So this week is blessed are the meek. I have really found a lot of joy from the experiments this week. The first week was physically challenging and made me want to complain a lot. The second week was more spiritually challenge and trying to discipline myself to pray more thoroughly (think I failed this week). But this week has been really fun and satisfying. And it has really shown me that I don't have to do incredible things to make a small but positive difference in someone's day. I decided to do a positive facebook post each day to give a shout-out (a virtual pat on the back) to someone I admire, respect, appreciate their efforts. It has been challenging to try to think of people beyond my core group of friends that I can lift up, not that I don't want to lift up my core group of friends, but I want to try to think of people that impact my life in a positive way and they might not even know it.

So far these are the people I have recognized: Thursday-school counselors (wrote all three of ours a note of appreciation) and some talented co-workers, Friday-our school's head custodian (wrote a note of appreciation), Saturday- Krista Petty- CCC administrator , Sunday- two people in our Sunday school that have been instrumental in getting us involved to "adopt" an orphanage in Honduras, Today- Shannon Coley (happens to also be a Sunday school member) who is always so upbeat and positive.

Many of the people I have recognized are not my friend on facebook, but I don't think that is the point. For me the point is to do or say something positive without getting or even expecting something in return. However, I do know it brightened someone's day. I wrote a handwritten note to our head custodian on Friday and put it in our faculty/staff mailbox. I saw her this morning before school began and she said "Thank you. It really means a lot."

KE--Week 2

Well,

I'm afraid I've done a pretty crappy job this week of journaling. I think it's because I've had a hard time identifying with "Those Who Mourn". I wrote a couple of letters to soldiers and prayed (sparingly) for Egypt and the Sudan. While I'm disappointed in myself for not really giving the effort this week like I did last week, I have learned this week that I don't know what it means to truly mourn. I've never lost anyone or anything so important to me that I mourned, and I think that's why I've had a hard time this week.

I do think that we were also called to mourn the sins of others, and that is a hard thing as well. I'm going through a time right now where I'm really trying to not be judgmental, but it seems that I immediately fall to judgment so quickly. That's something I've been praying a lot for lately is to accept people and love them unconditionally, even when they drive me crazy. So I think mourning for their sins, when they could just not do the things that they know are wrong, is a hard concept for me to really buy into, even though I know it's what Christ calls us to do.

Andy

So it is the end of week two. I don't think I got as much out of this week as I did from the first week, but I know it is because I didn't put as much into this week. Last week was sleeping on the floor at night and if I didn't sleep on the floor it was obvious. But this week has been different. This week my challenge was to pray for the people of a country (Mexico), especially the people who are in mourning/grieving. The first day was good. I did some research and it opened my eyes to the violence that is tearing cities in Mexico apart. But after the first day, I got slack. And I know it is because there was no accountability for me. How could someone know if I prayed or not. And I did pray- a little. I prayed in my car, I prayed when I felt guilt for not praying, I prayed yesterday when I remembered that tomorrow is the new chapter in Bible study and I didn't have much to show for this week. I prayed for those who had lost families, and I prayed for those who had family members who just "disappeared". I prayed for families whose loved ones weren't at home because they are in the US trying to make money and make a better life for their families. And today I did some more research. Turns out there was more violence yesterday- 3 boys were killed at a car dealership. They were shot 17 times with a semi-automatic weapon (commonly used by the drug cartel). This story also mentioned last week's shooting (see previous post). It went on to say that in 48 hours last week-14 people were killed. This country has no shortage of grieving mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, daughters and sons. My heart aches for them and for the ones doing the killing.

Jim and Steven

I'm still working on my format for how to tackle my experiment this week: mourning and praying for fallen Christian leaders and others affected by their actions. Decided I need to learn a little more about some of these situations and start coming up with a list for the week. May post some of my research later.

One thing I'm discovering -- and one thing that is itself worth morning over -- there is no shortage of fallen Christian leaders. The list is LONG and goes back a long way.

I'm also sad when I consider how commonplace the "Christian leader scandal" has become. We aren't surprised when it happens, or at least I'm not. It'll happen again, and I won't be surprised then either. Isn't that awful?

I've also decided that I'd make it a point to pray for at least two people every day, a fallen Christian, and a current, prominent Christian leader who hasn't had a scandal. It seems like I should pray for the redemption of those who've already made mistakes, while also lifting up those who are very influential and asking for God's protection over them and their flocks and to strengthen their commitments.

Today my focus is on Jim Bakker and Steven Furtick.

Will try to post more of my thoughts later.

Mourning

This week's experiment is on mourning. I guess I've never really had to mourn very much in my life. I've not really lost anyone that close to me. Maybe a grandfather, but he was older and had been ill for a long time, so it was expected. It's a little harder for me to get my head around mourning than the idea of poverty, because poverty is based in things that are material. I can fix poverty if I have the money and resources, but no matter what I do people will still need to mourn.

One of the projects I chose for this week is to write a letter to a soldier serving. I would say that seeing your friends die needless deaths while being so far away from everyone and everything thing you know and love would give you very legitimate cause for to mourn. I hand wrote a letter today to an Army medic who serves on the front lines. There is a website called www.anysoldier.com where you can get addresses of soldier and write to them and send them care packages. I found one that hasn't been contacted very much and wrote her a letter about Kate and I and just told her that we are proud of her and care for her and are praying for her safety and quick return home.

I haven't really gotten my head around this week's topic yet, so I probably need to pray more about it tomorrow and see where it takes me.

Andy

Week 2: Mourning

This week's experiment is based around Matthew 5:4, "blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." There's many different kinds of mourning and no shortage of reasons to mourn in this life. One of the specific points of discussion last night was the kind of mourning that often occurred collectively among the nation of Israel back in OT days, mourning for sin.

I admit that mourning is not a reflex of mine when it comes to sin. If we're talking about my own sin, then my response to it is usually guilt, remorse, self-loathing, indifference (since I know I'll be forgiven), a desire to "work it off," a redoubling of my efforts to be a good person, or some combination of those things. But mourning? That's not a word I'd use to describe how I approach my sin.

If we're talking about other people's sin, then mourning is almost never on my radar. My response is probably more like judgment ("what a sinful person they are"), self-justification ("I'm better than they are"), or a simple shrug of the shoulders. I don't think to mourn, not for Christians or non-Christians.

To mourn implies that there is some kind of loss, that the sin that has occurred is against the natural order of how things are supposed to be, and that something unfortunate and grievous has happened to someone. It implies sympathy (or empathy? depending on the case?). It implies that there is a victim involved. Is it the sinner, or the people affected by the sinner? I know, I know... probably both.

Anyway, my assignment this week is to commit to prayer for fallen Christian leaders. I'll be interested to see where this takes me and how my views may change. I'm hopeful (strange word) that I'll discover how to mourn and grieve for the people affected by the sins of our leaders. I hope these will be for me more than just cautionary tales. I hope I'll discover redemption on many more levels and in many more situations than I previously knew.

More to come...