueletterbible.org.  Use whatever you have - colored pens, pencils, highlighters, etc.  And use whatever coloring scheme you like.  The steps are pretty simple, yet we got some fairly deep questions and answers out of our study.  Maybe you don't feel you have time or you feel you are not spiritual enough.  Any friendship begins by asking the person their name (hopefully).  And back in the day we asked each other what our favorite color was.  Get to know God.  Be honest with who you are and the questions you have.  There is no question too hard for God.  Take it at your pace.  You do not have to do a whole book at once!  However you go about it, you will do great.

Here are a few resources for questions and approaches to take when doing inductive bible study:
1. InterVarsity's Inductive Bible Study Hints: http://www.intervarsity.org/bible-studies/inductive-bible-study-hints
2. Basic Questions for Inductive Bible Study (great for different writing styles found in Scripture) http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~tim/study/inductive.pdf

Lectio Devina
Lectio Devina is a form of concentrated prayer.  Instead of being hands on with pencils and print outs of scripture, the bible is read audibly several times.  The first time is just to listen.  The second time is to listen for something that stands out, and the third step is to focus on that aspect.  Then we pray it back to God telling Him what we have focused on.  I don't know about you, but when I pray like this, it is almost magical the way God comes and speaks to me.  Somehow He tells me how to apply what I have focused on to my life.  Or He tells me something deeper.  Anything is possible with God.  I encourage you to try this in your quiet time (daily bible reading habit), or try it with some friends.  We only spent about 5-10 minutes doing it too.  God will lead you.

Why I'm Not Color-blind: A Testimony from Rachel

Hello Guys and Gals!  Two weeks ago we had Geoff from Northern Arizona University (NAU) come and speak to us about multiethnic relationships.  Rachel is is our guest blogger for the topic and has openly shared her testimony in this area.  I encourage you to reflect on your experiences as you read Rachel's story.

"It honored me to have Geoff Gentry from NAU speak at Charge two weeks ago.  He and I have shared many experiences over the years, so it was great to share UNM with him.  I especially appreciated that he told a lot of his story in growing to value God’s multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, Kingdom.  I am on a similar journey in coming to value multi-ethnicity, so I thought I’d share it with you.

"I spent my childhood in the mostly white context of Midwest small towns.  When I was 13, my family moved to Arizona and my experience became much more ethnically diverse.  This is the first time I remember encountering issues of race.  However, no one really helped me interpret these encounters, so I didn’t handle them very well and I was left mostly confused rather than transformed.

"In middle school, I was assigned a debate project where I had to be anti-affirmative action.  During my closing statement I used a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that one day people will 'be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,' as support for being completely color-blind. My classmates of color erupted in protest.  And for years I had no idea why they were upset. 

"In high school, my best friend was Mexican-American.  She prioritized spending time with her family and respecting her parents above anything else.  Many times she wouldn’t come over to my house, eat my mom’s food, or stay late because she needed to be at home for a meal or some other task.  My parents were offended by this, and though I was too shy to say so, I was sometimes offended too.  But it was just because I didn’t understand how her family was different from mine.

In college, I was a part of InterVarsity and at the time our chapter contained mostly white students.  I went back to not having to talk much about race or ethnicity.

"Thankfully, my sophomore year God gave me the opportunity to attend an InterVarsity Urban Project in St. Louis.  I attended an incredible multi-ethnic church.  For the first time, I worshiped in at least 5 different languages.  During the project, we received teaching on racial reconciliation and social justice issues in the US.  God began to reveal to me His desire to bring healing, justice, and reconciliation to the places of pain that many people of color have experienced in the US.  It broke my heart and I began to fall in love with what God loves.

"I started to love trying different types of food and getting to hear people pray in other languages.  I had further experiences at the Urbana conference, in China, in multi-ethnic literature classes, and at other urban projects that shaped me.  My senior year I had the gift of a non-Christian Navajo roommate who took me to visit her home and the Navajo Nation Fair. I learned SO MUCH from her.

"I had been raised to be “color-blind”: to only see people’s characters and not emphasize the differences in people’s appearances, especially in terms of the color of their skin.  It was an unwritten rule in my family that race was a negative topic to discuss.  While I’m grateful that my parents raised me to not be racist and to not treat anyone negatively because of the color of their skin, it wasn’t enough for me to stay there.     

"I had to continue on the journey.  I began to learn that ignoring people’s ethnic background devalues some of the most important parts of their stories and identities.  My aversion for talking about race or ethnicity had prevented me from understanding the experiences of people around me.  And my denial that I had an ethnicity or culture myself as a white American kept me from celebrating how God has made me and from being a part of racial reconciliation.

If you are white person who has come from a similar story to mine, I encourage you to engage rather than shy away from the topic of multi-ethnicity, even if it’s confusing and uncomfortable for you.  I’d love to talk about what would be good next steps for you to take in your journey.  I first recommend reading Being White by Doug Schaupp and Paula Harris.  You can borrow it from me.  It’s awesome.    

"If you are a person of color, thank you for extending grace to white brothers and sisters in Christ as they stumble along on this journey.  I would encourage you to continue to seek racial reconciliation and to let Jesus work through the gift of your ethnic background.  He wants to use you for something great.  How will you pursue that? I’d love to talk with you about next steps in your journey as well. 

"It has been a painful, awkward, frightening journey for me these past few years as I’ve sought to grow in my understanding of how God sees ethnicity and how He wants me to act in response to that.  And I still have a LONG way to go.  But the journey has already brought such richness to my life! And I’m committed to continuing by the grace of God."

Reflections from China Night

Hello fellow IVers!  Last week we had 3 member of our UNM chapter share their experiences of going to China on one of InterVarsity's global projects.  Meri, Carlos and Steven went to China this past summer and opened up to us about their struggles and victories in going.

Steven started us off, Meri batted next, and Carlos hit both runners in.  Steven highlighted the benefits that befriending internationals can bring.  Relationships are a two-way street, and as Steven gave, he also received blessings and friendship in return.  The Chinese students were very hospitable towards Steven - making sure his every need was met and even buying him a water bottle when playing pick-up basketball.  Growing up myself half-Indian and half-American, I can confirm that hospitality plays a big part in Asian culture.  Sometimes it became a hospitality war between the relatives as to who could show the greater hospitality.  Although we go on mission trips to give and serve, those who are served want to give back.  It is good to receive the blessings the people want to give us so that they too can be blessed through giving.

Meri's journey to China started way before going to China.  She made every excuse she could to not go.  No experience in fund raising, other people are better, and a host of other excuses still didn't measure up to God's desire for Meri to go to China.  You see, we can all make these same excuses for the things God wants us to do in our lives.  The reality is that what God wants of us is going to turn out far better than any result we can fathom from us not going - wherever the going takes us.  God might be calling you to the dorms, your family, your friend, a new group of internationals on campus whose culture you don't know - fill in the blank. Take a leap of faith...those that have gone where God has called them can tell you that the blessing of obedience resulted in many other blessing including those felt deeply in the heart from God's presence.

Carlos' testimony underscores a point that I hope we didn't miss.  We do not have to be perfect to go.  Carlos was struggling with his very relationship with God when he went.  Traveling overseas is a big deal.  There is a lot of commitment put into going over seas.  You have to get a passport which involves getting your photo taken and sending in paper work with a fee to US government.  You have to prepare mentally for a long plane ride that can last 18-36 hours and air plane food.  When you get to the other country, you can't just go home!  You have to watch your wallet...safety is very relevant.  I went overseas a bunch as a kid with my family, and the biggest thing we watched out for was our wallet.  It can be scary, but to see how God led Carlos to China despite his own personally feelings with all the larger logistics of going is truly a testimony to God's faithfulness and power.  It was in China that Carlos received support from his fellow brothers as he opened up to them about his struggles.  Not all of us can go to China, but wherever we go whether Chapter camp, IV retreats or even to small groups at IV or from church, are we willing to let others minister to us?  Are we willing to follow God no matter how we feel?  We do not have to be perfect.  The time God wants to use you may be in the middle of your greatest struggles with your weaknesses glaring in your face. (See 2 Corinthians 12:9)

Whether you jump at the opportunity to go or you put up the wall of excuses, go if God is calling you.  Go where God is calling. Be obedient to God and never look back.