Lent Week 4 - CHRPA

SATURDAY, March 16  "Body Repair"
Proverbs 3:7-8  (The Message)
Don’t assume that you know it all.
    Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
    your very bones will vibrate with life!

   We were made in the image of God to be in relationship with God.  We were formed to serve God and one another.  This is what keeps us healthy, what brings us abundant life.  When our focus is not on ourselves, but on others, through the love of God, it can be physically healing!
    Laughter is good medicine.  Service is also good medicine.  People in the depths of physical depression are often advised to reach out, help others and take the focus off themselves.  For the many who volunteer at CHRPA as retirees, the work can be like a daily vitamin for good health (not to mention some concentrated physical exercise!)  I have great admiration for the former carpenters, plumbers, electricians who show up one or two days a week to share their knowledge and skills in service to others.  They are giving, but the gift is also one to themselves!  'Their very bones vibrate with life!'  
    Brother Lawrence wrote, "Our only business is to love and delight ourselves in God."  If we keep God as the source of our energy, focus, and living, we are nourishing our bodies as well as our souls.  

FRIDAY, March 15 "Eyes of Jesus"
Matthew 9:36 (CEB)
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
   This morning's devotion from Our Daily Bread applied so instantly to my last two weeks of work at CHRPA.  The quote from the bottom reads, 'If you look through the eyes of Jesus, you'll see a needy world.'  It is so easy to walk into the home of a client and see the layers of dirt, the clutter, the unkempt atmosphere.  You see the holes in the walls, you feel the heat penetrating the room, you wonder, 'How can this person be of value when they live like this?  HOW can they exist in these conditions!?'  And because the clients so often perceive this hesitation, not just with us but with all the judgmental eyes of the community, they build up walls to protect themselves from the pain of our interaction.  
    The children have no such walls built yet.  They are open and welcoming, quick to smile and laugh, quick to accept.  I often tried to make my first 'inroads' with the kids, to show the parent my acceptance of them as human beings, to show a nonjudgmental approach to whatever way in which we came to help. I engage the child in conversation, tease or laugh with them.  It proved to be a good technique!  
     Jesus has eyes of love only.  Not eyes that criticize or judge.  May we remember to always open our hearts and eyes as Jesus when we encounter those who on the surface appear "troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."  Those sheep have names, they have substance, and they are children of God who are deserving of our love.

I have got to get some CHRPA scribbles done this weekend!  I showed Scott my Habitat book on Thursday and I think he wanted to keep it.  I wish I had brought a few more copies with me.  Maybe I will order one and donate it to the office and have it sent.  But I promised Scott I would get some CHRPA drawings done!  

THURSDAY, March 14  "Learning from the Past"
1 Corinthians 10:11 (The Message)
These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes.
     It is said history repeats itself.  But it is not for a lack of instruction.  The guidebooks are present.  The Jewish people had the Torah to which Paul referred.  We have a Bible. CHRPA has Thursday morning 'schools' of instruction to help the volunteers avoid mistakes and to learn the right way to install something.  By learning from the past, we can move forward into a future with promise. Today's CHRPA School is a continuation of our Electricity lessons - information that can be a matter of life and death!  
     God gives us instructions as well that are a matter of life and death:  Abundant life for all time or death to a relationship with God.  Are we heeding our lessons well?  Are we listening?  Are we learning?


WEDNESDAY, March 13  "Leaning"
Proverbs 3:5-6 
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
    don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
    he’s the one who will keep you on track.  (The Message)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, 
And lean not on your own understanding.  (NIV)
How does my heart lean?
Where do I seek direction?
If I search inward, through my own resources,
The path is going to be difficult, 
The final results questionable. 
In everything....decisions, actions, 
    words, and relationships
Seek God first. 
Lean on God for support and understanding.
Follow God's wisdom, no matter what.
And the way will be made clear.
Perhaps not easy, but clear. 

UNRELATED ADDENDUM:
Monday, Ali and I were tackling a toilet installation and didn't have a clue what to do about a rusted flange.  Last Wednesday, Jon and I faced the installation of a window that we hardly knew top from bottom.  In both, we were able to 'get it done'.  I am experiencing first hand the words "If you just are willing to get started, God will show you how."  I am helping with things I didn't know I could do, but since the expectation is there, with God's help, we are doing it!  What an amazing feeling!  Hmmmm  .... I am reading back over my blog and I realize that this is NOT unrelated addendum, but directly related!  Lean on God for support, count on God, and he will show you how to do something!  

TUESDAY, March 12   "Enough"
Proverbs 30:1-9  (GNT)
I ask you, God, to let me have two things before I die:  keep me from lying, and let me be neither rich nor poor. So give me only as much food as I need.  If I have more, I might say that I do not need you. But if I am poor, I might steal and bring disgrace on my God.
     When Rick and I were preparing to retire, we wanted to be responsible in our financial affairs, but not extravagant.  What a fine line to walk!  Rick heard a quote, "The opposite of poverty is not wealth, it is enough!"  Agur in the Old Testament Proverbs seems to voice the same - 'give me only as much as I need'.  We decided we had 'enough' to be able to reach out and serve without compromising the projects we wanted to serve.  We had 'enough', but not so much that we wouldn't need to rely on God's providence along the way. 
     As we work for CHRPA, we often have to ask for Social Security proof of income from the client.  In an abstract way I knew many lived on far less, but this action has reinforced my realization that our 'enough' is probably 'more than enough' in comparison to the little so many manage to live on.  How do they do it?  For some, faith.  Faith that God, through agencies like CHRPA, will provide.  How much is my 'enough'?  Yours?  Is it based on trust?
      
MONDAY, March 11  "Be Thankful"
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (GNT)
Be joyful always,  pray at all times,  be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.

     Is the glass half empty or half full?  We who have much focus so often on the little we don't have, complaining about gas prices or mortgages.  Those who struggle economically, would rejoice to have a car to drive or a place to call home!  As CHRPA volunteers we enter many homes during the course of the week. In some, it is hard to imagine people live in this kind of situation!  Yet so often, what we hear is not complaints, but thanksgiving.  They are so grateful for the little we can do.  They are grateful for family, for faith.  In some homes, I see small Catholic altars tucked into the niches of walls.  I end up being the one blessed by the interaction as I witness what sustains them through the hard times. These clients are able to find something in every situation for which to thank God!!   
     Whatever our circumstance, whatever our lot, we have a God who is always in touch with us, always ready to be present for us.  What more can we ask?  Focus on the blessings and be thankful! 
PS.  Yes, I am preaching to myself today as I whined about the gas prices in our drive down to Tucson, rather than thanking God that we were blessed with a truck to drive to do the work.  But....prices ARE dropping again in Tucson.  Praise God! 

SUNDAY, March 10  "Cast Your Cares"
Psalm 55:22 (The Message)
Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders—
    he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out.
He’ll never let good people
    topple into ruin.

(WwG)
Cast your cares,
Pile up your troubles.
What does it mean?
Prayer?
Sometimes prayer becomes an act of anxiety,
Expecting immediate relief.
More than prayer.
Abandonment of responsibility?
Apathy on our part or
An invitation to irresponsibility
Because God has it covered?
More than that.
To pile up our troubles on
    the shoulders of the Almighty
Is the most proactive step we can take.
We acknowledge our own futility,
We actively watch, not ignorantly wait.
We expectantly believe,
Not aggressively intervene.
Act when God says to act,
Wait when God says wait.
Don't micromanage God,
But communicate and be ready for anything.
Hope and believe and sleep with the peace
That God has wide shoulders and can carry our load.

Addendum:  Today is my 59th birthday!  I thank God for the gift of this life, for my parents and family and a nurturing childhood.  I thank God for a loving husband and two thoughtful and God-seeking sons.  And mostly, as I 'mature', I thank God for the good health to continue in some meaningful work.  Glory to God!  Happy Birthday to me!