ENCOURAGED IN HEART

I once paid a woman a rather large sum of money to pop my zits…except she called it “extraction” and part of my “facial”. Where I sit today, I call it “popping zits” and a racket. (The spa industry would most likely disagree with this authors’ opinion!)

Do you think Louie Armstrong could have added this line to his classic hit, “You say extraction…I say zit pop…let’s call the whole thing off”?

Okay, maybe not.

Zit pop or extraction? Is this just semantics? It felt more like a principle thing as I sat in that chair thinking, “THIS is a facial? This goes against everything I’ve read about skin care!”

Semantics or principle? I dunno for sure, but judging by my skin it’s more of an “every five year thing” than anything else, because that’s when I had my last one.

Then I think of another principle that’s been weighing heavily on me. God says, “love your neighbor” but some say, “I won’t because they’re different than me, and I’m uncomfortable”. Today, I sit in my pleather chair thinking, “This goes against everything which I’ve read about Jesus!”

Semantics or principle?

Again, I dunno for sure but judging the state of the world and the public opinion of Christians, I’d say we’re not doing a fabulous job of loving our neighbor.

I have something I want to tell you. But, shhhhhhhhhhhhh….keep it our little secret.

I have friends that are Democrats. (GASP!)

Independents too. I also have friends that are Mormon, Muslim, Republican, Libertarian, Anti-war, Pro-war, Conservative, Jewish, Agnostic, Crazy, Christian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Pro-abortion, Anti-abortion, Had an abortion, Former drug dealers, Cops, Former gang members, Imprisoned, Former burglars, Military veterans, Active duty military, Recovering drug addicts, Recovering alcoholics, Food-aholics, Recovering food-aholics, Sporadic church attendees, Non-church attendees, Depressed, Expressed (for the lactating ladies out there), Anger addicts, Gossipers, Adulators, Friendly, Unfriendly, Unemployed, Self employed, Well employed, Disturbed, and Perturbed, (Okay, now this is starting to sound more like an INXS song.)

I don’t want to be semantical or get ya stirred up too much….or do I?

I believe Jesus would have been friends with all the above people too, and more. Know why? Jesus was a rebel. He didn’t count popular opinion as important. He chose to hang with “different” people. Cool people. Imperfect people. Even people that society overlooked and deemed “less than”. The only people that He didn’t hang with were the overinflated religious types.

Maybe I should stop right here?

Some of the things I’ve shared about my life, makes some people feel uncomfortable. Some of the people I choose to hang out with makes some people feel uncomfortable.

I can relate. Heck, sometimes I’m uncomfortable too.

Allowing myself to feel uncomfortable has been pivotal in my faith journey. When I’m uncomfortable, I’m desperate to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the power of Steph Fink.

Holy Spirit = unlimited power.
Steph Fink = at best, dimly lit power.

The truth is that I’ve learned more about Jesus while out of my comfort zone than while IN my comfort zone.

Let’s challenge one another to get real, get uncomfortable and get to know the real Jesus.

I may be walking into a friendship (facial) and in the midst of it feel some unexpected pain (heart popping). It’s in the heart extractions where the “ick” comes out and Jesus purifies my heart, refining it, to be more like Him. I have a long way to go in this area, but I’m finally willing to expose myself to being uncomfortable, to know Christ more. Being around people that are different than me, is helping me be a much better Christian. And I need all the help I can get.

In the Bible, its says to “guard your heart”. And I believe that with all of my heart, especially for the brand new believers who could be tempted back into the old way of life. However, I don’t believe God intended for us to remain in our comfort zones. We need to balance guarding and sharing our heart.

That’s all.

Care enough about others to share your heart. And if you’re a Christian, Jesus is in there…so share the Jesus that’s in your heart.

You may say, “I’m scared, I don’t know the Bible well enough” and God says, “Never will I leave you” (Hebrews 13:5).

I’ve met the One who paid a rather large sum to save my life from hell….I call it “sacrifice” and He called it “love” and part of His plan. It’s much more important that the “potato” – “potahto” or “extraction” – “zit pop” debates.

Well, this was much longer than I expected. I’m asking you to leave a comment so we can sharpen one another here at EIH.

1. Are you a facial kinda gal?
2. Honestly, what do you think about having “different” people in your life? Does the thought scare or excite you… or maybe somewhere in between?

*If you sense something stirring in your heart, I want you to please leave a specific prayer, and I promise to pray for you. I need your prayers for courage and stamina…cause I’m still uncomfortable. THANKS!

Stay tuned as I’m doing a series this week on practical examples of sharing my heart with real life friends!

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Have you heard this somewhere before??? What do you really think about this idea…okay, it’s not a really an “idea” (or recommendation)…but work with me on this.

What does “love your neighbor as yourself” mean to you?

I’m writing to you today from my kitchen table. I don’t normally write from here but it’s a snow day here in northern Virginia (it’s bananas what they consider a “snow day” here, cause when I was a kid…oh, never mind that). The boys and I just shoveled our driveway and I told them they could play for a little while I watched them through the kitchen window. They l-o-v-e snow days (heck, who doesn’t!) and I loved seeing them throw snowball after snowball at each other. Well, moments into this blog post, I couldn’t see them, so I got up, and ran outside. They weren’t throwing snowballs anymore.

They decided to shovel our next door neighbors driveway. That’s why I couldn’t see them.

You don’t understand, I never told them to do this.

And that’s why my jaw’s dropped and my heart’s swelled up a little bit lotta-bit-big.

Loving your neighbor…with a shovel.

When I sat down to squeak out a blog post, the title was the same, but the message was entirely different. I think God’s cool for a lot of reasons…and this is just another reason to add to the list.

I just checked again and they finished shoveling the neighbor’s driveway. Jake’s now shoveling the other next door neighbor’s driveway…yeah, the same one who used their snow blower to help us when we had the last huge snow dump.

Loving your neighbor…with a snow blower.

I may be a Criminal Justice major and all, but I think I’m seeing a trend here.

Well, I gotta go “love my neighbor” with Jake right now. I’m thankful for kids that are helping raise me right!

What does it “love your neighbor” mean to you?

Here in Northern Virginia, we’ve been blasted with a blizzard…at least 18 inches of snow!

(Above, the Pac-Man path to out place!)

18 inches might as well be 18 feet cause this place shut down….and fast.  The storm started Friday night.  On Saturday, they closed school for Monday and Tuesday – so no more school for the guys until 2010.  They were so devastated (cha, right!), they built a snow fort and went sledding!

(The stuffed animal is a Husky named “Fluffy” – Jake’s class mascot sent home to hang with him!)

Well, that is AFTER we got them working…shoveling.  Or perhaps more accurately, causing the Finkster 23 more gray hairs with throwing their freshly tossed snow onto his recently cleared path.  Entertainment (at least for me!) was everywhere!

(Above: Does it look like Cal knows something going on that I don’t? PROBABLY!)

Few things look more delicious than my three cute men working…

While we did have a blast sledding,

my favorite memory of the day had nothing to do with our sled, but rather our shovelS.  We finished shoveling our place much quicker than expected because our next door neighbor, Brent, shoveled our place out with us.  Reminded me of what my Grandma Karl used to say, “the more hands, the lighter the work”. Grandma Karl used to also say, “she worked like a trojan” too (it means to work really hard) – that is, until my Pop told her what a common day use for the word “trojan” was.  Needless to say, Grandma never used that saying ever again.

Anyhoo, back to the snow…

After we were done with our place, Dave and I decided to shovel the elderly couples driveway at the opposite end of the block.  The wife uses a walker.  We regularly talk about how much we want Jake and Cal to be servants for God but sometimes the service “events” are still too old for them.  They see Mom and Dad serve at church and in the community and that counts for something, but  this would be an opportunity to not just tell the boys about service, but let them serve.

Dave told them what we were going to do, and why…so down the ice rink, (or street, whatever you prefer to call it!), we headed.

Know what?

Brent joined.

Then Collin, Jenn and their son Patrick did too.

Then J.J walked down.

Then Joan and her daughter came out (with a plate of cookies to keep the team fueled!) and started shoveling.

I asked the Jake and Cal what this was called – they called out, “team work!”  There’s no way I could have taught them a lesson like this…it was just awesome!

I’m telling ya what, to live in this kind of a neighborhood…heck, I’m just plain misty-eyed typing.  To see so many people shovel, just blessed my heart.  They didn’t really know this couple, they just did it because that’s the kind of amazing people we’re surrounded with…and we’re so blessed!

It was just one of those moments…that I’ll cherish.  I pray this memory will be burned into both our boys hearts and memory banks too.

I’m learning that sharing my faith with others has a lot more to do with the life I live than the fancy religious talk.  The fancy religious talk doesn’t get them out of their driveway and to the grocery store.  But someday, if the shoveled path led to a conversation…I’m so there!

St. Francis said it best, “Preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words.”  I wonder if St. Francis came up with that wisdom while shoveling snow?