So I sat down tonight to have quite time and I tried something a bit different.
Instead of sitting down thinking of what I want to get out of this...
I prayed about what the Lord wants me to get out of it.
So I opened the book I am reading for my Bible study and immediately I read some incredible stuff!
Seriously the Lord can do amazing things if you just let him reveal himself to you!
The book I am reading is In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen.
I read it last year for Work Crew training but I always am able to get more out of the books the second time.
The book is about a man who had taught for twenty years at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard.
He was a genius.
He taught pastoral psychology, pastoral theology, and Christian spirituality.
He began to feel empty, dry, and spiritually drained.
So he prayed for an answer.
That answer was L'Arche Community for the mentally handicapped people.
He gave up all his knowledge and credibility to teach what people thought were the unteachable.
In his book he talks about reflections on Christian Leadership.
Relevance
is the name of the first chapter.
The temptation in it for leaders is our desire to be relevant.
He writes,
"I am convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God's Love. The Great Message is what we have to carry."
When was the last time you were told to be Irrelevant?
Our world thrives off of our self relevance.
We do anything to boost our selves.
Thats not what we need to be Christian Leaders.
The Lord's love is what is most important.
Henri Nouwen went to a place where
the people couldn't read his books,
the had never heard of the schools he taught at,
his higher level education did not matter ONE BIT.
Talk about irrelevance.
Jesus was tempted with the same things.
He was tempted to turn stones into bread.
When he was asked to prove his power as the Son of God by the relevant behavior of changing stones to bread, he clung to his mission to simply proclaiming the word.
I agree that it is hard.
Being put in a new environment,
new people,
new teachers,
new friends,
new younglife.
I strive to get back my credibility that was built back up at home.
The thing is I DON'T NEED IT.
The Lord will give me what I need to spread his word.
I can not do it on my own accord.
I need to be irrelevant in order to be a servant for the Lord.
His relevance> My relevance
With Love From My Father,
Diane Elizabeth
PS. I am currently writing this in the basement of my dorm during a tornedo drill. How fun...
