Needs and Obligation

Like everyone, my mind has drifted back and forth today between my mundane moments to the catastrophic events going on on an island far away. I am glad for my sister-in-law's timing of asking for Charity: Water donations for her recent birthday because they are one of the groups fighting to keep people alive and that money is already being put to work. But is that enough? Of course not. I'm still processing how I can help from here with the budget I have.

Today I read a little about the authority of God. He does have the authority to do whatever he wants. Like it says in Isaiah 46:9-10 "Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and no one is like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and for long ago what is not yet done, saying My plan will take place, and I will do all My will." So what does this all-powerful God will? Look at the next verses, "Listen to me, you hardhearted, far removed from justice: I am bringing My justice near; it is not far away, and my salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion, my splendor in Israel."

God is a God of justice and salvation. Yes, we live in a world where catastrophic things happen. There is lack and pain. But God's actions in this world (in scripture) always have the goal of drawing people's attention to himself, to heal and reconcile in the end. He does His will and he never acts outside of his character even when we don't understand how it will work together. This all comes to a potent point when Jesus died to take on the curses that bound us and He overcame the sting of death by His resurrection. That's why we should always be among the first people to get out there to help and protect those who are hurting. We are his healing hands on this earth with God's Spirit in us. Clearly we are failing to be obedient - maybe we are just fooling ourselves to say we are Jesus' followers at all. At least when we see horrible things on our TVs or computer monitors we remember than our mundane lives could be different. We could step out and make sure that this world is more just and healthy because those who claim to have a relationship with God also act like it.

Colds are Weird

So I have been laying in bed for the past 5 days. I'm so over being sick, but the dumb bug has not completely moved on. At least now my brain has cleared enough that I can fold laundry, write some thank you notes, and - oh yes - stay up until 5am reorganizing my life! Yeah. I don't know what that was about. But last night I went nuts and reorganized my desk. To be clear, didn't actually get out of bed until about 11pm and I layed down to try to go back to sleep a couple of times but my brain was starved for real-world interactions.

So I guess I was quasi nocturnal at this point. However, today I made myself get up so I have some chance of normal sleeping patterns some time in the next few days. I have to go to immigration (for real this time; not just saying so and then getting sick like this week) at 7:30 on Monday so I've got to figure out something. I thought about keeping closer to my current patterns by just staying up, but then I remembered that I am meeting my new teammates later than day AND Uni choir starts. Must be well rested for a long day. And oh, I need to get passport pictures today for my residency card in case they ever decide to give me one...

Just thought I'd get back in the habit of blogging. Check and maybe I'll actually post something of substance at some point. Probably not.