The whole story

But God knows our story beginning to end

Acts 11:1-4 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized himand said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story.

When you are criticized or misunderstood, do you ever wish you could tell your whole story? Surely then, whatever happened would make more sense to the person who has jumped to a premature conclusion! But telling the whole story requires the other person to listen, and that’s not something easily come by, right? It requires time, and patience and attention.

Fortunately for Peter, his critics weren’t distracted by their phones or the latest news cycle. They took time to listen. Verse 18 tells us the result:

When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.

This was a major paradigm shift for them. A game changer. A huge “But God” moment. It wouldn’t have happened if they had not been willing to take time to listen, with hearts open to understand not just what Peter was doing, but what God was doing.

Have you noticed that when you tell your story, you understand it better yourself? Perspective emerges that isn’t possible when we keep our stories inside our own heads.

September 4-8 Dave and I will have the privilege of participating in a biannual retreat with the IMT (International Ministry Team), which is our formal place of connection and accountability with our mission organization, One Challenge International. Our team leader just notified us that we will each be given half an hour to tell our story, a quick overview of our life journey. What an interesting task, to choose what to include in thirty minutes from seventy years of living! Knowing my teammates, I expect we’ll be thrilled by God’s faithfulness, and our love for each other will deepen.

Perhaps you don’t have a context in which you can tell your “whole story.” But what if you start with thirty minutes? If someone were to listen to you for half an hour, what would you want them to understand about your life? What stands out to you? What particular incident illustrates what God has done for you and through you?

Perhaps in thinking about this, you’ll realize you would like to share a particular But God moment with those who read this blog. If so, please let me know. If the challenge of writing it down is what’s stopping you, call or text me or email me, and we can plan a time to do it together. I’m confident that when you do this, you will encourage both yourself and other people. And you will give glory to God.

Take My Life by Frances R. Havergal, sung by Chris Tomlin

Tampa?!

But God walks (and flies and plays and swims and dances) with us

James 4:14-15 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? … What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

It was Dave’s and my turn this year to plan our annual family vacation. Our family wanted a beach. As Dave and I scheduled our flight to Orlando, I told him, “We have access to our BnB at 3:00. So, let’s fly early and shop for groceries before we check in. We can prepare dinner before the rest of the family arrives.”

It seemed so simple.

Each of our four family units (totaling seven adults and four children ages 1-6) made their own travel arrangements from Pittsburgh to Florida. To summarize what happened, a story I may write someday as a humor piece, by the end of our travel day, for a variety of reasons, members of our family got stuck in Chicago, Baltimore, Charlotte, and finally, Tampa, before eventually arriving in Orlando.

All the boarding passes Dan received in Charlotte before he finally managed to get on a plane!!

And then each of us had one issue or another with the rental cars we had reserved!

Orlando airport, waiting on rental cars. And waiting. And waiting …

Dave and I arrived at our BnB, without groceries, not at 3:00 p.m. but at around 9:00 p.m. Other family members trickled in after that. Supper was Moes (“So many chips!”), picked up by Rachel on one of her drives between car rental agencies. In a mix-up, before we left the Orlando airport, she handed me to eat on the hour plus drive to the coast the children’s bag (with gluten free options for Caleb) instead of our order. The total list of our comedy of errors deserves a humor tale!

That was Sunday. Monday, our son Dan tested positive for Covid. He spent much of the week in bed. On Friday, which happened to be my 70^th birthday, I got sick, though I didn’t test (positive) until we got home to Pittsburgh on Saturday evening after getting up at 3:30 that morning to make our flight in Orlando. That’s another story.

Back in Pittsburgh–wiped out. And so happy about our wonderful vacation!

AND I think every member of our family would say we had a marvelous vacation week together. So much joy. Such special memories, including a wonderful dance performed for me for my birthday by Valerie and the kids (including the one-year-old!!) to the song Beloved by Jordan Feliz.

Making memories

So much beauty: the ocean, sunrises and sunsets, the kids advancing in swimming skills, sharing over meals and games … Dave even let me beat him at ping pong. No hurricanes, despite Caleb’s prayers–he thinks Pittsburgh weather is boring. And though we had some injuries, everyone made it home intact.

Back home, between my bed, the couch, and the kitchen table, to the sound of my hacking and blowing, I’m working hard to get everything together to submit Campfire Song Stories to the publisher. It was due, supposedly, August 15. Working with five illustrators, one of them in chaotic Venezuela who hasn’t figured out yet how to get her pictures to me, and one singer, and six stories in one volume, is a bit complex. And pure joy. I am so very grateful for the talents of each of these wonderful people, ages eleven to thirty-something, each one an answer to many prayers and not a little anxiety along the way.

One of Clara’s illustrations for the lullaby that ends Campfire Song Stories. Clara is twelve.

Caleb lost one more front tooth in time for his first day of first grade today. Valerie’s arm injury from a rogue ocean wave will require an MRI. And now Brian has Covid …

Hey, how are you today?

The Difference of a Box of Books, by David and Cherie Bulger, OCI, Colorado Springs

But God finds ways to overcome obstacles

John 20:30, 21:25 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. … If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.

Our mission organization is called One Challenge International, often OC for short. Our mission colleagues David and Cherie just sent the following story in their monthly newsletter. I’m posting it with their permission. Jesus’s disciples are still witnessing miracles!

In our OC office in Johannesburg, a library and bookshop are maintained for leaders to borrow and purchase materials for their growth and development. Recently, we learned of a story related to those books, one we believe you’d appreciate – and thank God for as well. Our OC office in South Africa received the following email:

“Dear Leadership at OC-Africa, “My Muslim name is “Mohammed” [name changed], I was born and raised in a Muslim family in northern Mozambique. I was raised in a religion that hates Jews, Christians, and all white people. I was trained by the Isis in Somalia to fight for Allah in Jihad. I have been studying Islam since I was a little boy. In Islam the doctrine of slavery and terrorism is regarded as the most rewarding service for Allah. Killing Jews, Christians and all white people in the name of Allah is the only assurance a Muslim can have to enter Paradise.

“For 20 years I was in Somalia & Sudan for training in Jihad. I was trained to use all kinds of guns, grenades, swords, knives, etc. “…God rescued me before I committed any acts of terrorism and murder. In the year 2005 after my training in Sudan & Somalia by Elshabab we visited the nation of Kenya…we were living in the coastal town called Mombasa where there is a growing population of Muslims. We met some missionaries at the beach in Mombasa and I was given a box full of Christian books. [The] box and these books had a red sticker of OC AFRICA.

“These books have transformed my life and God uses the books to give me purpose and direction for my life. I have now officially changed my name to “Joshua” [name changed again].

“I have lived as a refugee in many African countries because I was running away from radical Islamic terrorists who were hunting my life so that they could kill me. I came to South Africa 13 years ago as a refugee, but life was difficult…I lived from one shelter to another. Sometimes I slept in the streets when I did not have any money to pay for the shelter. I started buying second-hand books and I began to feed my spirit with the word of God…I have learned to trust in God. Your books have taught me Experiencing GOD.

“…God gave me a vision to reach 532 million Muslims in Africa and to equip the Church globally to reach Muslims. …By the grace of God, we have already planted churches in the rural areas in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.”

“Only God knows how that box of books wound up, from Johannesburg, in the hands of “Joshua” in Kenya. All we know is that the Lord has used them to change this man’s life and to birth a ministry. Join us in thanking God for “Joshua,” for books, and for OC Africa’s library and shop!“

(Debbie) What acts of Jesus have YOU witnessed, in your life or someone else’s? I invite you to write it down in one page and send it to me (debrakornfield@gmail.com) to share the encouragement! Your story deserves to find its place in the record of God’s wonders.

Ideas for me?

Ideas for me?

But God is three in one

Galatians 4:6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”

One of the big differences between Christians and our monotheistic cousins, Muslims, is our understanding and experience of God as three-in-one, Trinitarian.

This central tenet of our faith, I find personally, is easier to experience than to explain. And now I’m wrestling with the best way to express the Trinity to children.

I’ve written a draft of a book for kids about this topic, but I’m not satisfied with it. I showed it to a theologian, who told me I emphasized too much their diversity at the expense of their unity.

So, I thought of reaching out to you who read this blog. How have you explained or illustrated the nature of the Trinity to your children?

Please email me your ideas or write them in the Comments. I would really appreciate your thoughts.

Just for fun, here’s a hilarious clip of St. Patrick explaining the Trinity.

Thanks so much! I’m headed back to Pittsburgh this evening after a week with my sister and brother-in-law in Meridian, Idaho.

In other book news, we’re coming up to the deadline for turning in all the materials for Campfire Song Stories to EA Books, to be available before Christmas. I’m excited about this book, a bringing to life of six of the stories Karis and I imagined together during long days in hospitals, to commemorate ten years since she left us. I have five young illustrators (one of them 12!) and one young vocal artist (11) working hard—I know you and your kids will love their work! Please pray for them as they each complete their assignments. Thank you.

This I Believe (The Creed)

Pity party or thankfulness?

But God doesn’t want us to live in fear August 1, 2024

2 Corinthians 13:11 Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Wow. August already. Does it seem to you too that time is just flying by?

I love the way Paul concludes his second letter to the Corinthians, “Live in harmony and peace.” Yes! He’s speaking my language! I love harmony and peace (no surprise that I identify as an Enneagram 9).

I’m in Idaho visiting my sister and remembering how she and her husband drove me all over southern Idaho to research Treasure Hunt 1904. This is the view from my window in their home.

Is it possible, though, to obey Paul’s instruction, when there is so much chaos and conflict in the world? When fear might seem a more “rational” response, how can we so center ourselves in the God of love and peace that we live in harmony with God, with ourselves, and with others?

Yesterday while chatting with friends, I recalled Karis’s radical trust in God’s sovereignty, even when she faced incredibly difficult circumstances. On her way to the hospital, if she was well enough to speak, she would say, “I wonder who God has for me in the hospital this time?”

As soon as she was strong enough to get out of bed, she would be out on the unit visiting other patients, encouraging and praying with them. Their nationality, gender, politics, etc. were simply points of interest in loving them better. What she saw was a person going through a hard time, in need of understanding and comfort. A person whom God, who was always with her, could love through her.

It’s not that God was with Karis more than with anyone else—he promises to be with all of us, always. I think her trust and her need for him simply made her more aware of his presence with her.

Karis’s radical belief in God’s sovereignty included a conviction that nothing happened to her by accident. In every situation, she believed, God had a purpose. Her job was to discern that purpose and cooperate with it. This kept her focus on others’ needs rather than on her own suffering and losses. She allowed herself occasionally to indulge in a “pity party,” as she called it. But soon she would laugh, shake it off, say “OK, enough of that,” and start listing the things and people she had to be grateful for. This practice (perhaps it fits under Paul’s word to Timothy, “self-discipline”) made it possible for her to say, “All I see is grace.”

Karis could have let herself be paralyzed by fear. Instead, she used the challenges she faced to help her empathize with others. She didn’t get there automatically. She made choices every single day. And she allowed other people to help her with this intention. She knew her challenges were too big for her alone. She knew the value of transparency and community.

When I grow up, I want to be like Karis.

It occurs to me to mention, in this context of love and harmony, an organization committed to bridging the gap in America between the right and the left, called Braver Angels. At every level of their leadership, they maintain equal numbers of “reds” and “blues” who have learned to respect, listen to, and build friendships with each other. Here’s a quote from their website:

“As we separate into groups that increasingly do not even know, or interact with, people of differing opinions, we lose trust in our institutions, eroding the ability to govern ourselves and lowering the caliber of citizenship. This growing trend coarsens public debate, produces policy gridlock, shrinks our capacity for goodwill, and harms our family and personal relationships. Effective self-government depends precisely on what this type of polarization destroys. We believe the American Experiment can survive and thrive for every American who contributes to the effort. Where we go from here is up to us. This is the driving force that fuels our mission.”

Check it out!

I’m reading Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s story, Do It Anyway. So here’s one of her songs to encourage us today, “Gracefully Broken.”