40 Days of Faith- Day 1

Blue Ocean Faith Network is doing a devotional for Lent.  Reservoir Church is participating in it.  I am along for the ride.  You can find the materials here: http://www.reservoirchurch.org/sermons-stories/40-days-of-faith/

Day 1: Genesis 11:27-12:9

We don't experience God in a vacuum, but in the context of our familial and cultural inheritance.  Consider one of the following--an unfulfilled dream or your parents or any ancestor of yours, or a current challenge in your life story.  Ask God if God has any promise for you in this context.  Sit quietly for a few moments, and take note of whatever you experience.

My mom was born to be an educator, from being Class Head throughout her schooldays, to getting 2 master's degrees (piano performance and library science, with the vision of doing music education in Taiwan), to teaching at a Chinese school in New Jersey, to homeschooling her 2 kids in California, to teaching piano in every life stage...

My dad is a professor who has to teach classes at the university but prefers to do research.  My mom has dreamed of starting a bilingual school that also offers music lessons.  Both parents have taught Sunday school at church ever since I could remember.

Mom's health and marriage got in the way of most of her dreams.  I'm healthy and unmarried, and I have always seen myself as more of a helping professional than an educator.  Ironically, I am now working in the education sector, using skills I learned from the helping profession.

I don't know God's plans for my mom, but I do know that He has disappointed her several times already.  He has disappointed me, too, and yet we still believe.  May our belief be counted unto us as righteousness.

In other news, I watched Spotlight on Sunday afternoon.  This is a film about my city.  It speaks about religious infrastructures that house and cover up wrongdoings, and it portrays the persistence of those outside religious systems who expose its filth.

I'm beginning to understand why I feel the way I do in Boston.  Much of it has to do with the spiritual atmosphere, which deeply affects sensitives like myself.  I can never turn off the prophetic side of me, which senses things that lie both under the surface and above the clouds, in the heavenly realms.  Part of Lent entails asking God to work in our city.  I'm looking forward to seeing Boston with new eyes.

Over dinner, I watched an episode of American Housewife, in which the protagonist realizes at the end of the show that she is living in a town she dislikes (the culture is all about rich and skinny, and she's neither) but that her presence serves to be an example of what it means to be different.  I can relate, and I want to be able to be my full self in an environment that threatens to kill the qualities I value most: creativity, individuality, and spirituality.

Lord, you brought Abram on a physical journey that reflected spiritual processes.  May I build alters and pitch tents as I follow you each step of the way!