Hearing God

Back in May, I finished reading Hearing God by Dallas Willard, and I loved it. And now, only 2 months later, I'm reviewing it! It was a great reminder about a lot of what I've learned, and it shored up some doubts and misconceptions I've accumulated.

Some of the points I really appreciated:

Willard pointed out "we must enter into our study of it [the Bible] on the assumption that the experiences recorded there are basically of the same type as ours would have been if we had been there (p. 35)." Without that assumption, the Bible stories can taunt us with their false promise of miraculous communion with God. Or worse, we brush over those stories and the Bible becomes a book of doctrine. "We must make the conscious effort to think that such things might happen to us and imagine what it would be like (p. 90)."

Willard argues that when God communicates to us "subjectively" it's most commonly through "our own spirits, thoughts and feelings (p. 96-100)." He believes this way God can redeems us more, because "it most engages the faculties of free, intelligent beings involved in the work of God as his colaborers and friends." I felt encouraged but still hesitant to believe that idea wholeheartedly. Sometimes I feel we've shut out God's voice through the miraculous, so he can only communicate to us through the mundane. Any thoughts?

"God created, God rules, and God redeems through his word... Through our words we literally give to others a piece of our mind... Through words, soul impacts soul, sometimes with a great spiritual force (p. 118-119)." I enjoyed his discussions of Jesus and the Bible as God's Word, and also the way our words affect God's Kingdom and one another.

It dragged a little sometimes. The chapter "Our Communicating Cosmos" felt like a shallow introduction into several big questions - whether God would, could, or should communicate with us.

I loved some of the simple encouragements to deepen your conversation with the Lord, like meditating on Scripture, paying attention to what's happening in our lives and hearts, taking everything before God, and listening intentionally and carefully.

Finally, it rang true with me that God's communication is more about living life with us, not giving us infallible guidance. I need that to be my purpose in more of my prayers.

For Those of Us Who Hate Conflict

I just finished Difficult Conversations, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. They come at the subject from a business perspective, working with the Harvard Negotiation Project, but their book encompasses all sorts of difficult conversations.

They pinpointed the three underlying subjects that get people into trouble when they're not raised - what actually happened, feelings, and identity. They covered how we often assume our opponent's intentions and that the other person knows the impact they've had in our life, and assume that our intentions were completely innocent and that we know the full impact in their life. Also, when we don't identify and bring up our feelings (that's plural for a reason), they fester and leak out somewhere eventually. And our identity is terrifying to bring up, but often difficult conversations flow out of a threat to our perceived image of ourselves.

They offered some great tools: focus on contribution instead of blame, shift your purpose for having the conversation to learning and sharing, and reframe accusations into feelings and truth into perceptions.

It was well worth the read. I'm feeling encouraged to have some difficult conversations I've been avoiding!

Oh the Humidity!

I got to visit lots of friends in Houston this weekend. Thankfully, we got to catch up inside, because man, Houston is stinking hot. And it's not even full swing summer yet. Eek!

I met Steven '09 for Chipotle lunch, and I got to hear about Pioneer Bible Translators. He's thinking about becoming a linguist, living with a group of people who have never heard of Jesus, translating the Bible into a language we've never even heard of, and planting a church there.

Then I hung out with Prisca '09 at Starbucks, where we talked about family, church, and growing in your ethnicity and living cross-culturally.

I met Colin '07 for dinner at Thai Gourmet, where I got to know his new wife Sara better and hear about their honeymoon plans. Newlyweds are so fun! We shared pictures of recent adventures - me with the home remodel and traipsing around Europe, Colin climbing a mountain for his bachelor party, and he and Sara roughing it in Alaska on a family vacation a while back.

Rhys '08 and Rachel '09 kindly put me up for the night and fed me apple pie for dessert and oatmeal fruit crisp for breakfast. I got to hear about medical school and crazy bio lab building projects. And I got to share lots of stories about Jack, Kyle, my church, and InterVarsity.

Finally, I headed to Second Baptist Church with Sean '07 and Kathleen '07. I got to meet their sweet baby girl, eat some Sunday school potluck, and talk about being married, figuring out anger, parenting, and welcoming the 2 Chinese students who will be staying with them for 2 1/2 weeks in July.

It was an Aggie-filled weekend, one of the best kinds of weekends in my opinion. I actually asked all of them to pray and consider partnering with my ministry with InterVarsity at A&M in different ways, and everyone listened to what I said and was open to praying about it. It was really encouraging. Even if everyone decides they need to say no, I knew everyone was actually going to think about it. Thanks for praying for my fundraising this summer. God's at work!

RecWeek

The Holy Spirit definitely seemed to be moving among my 13 Aggies! They faced conflicts with each other, forgave family members who have abused them, and grew in passion for spreading grace and love at A&M. The speaker, Gideon Tsang from the Austin church Vox Veniae, talked about being afraid, being a part of stories of grace, and being a good Samaritan. I think his talks gave words to what the Holy Spirit was doing.

We made some risky, God-sized plans for New Student Outreach in August. As a whole fellowship, we'll be handing out icy pops to hot students, driving freshmen to church, and playing games at one of the dorms. The LaFe Small Group will be playing soccer and handing out horchata. The co-ed Small Group will be doing Ice Cream for Ideas, to find out what people think about Jesus. The men's Small Group will be grilling and watching a manly movie. And we may have a fourth Small Group on facing opposition in Acts, which would do an outreach on choices we make in college. With Large Group, football games, and helping freshmen move in, we'll be busy!

Ben Nelson is our new Aggie IV staff worker. It was amazing to partner together for 2 weeks, and I'm so excited to work with him next year. He loved meeting and getting to know the Aggies. Plus, he got to experience his first yell practice.

I also got to teach 120 new Small Group Leaders over both weeks. We "trained for adventure" as pirates on the high seas. Mostly, that meant we dressed up the first day in eye patches and head scarves, yelled "Argh!" a lot, and had students tell us pirate jokes throughout the week.

The first week, I talked about the cost and pitfalls of leadership and how new Small Group Leaders can stay healthy facing these costs. Of course, I was reminded of a few things I could do myself! The second week, I taught students the inductive Bible study method. We covered how to lead others to observe, interpret, and apply what they read. It was exhilarating to help students learn a skill that will last them a lifetime, and will impact the campus, too.

We agreed to fast and pray on every Tuesday and Thursday this summer. Join us in praying! We haven't landed on a vision statement yet, so please pray for a vision next year that will help us to focus on following God more. Please pray for protection and preparation for students over the summer. Please also pray for healthy partnership with Asian American InterVarsity, our sister fellowship, and for our new chapter plants, LaFe (Latino students) and a South Asian group. Thanks!

Praying

Praying, by J.I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom, was a good primer on the subject. It covered: meditating, praising, being searched by God, asking, complaining, hanging on through hardship or delayed answers, and praying corporately. Plus, it touched on the beliefs you need to have to relate to God through prayer so you don't get stuck in lies about what prayer is and who God is.

Writing style-wise, the book suffered from the same problem I'm told I have. The writing felt like stilted conversation. There were too many long, complicated sentences and far too many lists of verbs or adjectives that I lost myself in. The authors seemed to be trying to throw a slight joke in occasionally, but they always kept their distance with big words. Nothing wrong with big words and big sentences - you just don't have to use them when something simple will do.

It sometimes felt like they were trying to pack in too many slightly connected thoughts into the same chapter. They spent a lot of time explaining why they were talking about a subject that didn't at first glance have much to do with the chapter title. There's just too much to talk about with prayer!

If you can push through the writing style and stay with their thought process, you're in for a treat. I was challenged about the heart of prayer and seeking after the Lord. I was called back to some basic prayer practices I desperately need. And I was introduced to a couple new ideas to freshen up my prayer life.

In the next couple months, I'm hoping to:

Start reading the Bible all the way through, and read more of it using lectio divina.

Ask God to search my heart, meditating on Psalm 139.

Ask God how I should be interceding for others.

Structure my intercessory prayer using Biblical prayers, such as Psalm 9:9-10, 1 Sam 2:1-10, 1 Chron 29:10-19, 2 Chron 6:14-42, Daniel 9:4-19, Habakkuk 3:17-19, Luke 1:46-55, Eph 3:14-21, Phil 1:3-11, Col 1:9-12, Jude 24-25, and Matt 6:9-13.

Bring to God in wordless prayer one of my major areas of suffering. Close with Psalm 55:22. Pray my response to God (with words).

Consider how my personal prayer can improve my corporate worship, and vice versa.

"Doesn't the prospect of gaining wisdom make meditation worth the effort? Sadly, there are couch-potato Christians just as there are couch-potato TV watchers, who look on at others' efforts but make no effort at anything themselves and so get nowhere (82)." I pray this isn't me - I don't want to look back and wonder, "Whatever happened to my decision to pray diligently?" Especially ironic, as I'm typing this while sitting on a couch.

Quotes from Praying

Just finished reading Praying, and I'll post a review of it tomorrow. In the meantime, I particularly loved some of the quotes they used:

"I ask you whether you pray, because diligence in prayer is the secret of eminent holiness." - Bishop Ryle, A Call to Prayer

"May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to." - C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment." - C.S. Lewis, "A Word About Praising," Reflections on the Psalms

He asked for strength that he might achieve;
he was made weak that he might obey.
He asked for health that he might do greater things;
he was given infirmity that he might do better things.
He asked for riches that he might be happy;
he was given poverty that he might be wise.

He asked for power that he might have the praise of men;
he was given weakness that he might feel the need of God.
He asked for all things that he might enjoy life;
he was given life that he might enjoy all things.
He has received nothing that he asked for, but all that he hoped for.
His prayer is answered.
- A poem on how God hears our prayers and answers what we should have asked, attributed to Col. R.H. Fitzhugh, The Paradox of Prayer

"There is nothing more unchristian than the solitary Christian." - John Wesley

"I love the human race. It's people I can't stand." - Peanuts

Return from RecWeek (cue cheesy movie music)

I'm back after a week off! I spent 2 weeks, May 14-27, at RecWeek (I know it seems like a misnomer, but we have 2 sets of students come through, so they're only there a week). It was fantastic, and I can't wait to tell y'all about it. This summer, I'll also give updates on fundraising, and write some book reviews over what I've been reading. Look for my next post in a day or two!