Highlights: Christian Oppression and the Feminine Side of God

What made me smile.
Embracing the 'Feminine Side' of God by Tony Campolo
The masculine side of God is something to be admired.  But it is the feminine side that draws love out of me.  It is this feminine side of God I find in Jesus that makes me want to sing duets with Him.  When I think about the feminine in Him, I want to throw out my arms and be loved.

What convicted me.
Are American Christians Really Being Oppressed, Or Are They Just Whining? by Donald Miller
I am a Christian.  I follow Jesus.  There are people who don't like that.  They are sometimes rude to me.  Sometimes they criticize me online.  Sometimes to my face.  But that happens to anybody who believes anything.  I am not a victim.  I am not being wrongly persecuted.  I'm fine.  I know how to turn the other cheek.

What made me cry.
We are abandoning children in foster care by Rita Soronen
Conservative studies find one in five will become homeless after 18; at 24, only half will be employed; less than 3% will have earned a college degree; 71% of women will be pregnant by 21; and one in four will have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder at twice the rate of United States war veterans.

What made me consider. 
Why Homosexuality is Not Like Other Sins by Jonathan Parnell
It is different from all the rest, at least right now. At this moment in history, contrary to the other sins listed here, homosexuality is celebrated by our larger society with pioneering excitement. It’s seen as a good thing, as the new hallmark of progress.

What was interesting.
Map of the World by Natural Skin Color by Maps on the Web

Tweets

Both Jesus without social justice and social justice without Jesus render the Church unnecessary.
— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) April 21, 2014

First 5 days after the weekend are always the toughest. :(
— Jake McAtee (@jakemcatee) April 23, 2014

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity." #poverty
— Emily Whelchel (@EmilythePerson) April 17, 2014

What caught your eye this week on social media?

Three years ago: A Long Day of Airplanes
Four years ago: My Testimony

Counting my Blessings

It's been only two weeks that I've been back in my hometown for the summer... less than two weeks.  But I already miss the presence these girls bring into my life.

Fall semester was filled with stress and discouragement.  But there is hope.  My Father held me through the hard times and encouraged me, so often through these ladies.

We all picked a wildflower... and Sammy found a stick.

This is Sammy.  She's my closest friend and probably the quirkiest person I know.  She's always willing to be spontaneous, even if it means dropping everything, driving an hour and a half away, and purchasing baby rabbits in order to fulfill my dream of having "fat bunnies frolicking in our backyard."
 

This is Kelsey.  She is incredibly gifted in her artistic ways.  I feel like every week she has a new, clever project that I could never think of on my own.  She loves flowers and animals and sunshine.  She has the laugh of a Disney princess; this is part of the reason why we call her Belle.

This is Kendall.  She is a free spirit with passionate love for Jesus and for His children.  She can have an extraordinarily busy day that contains more than I can balance in a week and yet still make the time to sit down and pray for a friend or hug someone through their hurts.  This girl has freedom in Christ and knows it well!

My summer is going to be wonderful... but I sure will miss my friends.

At Texas A&M, only seniors may whoop up like this... and Sammy is the first of us to get her Aggie ring.

And next year, we will graduate together.

One year ago: Faithful
Two years ago: I like these songs.
Three years ago: I am so blessed.

Poverty is Ugly

Poverty is not beautiful.

Poverty is ugly.

It shrivels. It tortures. It wastes. It tears apart.

Photographs of dark-eyed children with white teeth and searching faces may be beautiful. The bright colors, what is exotic, the orphans who were made in the image of their Creator.

But poverty is not beautiful.

Once I found a photograph of a two-year-old girl named Emily who shared my name. She lived in Eldoret, Kenya in utter poverty. Her parents were dead. Her clothes were in tatters. She had nowhere to live, no food to eat. Even as a toddler, hope was removed from Emily's eyes. What was left for her in life? Who wanted her?

With trembling hands, I took the photograph home and compared it with a picture of myself at the same age, nineteen years ago. I was smiling, wearing a brand new dress. My hair was freshly-cut, styled in blonde ringlets. I was well-fed, well-dressed, well-loved. Even as a toddler, hope flooded my future. I wanted to be a doctor, a veterinarian, a writer, a mom, all at the same time. I was confident that all of the world was within my reach. I was wanted. I was cherished. I was heard. 

Kenyan Emily was beautiful, even though her body was wracked with hunger, sickness, and neglect. She was beautiful, even though her face held the sorrow of watching her family die from AIDS. She was beautiful, even though she was stunted by malnutrition. She was beautiful because she was made in the image of God.

Sometimes depictions of trips to third world countries make it all seem so exciting, so beautiful, such an adventure.

But poverty is ugly.

Poverty tears away hope. Poverty destroys families, rips futures to pieces, and forces children to lose their childhood and face fear and desperation.

A hungry child named Fatima lives in a slum in India and has wide, black eyes and a shy smile. Fatima is precious and lovely, but her life has been ravaged by something that is so ugly, so preventable, so unjust.

I never want to make poverty seem beautiful in any way, whether or not it changes the life of every wealthy foreigner who visits on a mission trip for the better. Poverty may give perspective to the rich. Poverty changes the lives of those who endure it and those who watch, and the only reason our Father allows it to have an impact for the good is because that is how He works.

But poverty is ugly.

Poverty is wrong.

Poverty breaks the heart of God and we have been commanded to fight against it.

I intern for Christian Relief Fund. I have been writing promo blurbs for waiting and unsponsored children from Africa. They are beautiful, each one, even those who have never had a bath in their lives or ever felt the comfort of a full belly, even those who have been visibly aged far beyond their years by the ravages of malnutrition, disease, sorrow, and exhaustion.

They are beautiful because something in their faces reflect the face of a God I have not yet met face-to-face. They are beautiful in the way that I am beautiful, in the way that the weary student in my class at university is beautiful, in the way that the man pushing a heavily-burdened shopping cart a block from here is beautiful.

God has created those who live in poverty to be beautiful, cherished, worth loving, whether they know this or not.

And my job is to serve them, to feed them, to love them, to share with them the story of a Father and Son who has called them His own. This is my job and this is your job.

Emily is beautiful. Fatima is beautiful. Shadrach is beautiful. Luis is beautiful. God's children are beautiful.

But poverty is so very ugly.

One year ago: Faithful
Two years ago: I like these songs.
Three years ago: I am so blessed
  

Highlights: Bring Back Our Girls

What has encouraged, broke, and informed me about the kidnapped girls in Nigeria. 

1.) Most informative.'Bring Back Our Girls' by Nicholas Kristof
The greatest threat to militancy in the long run comes not from drones but from girls with schoolbooks.

2.) Most important.
Why girls in Nigeria should matter to you. #bringbackourgirls by Kristen Howerton
African girls are Other. The distance, the difference, the ongoing challenge on the continent  . . . have these things made us discount their humanity? Are we failing to identify with these parents because of racial or cultural differences? I hope that isn’t true. I fear that it is.

3.) Most breathtaking.
In which we pray: bring back our girls by Sarah Bessey
Why does no one care about our girls, Abba? I am angry because I believe that if they were 200 students from Ontario or Ohio, the world would have turned itself inside out until they were found but because our girls are in Nigeria, they are just another story, another “what a shame” story. But I don’t want to remain isolated in my anger, I want my anger to work for our girls. Use my anger, Jesus, turn the force of it towards justice.

What made me appreciate lamentation.
Everyday Lament by Kelley Nikondeha
Choose joy, they say. But joy without lament is too thin for me. In order to inhabit the expansive capacity of joy, I must experience the pain that shapes joy’s outer limits. I need the valley and the peak, the absence and the presence, dying and resurrecting.

What whispered worship to my heart.
Here I Am to Worship by Rachel Pieh Jones
The answer to my question, ‘what am I doing here?’ was answered in a whisper, in a song. I am here to worship. All other striving and work, good and beneficial though it may be, faded in the light of this beauty. I am here to worship.

What will likely be me.
Unambitious Loser With Happy, Fulfilling Life Still Lives in Hometown by The Onion
Former high school classmates confirmed that Husmer has seemingly few aspirations in life, citing... embarrassing Facebook photos in which the smiling dud appears alongside family members whom he sees regularly and appreciates and enjoys close, long-lasting relationships with. Additionally, pointing to the intimate, enduring connections he’s developed with his wife, parents, siblings, and neighbors, sources reported that Husmer’s life is “pretty humiliating” on multiple levels.

What touched my heart.
The ministry of watching sparrows fall to the ground by D.L. Mayfield
He never wanted me to have all the answers. He wants me to follow Jesus towards the sparrows that the world has forgotten, to stick around and be a witness to their beauty and dignity as they drop, one by one, to the ground.

Twitter

These are the names of the kidnapped #Nigeria girls - important to RT. pic.twitter.com/s2wY1AW8BL #BringBackOurGirls (Via @SayingGoodbyeUK )
— emma freud (@emmafreud) May 7, 2014

Nigeria kidnap crisis: 9 things you should know https://t.co/VbIArCh775
— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) May 6, 2014

"If we want to be Christians, we have to earn the label of friends of tax collectors and sinners." Richard Beck #pbl14
— Ryan Lassiter (@grlassiter) May 1, 2014

Is it possible to Jesus Juke the movie "Frozen?" Apparently it is, and I only have 3 words in response: https://t.co/NfOlTQcmkf
— Jon Acuff (@JonAcuff) April 30, 2014

The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance. #CSLewis
— Emily Whelchel (@EmilythePerson) May 3, 2014

What have you been reading this week?

One year ago: Summer Reading List 2013
Two years ago: My Summer Bucket List
Three years ago: Graduation Invitations and Announcements

A Cord of Three Strands

I have been blessed with so many things, like attending the best university in the world (Texas A&M, whoop!), having a shelter over my head, food every meal, and precious friends.  The Lord has also given me the sweetest family.

Like a mom and sister who were willing to drive almost ten hours to spend three days with me.  And a dad who was willing to celebrate Easter with the grandparents out of sacrificial love.  (...Not because spending time with the grandparents requires sacrifice, but rather because he wasn't with the three ladies in his family.)

Last Easter, all of my roommates went home and I wasn't able to travel home because I had tests to study for (as I also do this Easter as well), and two days of driving alone were too much stress for my finals preparation.  So I spent the celebration with Jesus and couldn't help but feel extremely lonely, even though He was tender to me.  I'd never been away from everyone on Easter before.

This year, even though my family was split, we each had someone.  We went to church together, we prayed together, we ate together.  Our Father lavished His sweet mercies on us as we soaked in the beauty of family time.  And we celebrated Christ's rising from the dead in power and in glory.

The three days of girl time were well-spent.  We went summer shopping, made a shady roof for my bunny pen, and watched both Transcendence and 12 Years a Slave (the consensus was that the former was a bit slow and the latter was amazingly done).

Easter Sunday's worship was spent at Deaf Church, surrounded by a community of people that worships with their voices, hearts, and hands. 

We had a photo shoot with my roommates in a field painted with purple wildflowers.

My mom and little sister were huge fans of Sammy's and my baby bunnies.  If Amy went missing, it took no searching to find her sitting cross-legged in front of the rabbit pen with a sleeping rabbit in her lap and another munching on a carrot out of her hand.

Amy is about to graduate from high school next month. 

During the photo shoot, I kept telling Kelsey, "Come closer.  Come a little closer," as she moved from a full-body shot, to a waist-up shot, to a portrait shot of my little sister and me.  Finally, as I urged her to come even closer, she said, "How's this?"  Very funny.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.  -Ecclesiastes 4:12

One year ago: Maintaining a Fruitful Quiet Time in Summer (Part I)
Two years ago: Tatters
Three years ago: How Jesus's Sacrifice Can Make Sense to Muslims and Blogging: The Right Name

Orphan Sunday: Kiril

The first Sunday of the month, I advocate for an orphan with special needs who is waiting for a family.  Please consider supporting this child by committing to pray for them, sharing their story, or donating to their adoption fund through Reece's Rainbow.

Kiril is struggling to survive.

He does not look like it, but he is already ten years old.  His development, both physical and cognitive, has severely regressed due to the fact that he lives in an institution and has been severely neglected for most of his life.

Kiril spends all day long in a bed with no stimulation or care.  His nutrition is poor and he is likely given very little, if any physical therapy to help him grow strong.  Kiril's little body is very weak from malnutrition, lack of sunlight, and very little mobility.  His strength has waned over his years in the institution, and he now struggles to sit up on his own. 

He is a fighter.  Even though Kiril is given little opportunity to move whatsoever, he is still described as a little boy who wears a smile. 

Kiril's special needs are infantile cerebral paralysis, double hemiplegia, epilepsy, optic nerve atrophy, multiple cardiopathies, and contracture of hip and knee joints.

It is true that Kiril needs a family that will be patient with him and is able to spend a lot of time working with his frail and neglected body.  However, he has so much potential for his future.

Kiril has spent his childhood within the confinement of a neglectful institution.  He deserves a family who will love him and give him the care he needs.  Will you help him find this family? 

One year ago: May Goals
Three years ago: It's time to surrender.

Highlights: Maroon Bluebonnets and Impacting Culture

What brought so much vulnerability.
Progressive Christianity and the loss of a moral center by Chad Holtz
In our rush to divorce ourselves from any vestiges of fundamentalism we have stampeded over the cliff of moral relativism.  Where is our moral center? While I was deep in my own addiction to pornography and sex I found solace in this “tribe” because they did not judge me.  But solace is not salvation, and I needed to be saved, not assuaged.

What made me laugh.
Aggie Rivalry Continues to 'Bloom' on UT Campus by Cassie Gallo
The State of Texas blooms a sea of bluebonnets, but on the University of Texas campus something is not quite right. Genetically modified bluebonnets are invading the campus, and rumor has it Texas A&M University is in on the prank.

What made me agree.
In which I fall for the beautiful facade by Sarah Bessey
There isn’t much room for romanticism in the real world of orphan prevention and community development. This world needs open eyes, this conversation needs hard questions, these are real people. Real people. Real homes. Real families. They deserve our open eyes, our respect, and we need to honour them by hearing the truth.

What convicted me.
5 reasons why Christians aren't impacting culture by TE Hanna 

Tweets 

“The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.” - Dorothy Day
— Natalie Trust (@NatalieTrust) April 9, 2014

We had to share this snippet from one of our sponsored children M. Naresh's letter. https://t.co/oOz45QLXNJ
— CRF (@CRFtweets) April 14, 2014

Jesus doesn't have much use for fashion show religion, especially as it looks over systemic injustice in the name of Christianity. Matt23:23
— Fred Liggin IV (@Liggin) April 16, 2014

This morning I woke up groggily... &sprayed fabric wrinkle remover on my head instead of hairspray. My hair will be realllly straight today.
— Emily Whelchel (@EmilythePerson) April 7, 2014

One year ago: April Report Card
Three years ago: Crying Over Osama and A Little Crazy