Snow Hill News Blog

Why We Can't Take Others for Granted

 There are a number of reasons why we should not take others for granted. One obvious reason comes from our own disdain for the feelings this creates in us when we are passed over. Last year we adopted Jonathan and Kari Masson as missionaries. Our relationship is as non-conventional as is their particular path to missions.

You see we have a difficult time breaking out of our mental images that calcify and dictate our responses. So, imagine a young couple mixing vocational goals and an eagerness to live missionally in another country. By missional, we mean to live as missionary in whatever context, vocation and living arrangement a person chooses. It is like Caleb Crider has encouraged us to think, "we are all missionaries." Yet, outside our family structures, and maybe a few friends, we cannot see our way to think of them as "missionaries" in the same way we find it difficult to self-identify this way where we live.

Psalm for the Week

In this holiday shortened week, consider reading Psalm 107 each day.

Pastor Todd's Weekl Email

Here is Pastor Todd's weekly email. If you would like to receive his weekly email, send him a note at tlittleton@snowhill.org

I trust your week has been well. Until Tuesday I have been free from the Spring allergy season. I am now more than sympathetic, I am empathic by experience. When is the first freeze?

A friend responded to a comment I made this week by asking, "Do fish know when they are wet?" A curious reply to my statement I was thinking about how we sometimes miss the ways in which we are influenced by the culture in which we live - and occasionally rail against. Derrick's cute reply makes the point. Often we become so used to "things" we rarely see we have in fact adopted habits/practices we would otherwise eschew.

We do have this precarious existence. Jesus is praying in John 17; evidently overheard and recorded. In the midst of his praying Jesus points to the place of the disciples - in the world. He also notes the worldly opposition to the way of God. He concludes that he was not asking to take the disciples out of the world but that they would understand they had been sent into the world as He had been.

You could say we go through stages in Christian history. We wrestle with just what does in mean to be "in the world." On occasion the church/Church has chosen something of a reclusive posture emphasizing the need to be "unstained by the world." Other times the church/Church seems to be a mirror image of the very culture in which is located in time and space. Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr wrote Christ and Culture offering five different approaches to living in the world for Christians. Today this discussion is getting a fair bit of attention again.

Jesus coming into the world altered the way the world works. Once and for all grace took human shape and form. Praying for the disciples and their "remaining in the world" signals a connection with the mission of Jesus. Rather than view the ascension as grace "leaving the world," Jesus bestows his mission on his followers who now are to live and grace in human form in the world. The world is not to be the same. Unfortunately we often pick up the habits and practices of a world we often despise. Our traits and character fail to exhibit the grace of Jesus and we miss living out the mission of God in the world.

Consider you ways; how you live. Could it be said you are living grace in the world?

Solitude of the Heart

It is not good to be alone. It is good to be alone. Solitude of the heart, describes the late Henri Nouwen, is necessary lest we view others as pawns for our own benefit. He wrote,

Without the solitude of the heart, the intimacy of friendship, marriage and community life cannot be creative. Without the solitude of heart, our relationships with others easily become needy and greedy, sticky and clinging, dependent and sentimental, exploitative and parasitic, because without the solitude of heart we cannot experience the others as different from ourselves but only as people who can be used for our own, often hidden needs. (Reaching Out, Nouwen, quoted from A Guide to Prayer)

What are your thoughts?

You Are A Missionary

One of our adopted missionaries, Caleb Crider, wrote the following,

If you are a Prius-driving, Lego-modding Starbucks barista, you’re uniquely qualified to be the missionary to that tribe. If you’re a Mac-using, soccer-mompreneur PTA member, your job is to incarnate the gospel among your people. It’s not enough for you to just try to fit in. You were saved to live out a Christ-transformed life in the midst of your social circles. You are where you are for a purpose.

There is no “home” and “foreign.” You are a missionary.

Read the entire article here.

Update from the Massons - Test Time

We received the following email from Jonathan and Kari. It is test time for Jonathan. Here is his schedule. Pray for each of these events.

Exams are here again, a bit earlier than last year. I like ending the school year earlier, even if it means starting class in mid-Sept rather than around 01 Oct. Thank you very much in advance for your prayers. I appreciate and need them. Today has been a great study day, I'm happy to conclude. I'm taking it one week (see below schedule) at a time.

Jonathan/Trey

PS - w/ a schedule like this, I need a split personality! 'Jonathan' will be taking all of the exams, however, as they're completely in French :)

--

Mon, 18 May 5:30-6:30  oral/practical, 6 Techniques in clinical scenario (cranial, structural, functional, visceral, vertebral skeleton/articulations, peripheral skeleton/articulations); cumulative from last 5 years (NB; this is the big exam I did not pass last year)


Mon, 25 May 8:30-9:30 written multiple-choice; Urology-Nephrology (kidneys)
Mon, 25 May 9:45-10:45 written essay and case studies; Endocrinology and pathology

Tues, 26 May 9:45-10:45 written essay; Pediatrics
Tues, 26 May 11:00-12:00 Statistics and general principles for the thesis

Thur, 28 May 8-12:30 no tests, but working as therapist in the school clinic

Fri, 29 May 8:30-9:30 written multiple-choice; Neurology- central and peripheral nervous systems, their anatomy and physiology, general neurological pathologies in children and adults; cumulative from last 5 years


Mon, 08 June 10-20 page 'Pre-Thesis' due to my tutor

Psalm for the Week

Consider reading Psalm 133 each day this week.

Carlo Caretto told a story common to us all. He knew the coffee was about to run out and thought before his two companions got to it he would drink it all. He did and then felt awful for such an act of selfishness. He wrote,

Jesus would have left the coffee for his brothers.; I excluded my brothers.

Consider what life is like lived with others and how you may include rather than exclude them along the way.

Video Thought for Sunday

What Is the Gospel?

We hosted Caleb and Lindsay Crider for our "Church As Missionary Conference." You may remember they are part of the team that comprises The Upstream Collective. Pastor Todd's support of their work resulted in the request he write for their website at The Upstream Collective Blog. This week Pastor Todd wrote an article offering an answer to the question, "What is the Gospel?" The context for the question centers around the matter of "cultural translation." Offering the Good News of Jesus in contexts outside of what we know in the United States, even the "southern United States," often takes a different expression in the hovels of South Africa or on Broadway. You may read the article here.

Consider Reading ...

Take some time and read Psalm 126 each day this week.