Honor

When Cynthia and I (Edgar) went hiking in Brown County a couple of weeks ago we pushed it hard in the thick foliage of Yellowwood State Forest. The physical demand on us helped us discover odd body parts again...like my achilles tendon. Perhaps all the climbing up and down hills is was what did it. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes that every part of the body is important (even the ones we don't pay attention to until they ache!) It's easy to overlook the achilles until you can't walk anymore because of it. I can honestly say I value that tendon more today than three weeks ago. Honor is all about placing value on someone. Practically we have an opportunity to do that during a highly pressurized and divided election campaign. It is too easy and too divisive to choose corners over politics and candidates. I agree that so much is at stake, but not so much that the body of Christ should practice dishonor instead of love. Honor will serve to make our families strong. Paul directs us to "value others before ourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." That's a good way to start building a culture of honor.

Compassion

The meaning of the word Compassion is to be moved in the deep inward parts.  Yet without action, compassion is not much more than a gut ache. Intentionality is what transforms the feeling into practical help for real needs. I am so challenged by the words of Jesus, "When you do it to the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me." If we could just get this declaration into our hearts and minds and then let it inform us how to live. In this lies one of the secrets of sharing compassion. What do you think????

Lighten Your Load

Hey gang, this is John Kaehr and it was great spending some time together this Sunday morning.  I hope that you enjoyed seeing some of my backpacking gear as well as hearing about generosity. I believe its important for us to leave behind the things we don't need so that our journey can be more enjoyable.  I really do feel that its important for us to make decisions on a regular basis that help to lighten the load we are carrying in life and than take what we don't really need anyway and give it to someone who might actually need it.  I will let you know if I ever get the guts to give away my nice tent.  We started the day with this question. "What would be the toughest thing in your life to give away?"  Sometimes its just fun to talk about our most prized possessions.  But we also spoke about giving our time as well.  Casey came up and talked about making breakfast for the kids at the Crossing Educational Center and Shawn shared about spending time with the youth at the Juvenile Justice Center.  Lets spend some time this week talking more about generosity and the challenge it is to really lighten our load.  Please feel free to use this blog to interact with what we covered in service as well as any thoughts you've been having on the matter lately.  If anybody gets a chance to go to the JJC or Crossing this week we would also like to hear about your experience.  Blessings.

JK