Vulnerable: Guest Blogger

Dear Friends, I've invited a woman from the younger generation to write to you today so we can catch a glimpse of her relationship with God, herself and the world.  I'm sure some of you can relate to her inner life and journey. Spiritual growth is like a good run in Oregon's wine country: when we first start out we can barely catch our breath but the longer we go at it, the more freedom God gives.  How would you encourage this precious one on her spiritual run?

I don’t really know how to write this journal entry other than just being completely honest and vulnerable with you and myself. I am a people pleaser, perfectionist, and one who likes to take and have control. I didn’t think turning 25 would be so pivotal in discovering who I am. I already thought I knew who I was. Maybe it’s that I’m finally realizing that I’m not perfect and that’s OK.  I don’t know how you will react after reading this post, but all I ask is that you read it with an open heart and know that this has been a long time coming. Ladies, do you know when you run out of foundation, it’s not just your foundation that needs replacing. For me, it’s my foundation, powder, face wash, moisturizer, shampoo and conditioner that seem to run out all at the same time. This is a perfect analogy to my life circumstances.  Everything is happening at once, it’s all running out and I need to be refilled by the only one who can refill me. 

This is a little glimpse of who I was and still am in some ways.  In college, I would never leave my dorm without looking completely put together. My hair, outfit, jewelry and face had to look perfect and if not, I didn’t feel complete. I have always been a person who had to have it all together. I found my self worth in the way I portrayed myself and the friends I had.  Thankfully, now I prefer to live in my Nike spandex and Loft over sized sweater. My hair doesn’t have to be perfect and I don’t need eyeliner.  My friends come in all shapes, sizes, personalities, career paths, and socio- economics. I love each one so dearly and couldn’t be more blessed in my relationships. I am not as concerned of what others think but more importantly I am finally getting comfortable in my own skin.  

My parents adopted me when I was 3 months old from Korea.  I don’t want anything I write to degrade the love and care they have poured upon me. I love them beyond this world.  My parents always said I seemed like an only child with the way I acted and they way they spoiled me. However, I share my parents with 11 other siblings. This is something that I still struggle with even today. I am a selfish person who wants my parents to myself and I know I will never have that. I can relate to a quote my pastor said, ” I am so frustrated with the way I am wired, for it is far from what Christ exhibits. Christ is patience, slow to anger and abounding in love. I have to work extra hard to exhibit these characteristics. It doesn’t come naturally for me.”

 I grew up in a white community. I never really appreciated my ethnicity because I never could relate to anyone in that sense, besides my little sisters.  Just note, that I loved high school! I had a great time and don’t regret a thing. However, I remember feeling different because I wasn’t white, like my friends. I tried to be as white as I could and tried to forget I was Korean.  In high school, I was not unpopular, so maybe I placed more emphasis on the way I looked because I had a status quo to uphold.  I really don’t know. But I remember thinking I wish I was white. I tried to compensate my Asian features with my thin figure. Since middle school, I had a love/hate relationship with food and my body image. I read that if you seek professional help, you have an 80% of being cured and living normally from an eating disorder. This has probably stemmed from multiple things but all I know is that I am tired of it controlling me. By the grace of God, I am seeking professional help and will continue on the path to recovery. 

Recently, I have been experiencing this deep sense of loneliness that I can’t figure out why or how it started. I see my friends in these relationships where they are loved for, cared for, pursued and sought after by a man. I wonder why I can’t have the same thing.  I feel pressured by society to be in relationship with someone. I know in God’s time that perfect man for me will come, but why isn’t it now? I am frustrated with His plan. I am frustrated because I have family members and friends asking me why I am single, like I have something to do with it. They try and give me tips and advice to find someone, like I don’t know already. Satan knows this weakness of mine and relishes at the chance to throw other self-doubting questions my way.  Why was I given up for adoption? Was I not loved?  Why can’t I let guys get close to me? Am I not worthy of a man’s love? 

I am tired of having to hide and pretend I have it all together. I am a girl who just wants to live a life God has intended her to live. I am a girl who is working overtime to learn how to accept God’s plan and allow Him to lead. I am a girl who just needs someone to listen to her heart speak truth and not judge her for when it does.   

 Writing this has helped me acknowledge that I am imperfect and it’s okay.  It’s a place for me to be vulnerable with you and share my feelings, struggles, and victories. I am terrified that by showing my weakness, you will be disappointed in me. I hope that you aren’t and if you are, I am terribly sorry for letting you down. I am just a girl trying to figure out what it means to be true to herself yet true to others. 

“Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.”- Isaiah 26:4

Open Letter To Christian Women Over 40

Open Letter to Christian Women Over 40

We must build relationships with the next generation.

Dear women of my generation,

How did there come to be such a divide between older and younger women in the church? How is it that today’s generation of Christian women are more likely to list a celebrity like Angelina Jolie as their hero rather than a mentor, leader, or female friend in their own congregation? We, as Christian women over 40, have some work to do.  The work I am referring to is about our call in building a close relationship with our younger sisters in Christ.  We are being called to understand, learn and listen to this next generation and not mis-lead them.  Our authentic response will help more than we realize.

At a recent conference, I sat stone still as Barna CEO David Kinnaman quoted one statistic after another about young people leaving the church and their low knowledge of Scripture. I prepared to hear the proverbial five steps to protect our children, students, and younger co-workers from the evils of today’s Babylon, but Kinnaman said just the opposite.

“Let’s take exiles more seriously. . .we’re more like Mordechai than Esther; the younger generation needs a relationship to trust,” he said, encouraging us to come alongside the young Christians so they can grow. The message to stop avoiding the fact that we live in Babylon was clear.

Honestly, I was relieved. I’d recently interviewed 20 women under 40, asking them about their spiritual lives, their faith, and their relationships with older Christian women. When I asked them to describe their spiritual lives, the majority said they pray constantly and want to be close to God, yet, they feel a distance. Then I asked, “Do you need to be in a relationship with an older Christian woman to grow spiritually?” Hands down, each one said, “Yes!”  I listened with eagerness hoping to hear stories of older Christian women connecting with these young, dynamic women. I was not, however, prepared for what these young, educated and professional Christian women told me: There’s a distance between us and them.

Like many women our age, we’re living with the daily disconnect between the generations’ spiritual lives.  And it’s real. Barna found that two-thirds of evangelical women over 40 describe themselves as deeply spiritual compared to about half of those under 40. 

We, as an older generation, have a depth of faith to offer this younger generation of women, who want to grow spiritually and want relationships with women in the church. It’s complicated, the relationship part.

What I hear the younger generation asking for is us to admit to the suffering in our lives. Are we living transparently about the emotional pain we actually feel?  Even to ourselves? What draws a younger woman closer to us is when she can connect her own doubts and struggles with our honest talk.  Even though Christian women are blogging online with more authenticity, these younger women long for face-to-face contact, or as Kinnaman calls it, “skin time.”

So what would it look like for us as women in the older generations to mentor or disciple a younger woman in the Christian faith?

Listen with Wonder

It helps us to not generalize the younger generation. We live in the same culture, evil as it may be, as the younger women. As we listen to them, it gives us a moment to reflect on how we live out our Christian faith as women living in this culture – the culture Kinnaman calls Babylon – the place where Daniel and Esther were famous and where many Jewish people enjoyed wild success as business owners.  When the younger women listen to us, our transparency ignites a sense of wonder – a sense of astonishment at the lively inner life feelings matching their own.  It’s not a sense of “now I know your weakness,” rather it’s a sense of understanding. 

Create a Safe Place

We can offer our time and create safe place for conversation with younger women. The idea of sharing in a small group is popular in church and Bible studies, but they are not always the best venues. Safe to us is not what is safe to them. It’s not enough to see them in church and ask them how their family is doing. In a church setting, this age group tends to feel ignored. Meeting one-on-one with the intention of transparent talk feels like spiritual life to them, though it can take a lot of time and commitment for that to happen. We need to sacrifice our desire for the younger generation of women to be just like us. They are not like us. Their spiritual lives grow differently. One reason is they are more likely to see themselves as leaders than we do. There’s a confidence about the younger generation of women in which we need preparation.

Live without Misleading

In the Barna survey, there’s an interesting twist. Although 47 percent of young women do not see themselves as deeply spiritual, they still consider themselves leaders. They are more likely than us, their mothers, and their grandmothers to take on these leadership roles.

With great respect and honor for past ministries, what we know as mentoring should be rethought.  If younger women are more likely to serve as leaders, we need to listen to them and not mislead them by the way we are living.  Apparently, they are watching us and waiting for our initiative and pursuit.

Even though this conversation can sound familiar – the younger generation leaving the church, them Loving Jesus but not the Church – the actual skill of mentoring the next generation of Christian women requires practical knowledge

Today in Babylon, you and I are church.  Living a “reverent life”(yes, I am referencing Titus 2:3 here) means we pay attention to the women younger than us in the faith. We boldly invite one or two into our lives to meet twice a month for a little more than an hour, and we ask good questions, reveal our pain, and refuse to shift our eyes when we hear something we cannot relate to… like being a vice president of a company at 24 or having multiple sexual partners because they were lonely. The honest and humbling truth is that as a relationship like this one grows in the protection of a safe place, we, the older generation, will grow exponentially in our faith as they are more likely to teach us about Jesus Christ and His Will for this world than the way we’ve been doing Church in America.

Let’s continue this conversation for the long haul.  I see myself loving the younger women by writing this to you and representing them well.  Join me?

What Am I Listening For?

What Am I Listening For?

Learning to discern what’s best in a situation is difficult in a world dedicated to so many choices.  I remember two years ago when my husband and daughters asked if we could get a second dog.  I didn’t need to even pray about my answer because I knew another dog spelled more work for me.  But when my youngest daughter reasoned with me that having someone with her at night would help her sleep better, I caved in and said, “yes.”  (See photo).  Naturally, the sweet little puppy turned my world upside down and since I work from home, I was constantly taking her out and holding her on my lap.  When someone would walk by outside, the new puppy would begin yipping, inviting our other dog to bark.  I became instantly frustrated.  I resolved to teach this new puppy to see my daughter as her caretaker and not me.  It took a few months for me to keep getting myself out of the way but eventually both daughter and dog successfully attached themselves to one another.  My daughter never felt frustrated the way I did. I consider it a miracle, when I say, “honey, your dog needs to go out,” and I don’t feel the full responsibility.

A few months later, I was in a meeting with a group of 20 something year old women who gathered for spiritual reasons – some were believers already and some were not.  As the “older” women and I interacted with this group, I sensed the Spirit was vying for me to listen, I heard God telling me to stop taking full responsibility for the “spiritual” conversation.  Where had I heard this before?  In my spirit, I heard God saying, “Teach them to take full responsibility of this new gift but stay out of the way – they are not like you.”    What was happening was God wanted me to obey His voice and not just do what I saw as the “right thing.”  God gave me a place in the Spirit where my only responsibility was to be a channel so others could do the owning.

When I respond to God’s voice, “to obey is better than sacrifice. (I Samuel 15:22), am I confident I’m not motivated by my own preferences?  The human heart is fragile and can be easily swayed by what thousands of other people are doing, or easily rebellious by wanting to do its own thing.  Except for those who hear that Still, Small voice tenderly speaking to us, people do not seek a Word from the Lord; they want to find a word that coincides with what they long to hear.

If my own preferences are my reason for listening to God’s voice, it will not be long before my “self” motives change to judging, criticism, isolation, and fear.  My desires to hear from God may be strong and even passionate, but they are not Gospel centered.  The world’s voices and the enemy’s voice are far too strong to combat my own voice.  I need more than passionate desire to push back those voices.  I need the indescribable and invincible power of God.

Jesus Christ was motivated by two things:  doing the will of His Father and redemptive love, which called for His need to hear God’s voice while on this earth.  Unless similar motivations pulse through me, I will rely on my own resources.  But if I listen and obey God’s Word to me in a given situation, I place myself at the mercy of His resources.  How can I tell if I am hearing God’s voice or not?  By time.  Once that Word from God is completed, He moves us on to the next lesson.

Our goal is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and to “lift our eyes to the hills asking, “where does my help come from?” (Psalm 121:1).  God’s goal is to be our Helper in the word He has given us.  The result will be many people being blessed through our obedience.

What do you think?  What challenges do you experience when handling spiritual conversations with women younger or older than you?

One young woman asked me recently at a conference, “How do you know when you hear God’s voice?”  I’d love to hear how readers would respond to this.

See Dr. Jean Twenge's work on the younger generations: http://www.generationme.org/index.html

Carrying Out Small Instructions

Carrying Out Small Instructions: A Lesson in Greatness

"And whatever you do . . " Colossians 3:17a

"What can I do for extra credit and how can I improve my grade?"  
"Just do the work and follow my instructions."
"But I didn't do the assignment because I already knew it!"
"Just do the work, it's part of this class."

I taught writing at various levels for more than 18 years and am convinced I learned far more than my students.  As the lead learner, I realized how giving assignments with crystal clarity was the key for success in writing for middle school through college students.  The majority of students finished their assignments but I always heard from the "20 percenters" who either forgot, completed half the assignment, left it on their computer, or simply were too busy to do the work.  

The lesson I learned?  Just do the work!

Students, like us, want to be great; the desire for greatness is God-given.  Proverbs 13:19 reminds us, "Greatness is a longing satisfied." One way our longings are satisfied is through the work God gives us to do. Our everyday work is a gift from God.   In the school of life where God is the Teacher of teachers, sometimes I turn my back on His lessons, just like my students, thinking I already know this so why follow through?  What keeps me from God's greatness is the tempter. A courageous soul, someone who we would say is "great" has overcome tons of temptations. 

 In our culture, do we see our everyday work as meaningless?  Could that be our great temptation?  We make celebrities out of people who are in full-time ministry or who are in  media.  What I am doing now should be the most important thing in the world to me.  I need to do the work.  You and I were designed to work.  Everything God placed inside us needs to come out.  Do I make it beautiful?  Is it a work of art?  Or am I giving into the temptation to cut corners?  It's a lie that someone else's work and life are more meaningful.  The truth is I can bring meaning to my work, my job, my responsibilities.

Everyday life is very spiritual and here are six ways you can bring more meaning to your daily life:

• Carry Out the Instructions: even if it means making someone else look great

• Finish Your Prayer: be convinced God will come to your aid and intervene

• Humble Yourself: Benedict of Nursia writes, "the third step to humility is obedience to others. Because of our love for God, we submit ourselves to others."

• Pay Attention: Emotions serve us well when we pay attention to them without making them our master

• Keep Clear from Idolatry: A person of nobel attitude asks herself when faced with temptation,"Am I in the place of God, could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"

• Do the Work: Dig faster and deeper in all God brings your way

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."  Colossians 3:17

The Truth about Deception

What are your first thoughts the moment after realizing you've been deceived?  Like you were all in -- one-hundred percent, not holding back with anything or with anyone or from going anywhere? And in one instant the truth was revealed or perhaps the truth dawned slowly upon you?

Recently, I made a "bring the whole tithe to the storehouse," kind of commitment about eating healthier.  I bounded out of bed every morning for two weeks to fix new and healthier food for myself and my family.  I was literally at the "storehouse" we all know as Costco, standing in a massive line with all my healthy items when I glanced down at the ingredients.  Stunned, I read and reread the label for clarity - it listed a gazillion milligrams of sodium in my favorite vegetable side-dish. Believing it was heart-healthy, it slowly dawned on me I had been whole-heartedly deceived for a few weeks.

My first thoughts after reading the ingredients' label weren't thoughts at all -- I was mad and I told everyone in earshot the truth about the gazillion milligrams of salt in the package I was holding.  Suddenly, all the people around me started swapping food deception stories because they were convinced a certain product was healthy!

The spiritual realm is really no different.  Even though we may feel super motivated in bringing our "whole tithe to the storehouse," if we don't pause for a few moments, (see August 22, 2012 blog post) and "tighten the belt of truth around your loins," (Ephesians 6:14, amp), we can be seduced into believing we're doing exactly what we're "supposed" to be doing.  When, in fact, we are whole-heartedly being led astray.  For each one of us, deception looks different as our internal needs, wiring, wounds and preferences are unique.  Yet, Scripture teaches us we are to be on our guard and to watch out (I Peter 5:8).

As a woman who follows Christ and wears the full armor of God,  I am not only responsible to face the truth of who I am and who God is, I am also called to tell every young woman in earshot the truth about the Enemy's schemes in my own life.  Just this morning, I was swapping a spiritual story with a woman in the generation after me who was searching for the truth in Buddhism and I watched as the Light of truth dawned in her eyes.  The Bible says that the truth of God's Word is the Light.  So in a world of darkness and in a young woman's inner world of darkness, I am eager to tighten the belt of truth - what about you?

"Be well-balanced- temperate, sober-minded: be vigilant and cautious at all times, for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring (in fierce hunger), seeking someone to seize upon and devour."  I Peter 5:8 (amp).

Standing Firm, Standing Still

Lord, help me to be strong in you today.  What are my misconceptions about being a strong woman of God?  How do they impact my relationships with other women?  I put on the full armor You provide, Lord.  In Your presence right now, I have some decisions to make:  The devil has a scheme to bring me down, to bring others down because of me, and to separate us from each other.  I receive the FULL armor of God so that I can stand AGAINST the enemy in my relationships.  God, You are strong and You want me strong.  It doesn’t mean You want me controlling, rigid, detached, or in all things “figured out to the max.”  Your weapons made of the best materials are what give me strength.  So today, I put them on; I stand up to everything thrown my way.

 I make another decision in Your Presence as I stand strong in You today -- I  wait for You.  When I glimpse another woman’s life, envy can so easily stab at me.  Then, I feel weak, like I gave in to something I didn’t know was in me. In putting on the armor, I am waiting for You.  Being strong in You means I pray openly, not ignoring what comes to the surface.  If I think too much about putting on these invisible pieces of armor, God, even more of my weaknesses surface.  Just feeling slighted by one can make me feel unloved by all.  Suddenly, I cannot find the strength within to cope with life’s demands.  And then I remember . . .

The unseen powers of darkness are at war and if I’m not prepared for the battles, I live defeated, struggling to stand firm. 

I put on the full armor of God by pausing in Your Presence, naming each piece as Jesus hands it to me and then I pause waiting my instructions.  As I connect with other women, I pray inwardly for them to be strong in God ~ a very real reason the armor of light exists.

Ephesians 6:10-11; Joshua 1

“With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.” I Corinthians 15:58

Prayer: Concern for the One

“ . . . When one has the courage to enter where life is experienced as most unique and most private, one touches the soul of the community.  The woman or man who has spent many hours trying to understand, feel, and clarify the alienation and confusion of one of his fellow men or women might well be the best equipped to speak to the needs of the many, because all men and women are one at the well-spring of pain and joy . . . forgetting the many for the one is a sign of true leadership.”  

~ Henri J. M. Nouwen

Prayer in its most general sense requires a relationship where you and I are most vulnerable.  When we come to God in prayer, we are invited to open up our hands and let go of what we cling to so tightly.  For some of us, it takes time to trust; others quickly release their fears and surrender to God in unashamed freedom.

When we think about it, prayer opens us up to God’s influence and Power which can lead us in ways we never wanted to go or never thought about going.  Christ is the one who revealed to us that praying, “Not my will but Yours be done,” frees us to pray for others.  Through His prayers, countless people received their sight, lost their chains, found their peace and held their loved ones close.

“Prayer,” says Walter Hilton, “is nothing else but an ascending or getting up of the desire of the heart into God by withdrawing it from earthly thoughts.”   As the Apostle Paul so artistically writes, “For in him we live and move and have our being. . .” Acts 17:28a.  It’s easy for us to think God lavishes only a select few with the spiritual giftedness of prayer; yet, we are all filled with the Holy Spirit to pray at all times and on all occasions.

Praying for Another

Praying for another, then, is a way God cares for the one lost sheep.  It’s the capacity to be fully present with another where they are most vulnerable.  Spiritual women are distinguished by their commitment to hear God’s voice and as co-workers with Christ, we understand how to reach out in prayer, going to emotional places few are willing to go.  It’s hard to imagine that we wouldn’t want to pray with another. But our busy lives keep us from being available.  This makes us wonder: where do women go when they need prayer?  Do we just assume someone else has that covered or that it is her responsibility to find someone to pray for her?

Our willingness to pray for another opens us up to new realities as we don’t just say, “I will pray for you.”  Rather, we initiate and offer a place to meet opening ourselves up as a vessel of God’s deep love.  This approach to praying for another is challenging because it requires us to organize our lives in such a way that we create spaces to respond more deeply as we listen to God in prayer.  This does not discount the need for our own private prayer.  However, Scripture is clear that we are to “encourage one another daily. . . “ Hebrews 3:13.

The Challenge of Praying for Another

One of the challenges of initiating prayer for another is it can feel like boundaries are being crossed or that getting too involved risks being vulnerable ourselves.  We might feel burdened by someone’s circumstances or lack of support.  Yet, many people, especially women in leadership are longing for a way of getting into the Presence of God through prayer with someone who has spiritual commitment and guts.  Many would love the relief of prayer without the extra traveling to seek a spiritual advisor or financial expenses.  These women wonder, “Is there a person I can trust in prayer who will listen in the quiet as my pain and joy mingle?”

I believe you are that “yes!” to one woman this week or this month.  Last week, I was led to pray for a woman in our community who just lost her son to a car accident.  I could barely allow myself to think about looking into her eyes.  As she was standing before me outside her place of work, I drank in everything about her and just wept.  In those moments, I knew I was in the Presence of Christ as He stood close by her weeping for her, too.  For that moment, that was my prayer.