Porous

Porous is a really weird word once you look at it. 
That said, these past few weeks I have been a sponge, soaking up all of the information I can about India.  Looking up facts on Google, reading wikipedia articles, and running across things that other people have pointed me towards.  I am so excited to put faces and stories to the ideas/situations/dreams that are in my head.  I know there will be difficult times; being stressed and in a different environment are the perfect ingredients for Emo Lauren to emerge.  My prayer is that in those times the Lord would give me peace and allow me to see the bigger picture.  The thing that I don't want to do is to get in the way.

//edit post// The following should be prefaced by the fact that throughout high school, college, and since, there has been a huge humanitarian/social justice movement...and many of these efforts leave out the Gospel. When that's what the Gospel is!  The book mentioned below has helped me sort out these feelings.  //end edit//

The past week I've been reading "Humanitarian Jesus," by Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson (Thank you, Roomie, for letting me read your Cmas present first!).  In it, they discuss the different sides of social justice and evangelism and where the two are able to meet--how Jesus demonstrated where the two meet.  They point out that,

"Jesus was a humanitarian, but of a unique kind.  He healed to reveal true healing.  He fed to reveal true food.  He quenched thirst to reveal everlasting water...Christ understood that His life and our lives are rooted in the freedom of spiritual eternity, not the slavery of physical time and circumstances."  

I love that.  To think about how brief our lives are, it's a scary, yet comforting thing.  Scary because, goodness we only live once so we have to make it count(!).  And comforting because we know that our troubles are only momentary.  I also love, love, love how Gary Haugen, founder of IJM, compares it to breathing.  "You inhale and you exhale.  The gospel is the proclamation of affirmative truth, but it is also in the demonstration of what one is speaking of."  To love someone, you have to be concerned with both their physical and spiritual needs.  The two are inseparable.

Now for this week, to be softened towards people I see every day.