It could be over

02 Wednesday Jul 2008

Posted by kimrhodes in God, life, mission

I swear I have one of these days every month or so. Am I the only one who has these kind of days or thoughts? The days where you go, “you know it could all be over for me at any second of any day.” I don’t think I’m a morbid person but I have these thoughts more often than not. Maybe today those thoughts came because as I turned on the local morning news I heard the following….

Spartanburg High School football player drowned yesterday as his team was having a cookout at the lake.
32 year old mother and child died last night in a local fire
Body of missing Greenville girl from last week, found in a house. Investigators still working through what might have happened.
Mother of 5 is stabbed to death as a robber was trying to mug her as she was heading into a store.
Man struck by lightning this week and just happens to live.

So I say all of that because I am well to aware once again that my life here on Earth could be over at any second of any day. So I think that is why I personally am so passionate about mission and life. At leaste I try to be. So as I sit here this morning and do my questions that I always do as I reflect on things here is what I want to share with you.

Love what you are doing. If not, find something you love doing. Don’t waste your life doing something you don’t love.
Make the most of each day with your family, friends, and children.
Invest in other people dreams, your friends, your community, your family, your kids.
Risk and Dare. Don’t let time, money, funding, situations, cause you from not doing what you are called to do.
Dream and do it! Don’t wait till later. Do it now.
Be a Person of Great Faith – Because Faith is hearing the voice of God, and trusting the heart of God enough to act on what you have heard.

DO IT, LIVE IT, DREAM IT, ……..GIVE YOUR LIFE AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Restoration

16 Monday Jul 2007

Posted by kimrhodes in God, mission, Restoration

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Our family was in downtown Greenville last night celebrating Addie Gail Brooks first birthday. Now that most of our friends have more than 1 child it seems there is always a birthday to celebrate. It was a great party. While we were there in the area we decided to visit Dave’s aunt and uncle who just moved to the area a while back. They bought this old mill home about 5 months ago and decided to gut it and renovate it. I saw this home about 3 months ago when they just started working on it. When I saw it I thought there was no way possible to ever make the thing livable. I’m not the greatest big picture person. When I look at things I most of the time just see the details. And the details on getting this home to the place where I thougth they could live in it seemed impossible. I was totally shocked when we walked through the door. What was once such an eye sore and heap of work, was now a beautiful work in progress and definiteley a wonderful livable space. Who would have known? How could I have doubted?

Thought about a lot of our families mission… finding broken places in this world and making beauty out of them. So many moments I look at the task and can’t see the big picture but just the details. I get overwhelmed and even doubt at times that God can take something so broken and barren and make something beautiful out of it. But he does. We constantly bump into lives that he has restored and we watch and reflect in awe of the beauty he has created. I really want to look at things and immediately see the big picture and not just the details. In the end the big picture is a wonderful thing.

Black, White and Gray

15 Sunday Jul 2007

Posted by kimrhodes in God, Journey

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The past few mornings I have been up at the crack of dawn. I am an early riser by nature but my children… they beat me to it. If your children sleep in past 8AM in the morning you ought to consider it a blessing. My kids will be up anytime between 6 and 7am and if they make it to 7 I really feel like I slept in a bit. It’s not really a big deal for me but my husband is a night owl so trying to balance staying up later with him but having to get up so early with the kids is a rhythm I am still trying to figure out. With that said, the past few mornings have allowed a time for a nice walk through our neighborhood. When it’s 8am, everyone has been up for 2 hrs, breakfast has been served… what else is there to do but get outside?

I have not walked our neighborhood in a while so these past few days have been an interesting walk of discovery for me. We don’t live in an upscale community. It’s a very modest neighborhood. Dave and I love it here and we love our home. The home we live in is nicer than any home that Dave and I grew up in. We feel very blessed to have the house that we do. We made a few good decisions when buying our first home and when interest rates hit rock bottom a few years back we were able to sell that house invest in a much larger home for a very little house payment in comparison. We were just fortunate that all the cards played in our favor. Our neighborhood is governed by a covenant. We like this because it prevents eye sores or chain link fences going up around you. However on my walks it amazes me how many people are in violation of the covenant. It’s not just a few homes, it’s many. The thing about covenants is that it’s very black and white. There is a document that says exactly what you can and can not do. There is no gray area. But yet so many people want to live in the gray. It bothers me when there are issues that are black and white and people live in the gray. But it bothers me even more when the issue is Gray and people want to define it as black and white. Bet you did not see that twist coming!

It lead me to think about the generation that we live in. Especially Christianity and people who claim to be Christians. There are so many churches, people, Christians, that want to define a black and white covenant to issues that are gray and can’t be defined. Living in the bible belt we encounter this everyday. Churches in the south have a tendency to define major issues as black and white and leave people in a battle of choosing purity or sin. It’s such a shame. We are enslaving people through a bad theology instead of defining the gray issue and letting people live and draw their own lines based on there experiences and relationships with the Lord. Jesus dealt with this a lot as he constantly lived in the gray and had the Pharisees looking over him wanting him to define black and white and then persecuting him when he didn’t. Jesus hung out with ungodly people, He did things that made people question him, he healed on the sabbath, he changed water into wine, he ate and fellowshiped with people living in sin. This is like Christianity 101… most of you already know all of this. Sorry for the details.

All that to say.. I feel like am constantly aware of the black, white and gray.

Dave gets this a lot with the people and groups that he comes in contact with. Especially the youth of this generation. At most of the camps he does… there will no doubt be a question and answer time where Dave sits in the hot seat and trys to answer life questions that these kids have. It becomes interesting because a lot of these kids are from places that have defined issues as black and white. Dave and I.. well we live in the gray on a lot of issues. That is the way we live our life and in ways it’s part of our ministry to shed more gray in people’s lives. Not to be reckless but to take God seriously and enjoy the freedoms he has given us with life and to trust our relationship with him and the holy spirit on what is right for us. Of course in teens lives it all comes down to about three questions that are asked every time. “How far is too far?, Is drinking alcohol wrong?, How do I deal with mean people? I love how Dave answers these questions. Especially when you have a baptist minister standing over you wanting you to define it as right and wrong. And Dave always comes back to the gray. Telling students that there are a lot of gray area’s in Christianity that can not be defined in black and white and that you need to walk in that grey in your relationship with the Lord and define your own lines with Him. (I really wish someone presented those thoughts to me while growing up. When I would live in the gray on issues… which I thought were black and white, I felt like such a sinful person. When really… looking back, it was not sin at all. I feel like I missed out on a greater impact on people because I was so chained to my own struggle of disapointment.) There is a lot more that goes into answering that but I’ll leave it there just to make my point. And let me preference…. There are many many issues that are black and white… take the 10 commandments as some of them. Don’t steal, covet, honor your father and mother, etc… so I’m not trying to say do whatever you want. Hopefully you know what I was trying to say. Just focusing on the Gray thing right now.

I am trying to think how that has played out in our lives. Dave and I are definitely trying to be more missional. We both grew up with a very black and white influence in our lives. Daring to live in the gray has brought about much freedom. It’s not always easy because there will always be those people in our life who will question us when they see us doing something that for them is still defined as black and white. Much like with Jesus there are probably people that look at us and play the Pharisee role. We don’t care.

So back to our neighborhood. Who ever thought that a few days of walking around our hood would bring me to reflect on the spiritual journey’s we have been on. Or more so.. .I have been on.

The Response to Izzie

05 Tuesday Jun 2007

Posted by kimrhodes in God, Hope, Izzie

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I always think it’s interesting the response I get to Izzie’s name and the conversations it takes me to. Last week we were at mom’s pool and a father was there with his two daughters. Emma began to play with them and he was asking her what her sisters name was. Emma said “Izzie”. He said, oh is her name Isabella? “no said Emma” Is it Izararua? Emma was flustered. She said no, she is a girl. I chuckled. It’s funny how no one thinks Izzie is her first real name. They always think it is short for something. They are always surprised when I say that it is not.
We were at the Salty Dog in Hilton Head on Friday and I was chatting with the mother of the youth minister from the church Dave was doing the camp for. We were having to wait a long time for food so we had a lot of time for conversation. Izzie’s name came up and she also asked what her name was short for. I went on to explain the meaning behind her name and how we named her that after she became our miracle girl. Well this Lady had such an interesting miracle herself. She had just had her first child when she found out that she had a mass in her spinal area. The dr’s first thougth it would be inoperable since the area was delicate. They decided to go ahead and operate telling her that there was 100% chance she would never walk again. The mass was not cancerous but to take it out they had to sever most of her spinal cords. The first week she was paralyzed but then she started having movement and then began to walk. When they took the x-rays there was nothing there that showed that there was any connection to her lower extremities. The dr’s were so baffled that the Dr who did the surgery did not charge her for it because he said he did not do that surgery. To this day he keeps her z-ray in his office to always tell patients that when they get the most devastating news he always says but as you can see, this lady is walking and there is no reason that she should be so you see there is always hope. Don’t you just love that? I love hearing about miracles in other peoples lives. We have an amazing God who does things when we can’t explain them. I keep the x-ray of my ovaries 2 weeks before I got pregnant showing that there was nothing there no eggs and thus no medical explanation of how Izzie was ever possible. When I have days when I see into other peoples lives and the struggles they are facing I always want to offer people hope that God can still work in their lives. He does not always intervene in every situation but we can always rely on the fact that we can trust him and that he is good. I was just so encouraged to hear about her story and to know God has worked and is working in the lives of so many who dare to believe that by only Him our situations can have hope. You see there is always hope.