Hope Shifts

Saturday morning was a hard day. The majority of the team was gone, our experiences were slowing down and I was feeling guilty. Guilty because I was an American. Guilty because many of the women and children who were mistreated were mistreated by men who look like me. I was wondering why. Why was I born in the US? Why weren't others? In Chris Huertz's book, "Simple Spirituality" he calls our upbringing in the US as the "curse of where we were born" simply because of how we often cannot understand the Majority World (a new term to refer to countries known as poor or undeveloped or third world...they are not a minority but the majority in our world). And it's true. There are some handicaps in my life that are under the surface just because I was not born in the Majority World. (granted there are even more benefits :) ).

So, during my pity party, I read Acts 17:26-28. Here are my thoughts:

"He determined the times set for them"
-This realization should bring contentment and peace in my life. God is determining the times in my life:
-times in various places
-seasons of life
-deserts and mountain tops

"and the exact places where they should live."
-Why do I often rebel from the place that God has put me? Why didn't God put others in better places? BECAUSE...

27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
-God's purpose in my living an in my living 'place' is so that I would find God AND so that OTHERS would find God. "men" is plural, giving me a call to all humankind. My resources are to be spent helping others find God. If I happen to have been raised in a culture more receptive and open to things of God, then God purposes that so that all humankind could find God.
-God is not far, no matter our living places or times we find ourselves in. I'm amazed this week that even in the darkest places, God's creation knows how to call out to the One who can rescue them. He is near.

28'For in him we live and move and have our being.'"
-"In Him We Live" = if I reach and find God then I live. Living right is not defined by wealth or abundance or even freedom but in being found IN GOD. And when I am found in Him, I am content being anywhere. God's Will then changes from seeking out which task I should do to "how can I be found more in God today?" And from there, my life begins to be shaped in accordance with God's Plan.

Implications:
-Resource my life so that others may find God
-Stay content because of an inner indwelling of God in me.
-Let my "being" take it's worth and identity from the very Word of God.
-Be thankful in all things, for this is God's Will for all.