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Necessity or Luxury?

January 12, 2007 By

Water. Not just water, but water in my home, pouring out of the faucet, whenever I want it. Something that I’ve had all my life. It was there, like the air we breath. Always there. A necessity of life, right?

Wrong! It’s a luxury. And nothing brings that truth home more than to do without. Three days ago “something” broke in the city’s water system and 10′s of thousands of people were without water for three days. If you’ve been reading our Tabligbo Times (sign up on our website @ watchiharvest.com) then you’ve heard about our water and power troubles during the last few months. To have the power and water on has become a luxury that we appreciate more and more knowing that the majority world does without throughout their lifetime!

A few months ago I started to complain to a few of the leaders that I work with about the power outages. I caught myself beginning to complain when I suddenly realized, “These guys have never had running power or electricity in their homes in their entire lifetime! And probably never will!” Oops. Change of subject, “So, how are you guys doing today?” :)

I find myself complaining less and giving thanks more. Even now, I’m not complaining, I’m changing. A change for the better. As one who who grew up in America, I am so spoiled! Luxuries that I have enjoyed all my life have become necessities and I forgot, or didn’t even know that they were luxuries.

As we drove home yesterday we saw dozens of hundreds of water buckets and basins lined up at the water pumps all throughout town as people were waiting, hoping that the water would come back on today. They fill their basin up, put it on their head and then walk home with 20 liters or so of water. When the 20 liters are finished, they walk back to the pump, fill it up again and then return home. And these are the people that live in town, where there is “running” water. It’s much worse out in the rural villages where most of the churches that we work with are.

I’m thankful for the luxury of power and water. More importantly, I’m thankful that my attitude is changing. I complain less when it’s off and rejoice more when it’s on, knowing that I am blessed more than most.

My prayer is that I will use the blessings that I have to bless others.

Filed Under: Growing Spiritually, Murphy

Mom, lets hurry home, it’s going to rain!

October 1, 2005 By

A few weeks ago, as we were walking home from a devotional, Christine and Stephen were talking about the desperate need for rain.

Stephen stopped for a second, closed his eyes and put his hands togther.

When he opened his eyes he said, “Mom, let’s hurry home. I asked God for rain. Let’s get home before it starts!”

30 minutes later, the rain came down.

I love the fact that it rained so soon after his prayer. But even more than that, I love the fact that he believed that what he asked for in prayer was going to happen. Jesus said something about that I think….

Filed Under: Growing Spiritually, Prayer Answers, Stephen & Matthew

into the wild

September 12, 2005 By

I recently finished a book entitled into the wild by John Krakauer. It is a story about a young 24 year old who rejects society and civilization for the most part in search of something… I think in essence he was searching for freedom. But he could not pinpoint exactly what he needed freedom from.

He went into the wild to seek this something and just as he was about to find it he lost his life.

He was not a Christian although at times he cried out to God. I was impressed on page 169 when the author reported a conclusion that the young man had come to…

Here is what he wrote in his journal on July 2, 1994.

….the only certain happiness in life is to live for others…

He had read this thought in another book which he took with him on his journey and came to find that it was true. Of course there was a lot more truth for him to discover but I was impressed upon the fact that he did at least find this small piece of truth.

A better conclusion would be that the only certain happiness in life is to live for God. But he was close.

After he found this truth he decided to return to society and to try to incorporate his newfound reality into his daily living. Unfortunately, his lack of preparation and forethought about the dangers and struggles of living in the wild caught up to him before he could get out.

His story challenges me though because of his search for truth and because of his realization that the often thought assumptions of our lives that more is better, bigger is better, riches are happiness, and success revolves around having and doing, are not true. Realizing that these assumptions were not true, he went searching for something else.

I wish that he had found that Jesus was the answer to his search. But it reminds me that there are many, in fact multitudes, in fact millions of people who realize that the assumptions passed down to them from their parents and society are not necessarily true and who are seeking for something else.

My hope is that I too will revolve my life completely around the teachings of Jesus, question and rethink the assumptions that society has taught me, mold my life around the leading of the holy Spirit, and then be used by God to touch the lives of others who are searching for truth.

May God be praised!

Filed Under: Books Highlights, Growing Spiritually

hurricane Katrina

September 12, 2005 By

wow! I continue to be impacted by the devastation that hurricane Katrina caused. Multitudes of people losing everything including jobs, homes, family members, and lifetime savings, etc. My heart goes out to the suffering and also to the multitudes who are trying to help in whatever way they can.

It also makes me reflect about my own life and the fact that we are supposed to be sojourners on the earth. In Jesus we are aliens and strangers in this world. In essence, we are just people passing through. And yet, I spend so much time accumulating stuff on the way. I lost nothing in hurricane Katrina but I am deeply impacted by those who did.

My thought is that we should go ahead and get rid of our stuff knowing that it is inevitable that we lose it anyway.

Christine and I feel like the Spirit is moving in our hearts, some of which is prompted by hurricane Katrina, and also because of our prayers of late asking God to reveal anything that is hindering our effectiveness in the kingdom. All of this being said, God is moving our hearts to live more simple lives in which we can travel light and bless others more.

I do not know what this will look like and there probably is no destination when we will be able to say we have arrived. I do know that we have a long way to go.

We live and work among a people who are incredibly poor. We struggle with creating our own welfare system by which people come to depend upon us for their daily needs. And at the same time recognize that people do have needs and are often in dire straits and we need to help them.

We are praying that the spirit will continue to work in our hearts to mold and shape us into the likeness of Jesus who became poor that we might become rich.

We are currently reading freedom of simplicity by Foster. An amazing book. As we work our way through it I hope to share some of the thoughts that impact us the most.

Filed Under: Books Highlights, Growing Spiritually, Murphy, Prayer Needs
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