Let me go back to the beginning when a month or so ago my lovely and wonderful friend Lynne posted a simple facebook status, "I'm about to get Interrupted". Now most of these vague statuses I find myself scrolling right past and ignoring, but because I know Lynne has amazingly entertaining children I had to stop and ask what's up with this status thinking I was going to hear a funny story. Little did I know she was referring to Jen Hatmaker's book Interrupted. Because I had never heard of this book I had to of course go google it. After that I made a mental note of finding time down the road to getting around to reading it. Well two weeks down the road it turns out our church was getting ready to hold a Women's Bible Study on, you guessed it, that exact book. So even though I have a newborn who really loves her mommy and Monday nights are beyond chaotic with dance schedules I signed up anyway.
So fast forward to this past Monday when the study actually started. In typical Monday night fashion, I rushed to the church with a few minutes to spare (And ended up with the ugly black notebook for my tardiness). So even though I was interrupted by entertaining text from my AMAZING husband who braved the twilight hours with 3 cranky kids, I left the actual study feeling nervous yet excited. Unlike pretty much every other bible study I didn't procrastinate to read the first section. I actually started it by the next morning. And finished the entire section by Thursday and all I can say is WOW. People, you have to read this book if you want your life to change for the better.
Over the past two weeks this one simple message has been smacking me in the face, love people. It started when my wise friend Lisa sent this simple message in one of our group text and continued on through small groups, church and just random readings I read through out the week. Every time it would be placed in front of me I told myself, I do love people. I try my hardest not to judge, I help when people ask, what am I doing wrong? And after stubbornly defending myself for two weeks, the answer was clear. I completely missed the mark!
To get to this point I read a blog by Ann Voskamp about her trip to Iraq and because I can't say it as clear and eloquently as her here is the quote that smacked me into a complete realization. She says, "We can talk of love all we want when we are living in our own ghettos of like-mindness. But we only get to live love when we actually go walk to the other, where folks think and live something other than we do. We only get to stop talking about love and actually live it when we stop waiting for someone else to do it and reach our own hand out."
Do you get it? For so long I felt I was doing this "Christian" thing right, I help my friends and others in the church. But that is not what we are called to do, that is not what Jesus did. He didn't come to Earth and help those who could help in return. He helped the least! How did I completely miss this? How have I spent my entire adult life being a selfish helper. You see I'm a helper if those I help will someday be able to help me in return and while there is nothing wrong with that we are meant to do so much more. Will I change the world, most likely I will not. Can I change one person's world? Maybe.
So here I sit with four more weeks of this study and I can't lie, I'm excited yet nervous. I find myself really seeking out where are "the least" that I need to be helping. But even more than that give me the strength to follow where I'm supposed to go. Don't let me find excuses and reasons that I can't possibly help anyone else.
So for the next four weeks, you all get to go along this journey with me, or just ignore this blog :) But really you should go along with me, because I'm so excited to see where this all leads.
Here is probably the part that hit me hardest in phase one, Jen is talking about her "aha moment" and says, "All of a sudden I found my exact reflection in Peter: devoted but selfish, committed but misguided. And that is not going to be enough. It won't suffice to claim good intentions. Not with God screaming, begging, pleading, urging us to love mercy and justice, to feed the poor and the orphaned, to care for the last and least in nearly every book of the Bible. Saying, I meant well is not going to cut it. It will not be enough one day to stand before Jesus and say, "Oh, Were you serious about all of that."
Now seriously go buy her book! Because there is so much more than just this little section that will leave you feeling well interrupted :)
