The View From Here

…until they know how much you care”... is how that saying goes. Although I like the update my friend Jake made recently when he said “People don’t care how much you know, until they know - do you know Cara”?  I thought that was pretty hysterical.

All puns on my name aside (believe me, over the years I’ve had more than enough), that saying (the original one, of course) is so true. Stay with me here….there will be a point to all this, eventually….

 NOT THE PROMISED UPDATE

I was going to give the “real” update on Tree of Life publishing stuff, but that takes brain power and it is late, so this is just going to be a little rambling. 

Monday night I was at a interdenominational women’s meeting here in Kyiv. It is a varied group of women that meets once a month and the only thing we have in common is that we are all fluent in English (even though it is not the first language for some), we are women, we are Christians (of all shapes and flavors, I like to say) and we live in Ukraine. We call this meeting “a rest stop for English speaking Christian women on their journey in Ukraine”. We pray, worship, network and overall try to encourage one another.

WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE?

This last meeting my friend Michelle that works with street kids shared about the ups and downs of her ministry and life. She said many really simply profound (or profoundly simple?) things but the overall idea that really stuck with me is that it is NOT about programs and charting results, etc. etc. but about people and about God and about sharing His love and care for them.

BIG SIGH….does that bring peace to your soul? It does to me.

Michelle encouraged us (or this is my “cara-phrased” recollection of what she said) to be on guard to not fall into the trap of just “keeping the machine running”, but to stay focused on the transforming truth of God’s love, grace and forgiveness for us manifested in the death and resurrection of his son Jesus who paid our debt of sin and therefore reconciled us to God for all who believe.

BREAKFAST CLUB 

The next morning Tanya and Cheryl from Rzhshiv and Jeanne from Kyiv and I went to breakfast (my favorite place where you can get the closest thing to an American style breakfast for under $5!) and spontaneously had the kind of time together that most Bible study leaders and pastor’s do everything under the sun (but maybe not everything under the SON? sorry, couldn’t resist!) to achieve with their people and often don’t….we just shared what God was doing in our lives and encouraged one another. I had brought my bible and one or another of us would grab it and read a verse, not as some religious duty, but just in the course of conversation, just as one might read something from the newspaper that had been interesting to them that day. Only this book is alive and it wasn’t just interesting to the one who read it but it touched all of us deep in our hearts.

We shared about our struggles, God’s victory in the midst of them, but most of all we did what my friend Jake and I agreed is the secret to walking with God (another “cara-phrase”…lemme know if I misquoted you, Jake)….when the focus is on God and His majesty, His all encompassing glory and holiness and yet at the same time His limitless love and grace for us….well, when you do that, it reaches past your mind, even your emotions and strikes at your very soul It is the truth that we were created to know and to live. It opens up your heart and you are at once struck with your black depravity and your spotless redemption! Both are as sure and unquestionable to you when you look at Him.

One verse that is dear to me these days is “the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life”. I have spent this last year with my mind set too much on the flesh, both in the allowing of sin in my life and then in the guilt and over-analyzing of it in the aftermath. What a waste! The mind set on the spirit, on God himself is the secret.

So, we had a great cheap breakfast (and that always makes me very happy) and found out how much God knows when I took the time to focus on how much He cares. Hope you’re able to do that, too, today.

(I know, I know…this wasn’t very short…but the next one will be…HONEST!)