Fall is just around the corner and with that season come winds of change.  An exciting time, yet for many a time that represents the dying of the summer, and a movement into the dormancy of winter.  Each season brings profound change (especially living in the Northern part of the country) but each change of the season that is seen on the outside of creation is as a result of what is going on on the inside.  Leaves will chage colors as the tree internally prepares for winter.

In the Bible, God challenges us with these words through the writer Paul:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12.2)

Conformation or Transformation are both something that happens TO us.  Something that we can choose, but can’t completely direct.  Something that we can seek after, but can’t control exactly how either happens.  We can actively resist one, which ultimately leads us toward the path of the other.  Returning to the thoughts of the season’s change…a tree could resist the Fall transformation (if it could) but soon it would find itself conforming to the death that the climate that the winter freeze will bring.

I want to choose the path of transformation in my life!  This is the more difficult path immediately…it is so much easier to stay in what I know, in what is comfortable, in what is the norm that I see around me.  But in the end the more difficult path is truly the path of conformity as it leaves us barren, lifeless, stripped of true fulfillment of the deep desires God has put in us.

“…this is fundamentally what spiritual transformation is all about: choosing a way of life that opens us to the presence of God in the places of our being where our truest desires and deepest longings stir.  These discoveries are available to all of us as we become more honest in naming what isn’t working so that we can craft a way of life that is more congruent with our deepest desires.” (Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms)

If you are involved in my life, in my journey through this land, please ask me how I am putting myself in places of transformation!  Sometimes you will ask me at just the right time when I am drifting into conformity and away from true inner renewal transformation.

Also, share ways that you have experienced God’s transformation in your life so that we can encourage one another to live in and embrace “what is good and acceptable, and perfect.”!

This summer I had the privileged to travel to Costa Rica for the second year in a row along with a missions team from Calvary Church.  This trip is different than any other missions trip I have been on!  For one it involves hiking into a remote Indian village and living where there is no electricity and no running water.  Secondly, the goal of the trip is service oriented rather than direct evangelism.  We go into the village with the goal of helping the church be a leader in the community in the area of community needs.  Last year we constructed a gondola bridge over the river and this year we were building rooms onto the school dinning house.  These rooms would provide a place for the teachers, who hike in each week, to stay while the school week was in session.  Our ultimate desire is that our work will reach the hearts of the Kabeka Indians and make a difference for eternity!

Last year I experience what I would call MAJOR reverse culture shock when we returned to San Jose Costa Rica and were back in civilization.  I remember feeling like I wanted to run and hide and had no ability to talk or relate to people, everything was just so overwhelming and I wanted to just run back to the village!  This year I felt the reverse culture shock again, but in new ways.  Two items just seemed to scream for my attention and reflection.

I was first struck by the sight of ladies wearing makeup!  For six days I, as well as the other ladies on the trip, had not as much seen a mirror larger than a pocket mirror much less put any makeup on!  When your out in the village makeup has no purpose, even caring about what you look like has no purpose!  There is something about getting to talk to ladies without the veil of makeup that is wonderful and vunerable!  (and I like wearing makeup But when we returned to city life I found myself brought to tears over the veil of makeup.  It is as if we as women need to hide behind cosmetics to continue the facade that everything in our life, and on our face, is perfect so don’t ask.  So my first revers culture shock was MAKEUP!

A few days after we got back to the USA I found myself in the grocery store with reverse culture shock number two.  I looked over at a mom and her young daughter standing there in a clean grocery store, while wearing sandals, and my mind was washed with the privilege that was happening before my eyes!  Now I will tell you as a mom of little ones going to the grocery store with them is not something I normally consider a privilege!!  But here was this mom and daughter, in sandals!!, in a clean store picking out food.  They had not hiked miles in boots up to their knees that were then covered in mud to reach a store that was hours away.  They were not covered in mud in dirty clothes that are only washed in a river.  They were standing on a clean store floor, not standing in mud…did I mention the mud?  And they were picking out food and were then going to head to the checkout line to purchase it, walk out to their car, drive home and eat…all with in a few minutes!  I was just overwhelmed with the privilege of a clean store and easy food acquiring!

It is amazing to me how these simple normal things of life here in America can be so challenged and altered after living in a community where they are not a member.  A community where makeup has no place and traveling to a store is a true adventure.  Coming back to America makes it a shock indeed!  I am willing to learn from the Kabeka community

Katie Brazelton’s Praying for Purpose for Women Day # 42 – “What do you need to surrender?”  I read this question and the comments, Bible passage and Christian woman’s testimony that followed several weeks ago.  It made me stop, ponder, and think.   Since this past spring I have been intentionally seeking the Lord’s direction in what I should be involved in this coming fall and year.  Like many other women I have a tendency to get involved in too many things (sound familiar?).  At one point I even pondered what it would be like to step out of all ministry commitments and have a year “off”.  But soon after that thought I was flooded with thoughts of…”well I couldn’t stop doing this.. or this… or this…” So I gave that idea up.  At least for this year.

I was left with the thought that a year is not a long time and stepping down from a volunteer ministry position for a year is not the end of the world!  My thoughts turned to Study & Share, the woman’s Bible study that I have the privilege of teaching from time to time.  This is one of my favorite commitments, but I needed to consider stepping down for a year.  I wrestled with it for a few weeks.  Even made the decision a few times, to go through with the break, but then rethought it in my mind…  Finally, I laid it to rest and made the decision to not just step down, but to step up to trusting where God was leading me.  So for this coming fall and possibly this full school year I am taking a break from teaching at Study & Share.

It feels good to trust the Lord and follow in His steps, even when it is stepping away from something I love.  I look forward to the journey back

Over the summer I have been working through Katie Brazelton’s Praying for Purpose for Women, and it has been very thought provoking.  This is a 60 day devotional designed to help women discover their unique God given purpose.  “Sixty biblical characters, sixty questions for reflection, and sixty Scriputral prayers offer an intimate one-on-one conversation with God as you discover your personal ministry and distinct life calling.”  I am just about finished with the book, I am on day 56, but I already know one action step I am taking from the book… I am getting back to blogging!  I am not sure I even want to look at when my last post was, I think it was over a year ago.  Many reasons could be stated for why I had put this activity to the side, but those are not important at this moment.  What is important in my mind is why I am making a commitment to come back to blogging… I love reading, I love studying, I love journaling all of which lend itself well to blogging.  It is a little scary to say but “I love writing”.  One never really wants to stick there neck out there and say that because instantly you imagine someone saying “oh sure, but you stink at it…”  And I am all right with that.  I plan to get back to my Mandy’s Mondays sharing what I am learning, thinking, studying, chewing on in my mind, and we will see what the Lord brings of it

So check back.