Common Ground | Identity

My 5 year old has recently discovered The Lion King and it’s his new favorite movie--to the point where he wants to watch it multiple times a day. He jumps forward and back to his favorite scenes. This morning we sat and watched some of it together and I was surprised when he shared a favorite scene with me: It was the part when the baboon leads Simba through the dark forest and pushes him to think about who he really is.

I’ve been thinking about this too. As the years go by, I find I sometimes question my life choices, basing the value I put on myself and the life I’ve lived so far on a worldly, cultural idea of worth. As I look closer at where I’m putting my energy, my worldly goals and why I pursue them, I find that the foundation is based on a mis-guided definition of success and acceptance.

Interestingly, if you asked me directly what I value most, money, power and acceptance would not be on the list. If you sat with me and reminisced on the past 15 years (even the whole 37 that has been my life so far), I would be full of stories of wonderful times, amazing blessings and struggles full of growth and God’s work. Still, I live this parallel life in my mind: full of hope and dreams and goals, like I haven’t “arrived” or “achieved” yet. These ideals are not aligned with my true values, rather they are designed by what I subconsciously think is expected of me from other people. My success (or lack of success) is based on other people’s acceptance and in the back of my mind, they will only accept me if I live up to the standard set in our culture of a fancy career that pays well and all the material possessions to show for it.

Despite falling into the patterns of this world and reaching for such “goals” at times, I know these things do not define me and I must really ask myself what is important in determining where I put my energy. More importantly, I must remind myself what is important in determining who I am. When I pray and study the bible, all signs point to my value as a daughter of God, and a believer in Christ. When I focus on God, I am fully in the moment with no story of my past choices or family history hindering my complete confidence and joy of who I am, where I have been and what may come next. I see beautiful moments of struggle, triumph and hope filled with God’s amazing work and I feel so much Love flowing through me.

Unfortunately we tend to define WHO we are, by the journey we have been on. The truth though, is that we are sons and daughters of the most amazing Creator. Our journeys, although they influence us, do not define us. Rather we are to live in faith and define our identity not in worldly measures, but in the Lord;

Romans 12:1-2
“Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Likewise, we must remember that this truth applies to everyone around us as well. We all have our own experiences and journeys through this world, beautiful threads woven in and out of triumph and struggle, passing by, through and around each other, but always accountable to God’s judgement alone and always with His love and grace awaiting us.

Romans 14: 3-4
“The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand”

If we use a person’s journey to judge who he/she is, we are missing out on the beauty that is in all of us as creations of our Lord. Our ambition to “succeed” keeps us focused on becoming someone we think we should be, and taints our view of those around us, often separating us, rather than uniting us in God’s love. Judgement after all is the work of the Lord, not of man, and does no good when brought between us.

Romans 14: 13
“Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way”

When what we have (or don’t have) is set aside, we can then see each other in a new light and see ourselves for the beautiful creations of our God, of whom we were meant to represent.

I invite you all to join me this week in seeing others through God’s eyes. Set down the experiences, “successes” and struggles that are scattered throughout the journey of a friend, a coworker or a family member and instead see the core of the human that was carefully and perfectly designed by our creator.

In Romans, Paul gives quite a lengthy and very clear instruction on how to view, treat and live among one another, despite any differences, even those regarding our beliefs, our faith and how we choose to live.

Romans 13: 9-10
“The commandments, “Do not commit adultery”, “Do not murder”, “Do not steal”, “Do no covet”, and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law”

Romans 14: 19-23
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

Romans 15: 1-2
“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.”

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About the Author

Leona is a wife, mother and traveler who is intrigued by how different people live. Her latest project is exploring ways that different walks of life can simplify, in order to live a fulfilling journey.

Interruptible | Adventures with God

Have you ever been on a road trip with specific destinations in mind, only to discover some other adventure along the way? Perhaps you see a sign for a place that sounds interesting, or there is road construction, so you take a different route, leading you to new places to explore, interesting people to meet, or a situation where your help is needed and you’re so glad you came along. But what if you refuse to take the alternate route? You’re on a schedule, or comfortable in your air conditioning. You miss out.

We do this all the time in our journey with God. We get comfortable, or are on a tight schedule already, and think we don’t need to be interrupted by a divine appointment of any kind.

But God doesn’t do anything without a purpose. When He interrupts us, there’s a reason. It could be an opportunity to share His love/grace/good news/encouragement with someone that needs it, if we could just stretch ourselves out of our comfort zone. It could be a trial that we really don’t want to face, but is necessary for our growth or His glory. It could be that we’re on the wrong path, being led into temptation or addiction or something else that could wreak havoc in our lives, and He corrects us so we’ll get back on the right road. Sometimes it’s nothing this dramatic, but just a concept or issue in our life that He brings to the forefront for us to deal with before it becomes a devastating issue.

God has interrupted me with all of these and more. Funny thing, after I’d been given the theme of “interruptible” to write about, I came across a book about it without even trying. I was looking up Priscilla Shirer books on Amazon, because I like her Bible studies and recently discovered that she has YA fantasy novels. And saw that she had a book called Life Interrupted: Navigating the Unexpected. So I picked it up at the library the next morning.

The book follows the Bible story of Jonah, and how God interrupted his comfortable life with a calling he didn’t want to do. Ironically, the book itself was an interruption. It’s prompting me to do some things I really don’t want to do, like extend forgiveness again. Or pray for people that I don’t really want to pray for. And to look at how interruptible I am. Am I really willing to do what He calls me to, even when it’s not convenient? But I am encouraged by it, as well. Shirer says in discussing when God disciplines us, “When we feel His correction particularly heavy upon us, it’s sometimes not so much in proportion to past or recent sin as in proportion to the great task awaiting us when He’s done, when we’ve endured it.” How awesome is that? And I’ve seen it happen in my own life.

After I wrote the first draft of this, with an example from my life several years ago, I got tested on this very concept. The back of the book says “Interruptions. They’re aggravating. Sometimes infuriating. They make us want to tell people what we think of them. But how we handle interruptions actually tells us more about ourselves.” Boy howdy, I saw that firsthand this week.

On Sunday, I had texted my friend’s college-age daughter from Southern Oregon. She had stayed with me a bit last summer and house-sat for me. She’s a sweet young lady, but I hadn’t chatted with her for a while and needed her address to send her a Christian book and CD, so I sent her a text message on my phone. I asked if she was still living with her mom or on her own. The text I received back said “she” was good, living on “her” own in Eugene. I was surprised by this, asked why, and said I was glad she was doing well.

Well… unfortunately, the person that responded was not my friend’s daughter. She must have changed her phone number over the year.  Because at 10:23 that night, my phone rang, and I got an earful from an angry wife who could not be convinced that I was not having an affair with her husband. Evidently my text had reached him, instead. Really! My life isn’t easy, but it is definitely not that dramatic (thank goodness!). The poor lady could not be consoled, or convinced that my friend’s daughter’s name was not a pet name for her husband. Eventually she hung up, and I blocked both phone numbers and called the police non-emergency line to find out what to do. I was so rattled that I couldn’t sleep, but hey, I got all my grading done late that night! And I prayed, but mostly selfishly. I prayed a little for her, but mostly for my own protection. I wanted to lash out at her for interrupting my night and making me nervous that I’ll be called to court or visited by private investigators. And I wanted to call her Crazy Lady and other names for hurting my self-righteous pride by accusing me of something I think I’d never do, and let loose some of my drama queen teenage students on her. I finally fell into a restless sleep.

But God wasn’t done with my heart. Over the next day, I felt more and more compassion for her. Who knows why she reacted this way (he certainly wasn’t innocent in this- he didn’t even have the decency to write back that it was a wrong number and he didn’t know me!). But having experienced a bad marriage and divorce myself, I knew that they probably both have issues, or at least things to deal with, and it’s not my place to judge either of them. They both needed prayer, just as much as my ex-husband and I did. So the next night, I prayed for them for real. On my knees. Humbly and compassionately (finally!), I prayed for their marriage. For God’s will to be done in it, for His best for both of them (and any children they may have).

I felt very much like Jonah at that point. Who knows if they had anyone else in their lives to pray for them? But God allowed my life to be interrupted, and I have to believe that there was a purpose in that. Hopefully, my prayers will somehow help them. It taught me once again to surrender more quickly to His will. Previous (and bigger) interruptions in my life have always taught me something, too. Usually it’s to trust Him more. And many times, those interruptions have blessed me in ways I’d have never imagined.

Dear God, please keep interrupting me. Forgive me when I don’t respond quickly and with a surrendered heart. Help me to trust You fully. And thank You so much for loving me, and for giving me second chances and new adventures.

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About the Author

Jessie is an educator, currently in the role of academic advisor at a charter school after teaching there and overseas. She is also a novice writer, with several books in various stages and a (long-neglected) blog about the journeys of women. She is very excited to join the CitySalt blog team. She has been blessed by a few communities of Christian writers that have encouraged her dream. She lives with her trusty sidekick cat, Arwen in the foothills of South Eugene, where she can go hiking within minutes of the sun coming out from behind the clouds.

New Creations | Living a New Creation Journey

Ephesians 5: Walk in Love
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God…”

We are living a predestined life journey, yet we determine our own journey both at the same time. Our life stories become full of pivotal choices, slight adjustments, unexpected opportunity and events that happen to us. We live in this web of events and wonder about God’s plan for us while we debate what choices to make in our lives. The complexity of how one event effects and responds to other events is often beyond our comprehension.

I am so grateful to the Lord for my husband. He was the final blessing in my life that revealed the truth of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I had been searching off and on since my grandfather passed away when I was 14. My grandfather was a very spiritual man toward the end of his life and had opened a Christian book store. I was so intrigued by his faith. I am sure he prayed often, because I could sense the peace and power in the places he had spent his time, even after he passed.

I continued to explore through high school and then faded off in college. When I met my husband, it wasn’t his detailed knowledge of what the bible said that impressed me most, but his unwavering conviction of a biblical truth and the one true God. He spoke about God like he was a true friend, a role-model, someone or a concrete something that he looked up to, truly loved and depended on. Through my husband’s faith, I had found what I was looking for!

A couple years later I was baptized. It was such a simple adjustment, yet so deep and profound all at the same time. We continued to be part of our amazing church community until we packed up and moved out of the country. During the years leading up to our move, I joined as many bible studies as I could with two small children and continued my journey in faith. A theme in one of these bible studies was how God gave us the freedom to choose. CHOICE is on my mind a lot.

I am amazed at how God guides us and is always there for us, while at the same time allowing that space for us to CHOOSE HIM. It is the most perfect balance of love, intention and strength. As a parent, the love we have for our children drives a desire for their freedom, independence and joy. We intentionally weave around them trying to put in place all the right steps and opportunities that will lead them through this journey safe and fulfilled. Yet it takes so much strength not to pull them away from wrong choices and force them into a safe bubble. We persist, knowing that there is usually little joy in a life chosen for us.

I imagine God must have to redirect new opportunities for me all the time! As I wander off, how does He so gently guide me back? His power is so great that there can exist a predestined plan for me, all while providing space for me to choose for myself, what God has already set out for me. My husband was put in front of me, in an unexpected place, at an unexpected time, yet I still needed to choose to speak to him, to listen to him and to decide to join him in this life journey.

A concept tricky to comprehend, until we understand that this path laid out for us is the only choice that will truly fulfill us; it is the path carefully and lovingly formed by our Creator. All we need to do is choose God.

The amazing beauty in all of it is that God truly is in control, and he has offered us redemption and the Holy Spirit so that we have a constant guide as we choose to follow in His light. To be honest, this is still not completely comprehensible to me, but it shouldn’t be! God is so amazing and I embrace the AWE-someness of it all. This most amazing God has laid out a web of events that is and will be our journey, we have the freedom to choose within that and The Holy Spirit lives within us and is our guide. I find this so beautiful and so real. It’s a never ending, awe-inspiring concept for me. Maybe that’s because we’ve chosen a spontaneous, nomadic lifestyle… or was this always God’s plan for me?

Ephesians 5:8-14
“... 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

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About the Author

Leona Abrahao is a wife, mother and traveler who is intrigued by how different people live. Her latest project is exploring ways that different walks of life can simplify, in order to live a fulfilling journey.