the encounter

Want to break the “Grinchy feel” this Christmas? Want to see things differently? Want to be more thankful? The secret is not in getting the perfect gift, getting more, or having a picture-perfect Christmas. The answer comes with a heart that finds contentment and thankfulness – a place of rest joy and peace for where I am and what I have right now.

My heart can easily run to discontent and complaint. I have to train it to be thankful. I have to direct it to perspective, balance, and gratefulness. To remember what is most important, to see clearly, and find real thankfulness, try this:

associate with the lowly
spend time with those who have less, who have need, who live humbly. it will break the eye of greed that wants more and what others have.

watch for what other’s need
it is easy to know what I want. its also easy to become ungrateful when things don’t go like I want them. turn your view inside out and learn to see what other’s need. make their need more important than your own and watch what happens.

serve every chance you get
those with greater thankfulness are not those who are served, but those who know what its like to serve others.

daily look for what you can be thankful
real heart change happens when we see differently. in every moment look for what you can be thankful and watch everything change.

say “thanks” often
keep your heart in check by engaging your mouth – say “thanks.” say it often. say it for small things. say it for the common things. say it with sincerity.

By practicing these simple actions, you may just find this Christmas that the people in your life mean more than they have before, the gifts mean a little less, and your thankfulness to God fill your heart.

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(originally posted at redoakllp.wordpress.com)

It’s amazing how giving away a jar full of quarters can seem like such a big deal at times.

We want to hold on to our money and be “wise as a serpent” when it comes to giving that money away.

Yet, our Laundry Love friends continue to show us just how valuable our quarters can become when we decide to share them with others.

Laundry Love is not about giving away quarters and simply donating a couple hours of time each month — it really is about so much more.

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What can be said about a bar of soap and our faith and relation to the world around us?

One small bar of soap can spark many reflections—spiritual, sociologic, entropologic and ecologic—according to Claudio Oliver, who has spent 20 years working with the urban poor, and on community development, dental and medical projects, team equipping, and teaching in Curitiba, Brazil.

(You may remember Claudio Oliver from another video we watched last year during our Sunday morning gathering.)

From Ooze.TV and the TransFORM Network…

“All this got started because we were talking about holiness.”

Claudio shares the problem of used oil being poured down drains, where it goes on to pollute the community’s water. The center of community at his church has been collecting used oil from homes and small businesses in the neighborhood and using it to make soap, which is then wrapped in recycled newspaper and sold. Claudio uses this soap instead of commercially-made soap for all his washing needs—dishes, clothes, body—an example of how something that would have caused damage to nature is remade into something useful. He also gives a tour of his recycling barrels that store glass, plastic, paper, and other materials that come from people’s garbage. Two families come weekly to collect the garbage and from it are bettering their lives. One family has moved from being homeless, to the slums, to a poor neighborhood—all starting with the garbage collected at Claudio’s center of community.

But back to holiness: to be holy is to be used for a specific purpose. Oil, when it starts out, is used for a specific purpose—to cook food. But once it is used, it is damaged and it doesn’t matter what you do with it—put it in the sink, put it somewhere else—it’s going to cause problems in the nature around it. But if you clean the oil, mix it with caustic soda, and pass it through fire, it is transformed and can be used without damage. This, says Claudio, is a reflection of the Jesus-process in our lives. There is an outside intervention that cleans, and not only cleans but changes our nature, transforms us. You can’t change the soap back into oil, and similarly we are permanently transformed from something that causes problems to people and the world around us into something that can be used without damage. And so, cooking oil and soap are the modern-day metaphors for redemption in Claudio’s world . . . and possibly ours. To find out more about Claudio’s community, visit his website www.docaminho.com.br.

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