Extremes

I'm reading through the Psalms this spring. They often start with an extreme statement and end on the other extreme. For example, today is Feb.6, so I read Psalm 6. Verse 1 begins,"O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony." Only 9 verses later I read, "The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer."

What an experience of talking to the Lord. It's not either, it's both. We do have to cry for mercy and we do get to acknowledge that he has heard us. Sometimes, those two things are just a breath away from each other. Just because we say one thing, doesn't mean we're omitting the other. I find it easy to be offended or discouraged when I interpret what's going on without the big picture.

I have to insert a cross-country skiing example, because at this time, it is the place where I feel my thoughts are the most clear. I'm giddy with delight when I see we have a 4" snow. That means the trackers can go out and groom the cross-country ski trail. But I go out to ski and I'm bummed that I'm not in good enough shape to really ski hard. Weeks later I may cry out, "Woe is me, the snow is melting!", yet have a great time skiing on the frozen ice if I bother to use sticky klister for such conditions. I can really fly then, but if I do, it's often too fast for me to safely negotiate a downhill run. I fall into an extreme and I can get hurt somehow.

Taking Perspectives is a little like that. We pray for people a half a world away who we don't know and yet let a parade of need walk past us at school everyday without taking a second to pray for them for days. Or we pray for our own needs, families, goals, classroom and friends, but forget there's a world of hurt out there with out the hope of even knowing the gospel. Both are going on. It's hard to care for everything. We have limits. When we're living at capacity, we're full. But, taking Perspectives gives us an experience in caring about a place we haven't cared for lately or sometimes at all.

When we realize there are sheep without a shepherd, we're grateful to have a time, place, and brothers and sisters in Christ who will join in prayer with us for them. Perspectives helps us do that.

I remember the first time I went through the class, I kept thinking, "...but what about here and now? What about teachers in their mission field?" We eventually addressed that and I was relieved. It's been so good for me to walk through this process again, because I needed to have my heart and mind expanded back to the place where Perspectives takes us-to the nations.

We need each other to think straight. I need to hear about your life and your classroom or I can become dangerously introspective about my life and my classroom. I am capable of even being obsessive about the nations to the point that I don't listen to or really look at individuals and the way that God is using them right in front of me. The fall has really damaged the way we think. I believe that we need each other in the body of Christ in schools to help us think rightly of our mission field. Without each other, we'll most likely fall into an extreme and it will eventually hurt somehow.