alt="Wordle: refugees in god's sight"
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
refugees paper wordle
title="Wordle: refugees in god's sight">
alt="Wordle: refugees in god's sight"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
alt="Wordle: refugees in god's sight"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Thanksgiving and more
Sorry for the brief hiatus. This is week ten of the quarter, which means that everything is coming down to the wire. The rough draft of my final paper for my research methods class was due today (or so I thought), and we each had 15 minute individual presentations. We also had an 8-10 page paper due for my ethics class today. Needless to say, these assignments made for a busy holiday!
I enjoyed my Thanksgiving! Working in retail, it was a busy weekend! I was happy to get paid overtime on Thanksgiving Day and allow my coworkers with family in the area to spend the day with them. A friend of mine picked me up after work to take me to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. I wasn’t the only one who was late, so I didn’t feel awkward and enjoyed the food! We played a few different games afterward, then enjoyed a round of dessert. The company was great, the food was outstanding, and it was my best option if I had to be away from my family.
The rest of the weekend was just as productive and fun: a lot of working, a lot of schoolwork, and the perfect dosage of spending time with friends. Really, I have so much to be thankful for, and my friends are one such category! I am continually impressed with their hospitality and service to one another and to me. Things are not always perfect, and we certainly have conflict, but I truly appreciate their commitment to love me as part of the body of Christ. It’s quite humbling!
Today after class, I had the opportunity to chat with a classmate about our research experiences. We weren’t in the same discussion groups throughout the quarter, nor the same presentation group today, so she asked me to summarize the missiological implications of the research I did. My research was in a retail setting, and my conclusion was that we all have to treat whoever is in front of us like a person. Our culture and society push us to view people for what they’re worth in terms of what they can do for me. Employees at any corporation we encounter, whether it’s retail, a restaurant, a customer service call center, or anywhere are more than the role they represent to us right now. The “idiot” mailman who stuffs all my mail into the box and bends my photos has a wife and children at home. The “annoying” customer has had a lot of stress at work recently. The “lazy” group member for my class has been sick a lot this quarter and can’t keep up with the reading. These are people, set in families and social systems and who have lives outside of whatever role they are performing for me right now. The moment I lose sight of that and reduce them to “a server” or “a poor performer” is the moment I treat them as less than human, and this is a sin. They deserve the same dignity and respect that anyone I love deserves, whether they are serving my needs or not. Regardless of his or her ability to succeed in a role or a position, each person I come into contact with each day deserves to be truly seen and acknowledged as a person. That is the way I have failed to treat others the way I would like to be treated and have insulted the God whose image they were created in.
I enjoyed my Thanksgiving! Working in retail, it was a busy weekend! I was happy to get paid overtime on Thanksgiving Day and allow my coworkers with family in the area to spend the day with them. A friend of mine picked me up after work to take me to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. I wasn’t the only one who was late, so I didn’t feel awkward and enjoyed the food! We played a few different games afterward, then enjoyed a round of dessert. The company was great, the food was outstanding, and it was my best option if I had to be away from my family.
The rest of the weekend was just as productive and fun: a lot of working, a lot of schoolwork, and the perfect dosage of spending time with friends. Really, I have so much to be thankful for, and my friends are one such category! I am continually impressed with their hospitality and service to one another and to me. Things are not always perfect, and we certainly have conflict, but I truly appreciate their commitment to love me as part of the body of Christ. It’s quite humbling!
Today after class, I had the opportunity to chat with a classmate about our research experiences. We weren’t in the same discussion groups throughout the quarter, nor the same presentation group today, so she asked me to summarize the missiological implications of the research I did. My research was in a retail setting, and my conclusion was that we all have to treat whoever is in front of us like a person. Our culture and society push us to view people for what they’re worth in terms of what they can do for me. Employees at any corporation we encounter, whether it’s retail, a restaurant, a customer service call center, or anywhere are more than the role they represent to us right now. The “idiot” mailman who stuffs all my mail into the box and bends my photos has a wife and children at home. The “annoying” customer has had a lot of stress at work recently. The “lazy” group member for my class has been sick a lot this quarter and can’t keep up with the reading. These are people, set in families and social systems and who have lives outside of whatever role they are performing for me right now. The moment I lose sight of that and reduce them to “a server” or “a poor performer” is the moment I treat them as less than human, and this is a sin. They deserve the same dignity and respect that anyone I love deserves, whether they are serving my needs or not. Regardless of his or her ability to succeed in a role or a position, each person I come into contact with each day deserves to be truly seen and acknowledged as a person. That is the way I have failed to treat others the way I would like to be treated and have insulted the God whose image they were created in.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
grace enough.
as you know, i'm not perfect. :-P
i've had a couple more-honest-than-i-really-want-to-be moments recently, and i'm a little embarrassed by them. i feel like i should be making a face like the one brad pitt makes in ocean's 12 when he realizes his phone was stolen by his ex-girlfriend-cop (catherine zeta-jones) when she came to the apartment, which now nixes the team's entire plan. it's a bit like an "ouch" face mixed with disbelief and a twinge of regret. yeah, that face.
anyway, in my head tonight, i am making that face and apologizing to a friend that i have recently treated poorly. in this made-up conversation, said friend (knowing why i behaved the way i did) pushes me a bit to the deeper issue of my heart, kindly and gently not letting me off the hook.
and my response is something like, "God is good. and i'm slowly working through this deeper issue in my heart. i am slowly healing, forgiving, and finding forgiveness. but i'm a girl with a dash of crazy. this is just a process that takes time. and for the first time, i don't imagine God standing there with His arms crossed, tapping His foot saying, 'come on, dianne, time to get your act together.' for once, i feel like i don't have to responsibly smother the crazy to get it 'right.' i feel like God gets that crazy side of me and it's ok, at least for now. it's part of me that definitely requires training, but it isn't going away overnight, and He's ok with that, and He loves me and has grace for me even now."
and so, for tonight, that's enough. God is good, and His grace is enough for me.
i've had a couple more-honest-than-i-really-want-to-be moments recently, and i'm a little embarrassed by them. i feel like i should be making a face like the one brad pitt makes in ocean's 12 when he realizes his phone was stolen by his ex-girlfriend-cop (catherine zeta-jones) when she came to the apartment, which now nixes the team's entire plan. it's a bit like an "ouch" face mixed with disbelief and a twinge of regret. yeah, that face.
anyway, in my head tonight, i am making that face and apologizing to a friend that i have recently treated poorly. in this made-up conversation, said friend (knowing why i behaved the way i did) pushes me a bit to the deeper issue of my heart, kindly and gently not letting me off the hook.
and my response is something like, "God is good. and i'm slowly working through this deeper issue in my heart. i am slowly healing, forgiving, and finding forgiveness. but i'm a girl with a dash of crazy. this is just a process that takes time. and for the first time, i don't imagine God standing there with His arms crossed, tapping His foot saying, 'come on, dianne, time to get your act together.' for once, i feel like i don't have to responsibly smother the crazy to get it 'right.' i feel like God gets that crazy side of me and it's ok, at least for now. it's part of me that definitely requires training, but it isn't going away overnight, and He's ok with that, and He loves me and has grace for me even now."
and so, for tonight, that's enough. God is good, and His grace is enough for me.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
scared.
i am scared. i am excited, but mostly scared.
my assignments this quarter are a bit overwhelming to me. not because i feel they ask too much of me (academically or time-wise), but because they touch something deep within my heart.
A. for my "Christian Ethics" class, the paper i'm working on now is essentially defining my beliefs about justice and righteousness. these two words have stood out to me in my own personal readings of the Bible for a couple years now. they almost haunt me with their bigness, boldness, ever-presence and unattainability. (yes i probably just made that word up.) i learned in my OT Prophets class that the 2 Hebrew words for justice and righteousness, tsedeqah and mishpat, do a little dance. they go together in many OT passages, each complementing the other. our english words for them don't really fully explain their real meaning. they are so full of meaning that i am in awe, especially if we, as Christians, are required/responsible/help to bring the meaning of these words into reality. it's completely overwhelming and yet so beautiful. it is certainly part of my life's call to engender these words and bring justice and righteousness to the earth.
in Stassen and Gushee's book Kingdom Ethics, they outline "justice" in four dimensions.
“(1) deliverance of the poor and powerless from the injustice that they regularly experience;
(2) lifting the foot of domineering power off the neck of the dominated and oppressed;
(3) stopping the violence and establishing peace; and
(4) restoring the outcasts, the excluded, the Gentiles, the exiles and the refugees to community.” (349)
i would abosolutely love it if at the end of my life, someone could say these are things i have worked towards.
to even say that is a little scary! it's a little mind-boggling and overwhelming to actually say, yes, this is what i want my life to look like.
the assignment i'm working on is essentially defining these terms, putting them into language a new believer in my church would understand (cutting out all the "seminary" words), and applying these concepts to the juvenile justice system in place in LA today. we watched a documentary called Juvies and are now asked to respond, in light of our theological understanding of justice/righteousness. wow.
B. the other assignment for this class that i have left to complete is to volunteer for 5 hours and write an analysis of how the organization is living out Christian mission. i have been volunteering at IRIS - Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Services, and i LOVE it. i've been leading a "life group" from my church, and the whole purpose of our group is to serve. we show up at IRIS on friday mornings, serve coffee to refugees, unload a truck with canned goods and produce, bag the food, and distribute it to the 100+ people who come every week. it's typical food-bank type stuff, but this is an organization that is really doing something. i am trying to work out a way to work with them for at least part of my required practicum.
let me tell you, these guys are the real deal. they are actively reaching out to refugees - Iraqis fleeing the war, Armenian Christians fleeing persecution in Iran, etc. i am definitely excited to hear more of their stories. the more i learn about the plight of refugees - these and all across the globe, the more i want to serve them, work with them, restore them.
C. i took an incomplete this summer in my advocacy class, and my last assignment is the only one i have to complete. but it is essentially choosing an issue to advocate for, research it theologically and historically within different church traditions (Catholic, Anabaptist, Evangelical), and create an action plan for a congregation. if you couldn't guess, i think i've found a legitimate topic! and i'm already "doing" the action plan! so i'm really excited about it, but also really scared! i don't want to be graded on something i'm already committed to. i wish my life experience were proof enough that i learned something in the advocacy class! i don't want to have to write a paper on it, too!
so yeah, a lot of stuff close to my heart that seems overwhelming. but i'm excited.
my assignments this quarter are a bit overwhelming to me. not because i feel they ask too much of me (academically or time-wise), but because they touch something deep within my heart.
A. for my "Christian Ethics" class, the paper i'm working on now is essentially defining my beliefs about justice and righteousness. these two words have stood out to me in my own personal readings of the Bible for a couple years now. they almost haunt me with their bigness, boldness, ever-presence and unattainability. (yes i probably just made that word up.) i learned in my OT Prophets class that the 2 Hebrew words for justice and righteousness, tsedeqah and mishpat, do a little dance. they go together in many OT passages, each complementing the other. our english words for them don't really fully explain their real meaning. they are so full of meaning that i am in awe, especially if we, as Christians, are required/responsible/help to bring the meaning of these words into reality. it's completely overwhelming and yet so beautiful. it is certainly part of my life's call to engender these words and bring justice and righteousness to the earth.
in Stassen and Gushee's book Kingdom Ethics, they outline "justice" in four dimensions.
“(1) deliverance of the poor and powerless from the injustice that they regularly experience;
(2) lifting the foot of domineering power off the neck of the dominated and oppressed;
(3) stopping the violence and establishing peace; and
(4) restoring the outcasts, the excluded, the Gentiles, the exiles and the refugees to community.” (349)
i would abosolutely love it if at the end of my life, someone could say these are things i have worked towards.
to even say that is a little scary! it's a little mind-boggling and overwhelming to actually say, yes, this is what i want my life to look like.
the assignment i'm working on is essentially defining these terms, putting them into language a new believer in my church would understand (cutting out all the "seminary" words), and applying these concepts to the juvenile justice system in place in LA today. we watched a documentary called Juvies and are now asked to respond, in light of our theological understanding of justice/righteousness. wow.
B. the other assignment for this class that i have left to complete is to volunteer for 5 hours and write an analysis of how the organization is living out Christian mission. i have been volunteering at IRIS - Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Services, and i LOVE it. i've been leading a "life group" from my church, and the whole purpose of our group is to serve. we show up at IRIS on friday mornings, serve coffee to refugees, unload a truck with canned goods and produce, bag the food, and distribute it to the 100+ people who come every week. it's typical food-bank type stuff, but this is an organization that is really doing something. i am trying to work out a way to work with them for at least part of my required practicum.
let me tell you, these guys are the real deal. they are actively reaching out to refugees - Iraqis fleeing the war, Armenian Christians fleeing persecution in Iran, etc. i am definitely excited to hear more of their stories. the more i learn about the plight of refugees - these and all across the globe, the more i want to serve them, work with them, restore them.
C. i took an incomplete this summer in my advocacy class, and my last assignment is the only one i have to complete. but it is essentially choosing an issue to advocate for, research it theologically and historically within different church traditions (Catholic, Anabaptist, Evangelical), and create an action plan for a congregation. if you couldn't guess, i think i've found a legitimate topic! and i'm already "doing" the action plan! so i'm really excited about it, but also really scared! i don't want to be graded on something i'm already committed to. i wish my life experience were proof enough that i learned something in the advocacy class! i don't want to have to write a paper on it, too!
so yeah, a lot of stuff close to my heart that seems overwhelming. but i'm excited.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
gray areas.
being bitter is no fun. really, it's not. but i'm not sure what to do about it. i wonder if it's one of the 5 stages of grief. along with the bitterness comes a lot of anger, and i know that's one of the stages of grief. it's kind of ridiculous how long it's taken me to get this far. it's only been this week that i realized i'm allowed to be angry.
and so i am. i am very angry. and unfortunately, my anger has had some undeserving victims, including the boy who happened to crash the aforementioned glee-watching-night. it really wasn't his fault. (i'm sorry, elijah.)
it seems like our Christian culture has just tried to squash all "negative" emotions. i don't know what to do with them. i really don't. i don't know a productive, or at least less-sinful way to be angry. i don't know how to heal, how to get to the next step (whatever it is) in this journey. i thought i had forgiven, can i still be angry after i've forgiven? is it possible? i don't know. have i forgiven parts but not all? how do you go on with life after forgiveness? in a sense, the damage has been done. i just don't know.
and so i kind of gave up. i don't want to be angry, but i do want vindication, of a sort. a friend of mine this week treated me in a very healing way, going out of her way to behave the opposite of (one of) the way(s) i'd been hurt. i don't think she fully understands the redemption of her act, i'm not sure if she realizes how much i'd been hurt by doing the opposite of what she did; she just did it because she was treating me the way she wanted to be treated. it was great. (it did take another friend to point out the beauty of this redemption, however; i didn't see it myself.)
and so i want to move on. part of me is just waiting for time - time doesn't heal all wounds, but it helps. space helps, to a point.
in all honesty, the hardest part is navigating the external stuff. the stuff that goes well beyond the issue, the hurt, the (end of the) relationship. i don't know how to talk in a healthy way. i don't want to gossip (really, i don't), but i'm a verbal processor. how do i walk that line? how do i get healing without sinning more? God really has been amazing to me, to give me clarity and insight that could only have come from Him. He is certainly good and is bringing me to wholeness, maturity, and healing. but He definitely uses people for some of that, and it's all a gray area.
so where do i go from here? how do i walk this out?
and so i am. i am very angry. and unfortunately, my anger has had some undeserving victims, including the boy who happened to crash the aforementioned glee-watching-night. it really wasn't his fault. (i'm sorry, elijah.)
it seems like our Christian culture has just tried to squash all "negative" emotions. i don't know what to do with them. i really don't. i don't know a productive, or at least less-sinful way to be angry. i don't know how to heal, how to get to the next step (whatever it is) in this journey. i thought i had forgiven, can i still be angry after i've forgiven? is it possible? i don't know. have i forgiven parts but not all? how do you go on with life after forgiveness? in a sense, the damage has been done. i just don't know.
and so i kind of gave up. i don't want to be angry, but i do want vindication, of a sort. a friend of mine this week treated me in a very healing way, going out of her way to behave the opposite of (one of) the way(s) i'd been hurt. i don't think she fully understands the redemption of her act, i'm not sure if she realizes how much i'd been hurt by doing the opposite of what she did; she just did it because she was treating me the way she wanted to be treated. it was great. (it did take another friend to point out the beauty of this redemption, however; i didn't see it myself.)
and so i want to move on. part of me is just waiting for time - time doesn't heal all wounds, but it helps. space helps, to a point.
in all honesty, the hardest part is navigating the external stuff. the stuff that goes well beyond the issue, the hurt, the (end of the) relationship. i don't know how to talk in a healthy way. i don't want to gossip (really, i don't), but i'm a verbal processor. how do i walk that line? how do i get healing without sinning more? God really has been amazing to me, to give me clarity and insight that could only have come from Him. He is certainly good and is bringing me to wholeness, maturity, and healing. but He definitely uses people for some of that, and it's all a gray area.
so where do i go from here? how do i walk this out?
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