Anne Marie Miller

Category: Church

  • Where we put our efforts

    If you haven’t read the Dan Hasletine article in Relevant this month, you must do so. All I will say is it raises a lot of questions in my own head.

    I know I’m part of this rebellious generation who is tired of religion and who has tons of questions – and when they read something like this article, it is easier than not to buy in to everything he says and take it for gospel, and allow that to form their viewpoint on the subject based on the one page article that they read.

    I am not buying into his perspective completely, but it raises a lot of great questions. Example – it would take 3 billion dollars to feed everyone in Ethiopia and save countless lives. Yet in America, we spend 7 times that building new church facilities. SEVEN TIMES.

    It talks about how the western church has bought into the lie that by doing all these things – fancy screens and coffee bars and sound equipment, that we have “invested in the lives” of the God-hungry American public. But God hasn’t changed – and we have slowly accepted the fact there are hungry, dying people in third-world countries – but we can’t wait to get Joe Smith his next cup of Starbucks before the next service.

    My response – as a staff member of a church going through a building program, coffee bars and hi-tech purchases, I am going to share the article with our pastor and if he has some time, pick his brain about it. Is there a balance? I will share my conversation with him as well as more thoughts from the article later this week.

    What are your thoughts?

  • A Father’s Love

    My heart was softened at church yesterday. During the first three services on Sunday, I typically hang out in the sound booth/production area, in case something were to glitch, blow up, break, or have “technical difficulties.” I’m there to jump in and fix stuff as needed, and to help “watch” the flow of the services.

    Every Sunday, at the 11:10 service, a family comes in. I’m not sure who is related to who, or how many there are, but to me, it looks like a mom, dad & a daughter. They bring in three special needs adults. One looks to be a lady around 40 with severe down syndrome. One appears to be very invalidish…maybe in his late 30s, in a wheel chair. Another, I couldn’t see his face, but I could tell he was older and also physically unresponsive..maybe a quadrapeligic. I’m not sure. But he has terets.

    I typically don’t ever really pay close attention. But this time, I did. The whole service. The daughter, who looks to be 13 or so…holds the hand of the woman during the music. Helps her clap. Interacts with her with complete freedom. The “mother and father” help the first man throughout by wiping his face (he drools) and cleaning him up when he spits up on himself. They touch his arms and comfort him when he has a coughing fit.

    I think what was the most touching was towards the end of the service. The man with terets seemed to be scared of something all of the sudden. The muscles in his neck tensed up and he started looking around fast. The father leaned over to him and rested his head on his shoulder and just held him. He put his hand on his head and stroked his hair. He squeezed his arm and held his other hand tightly. The other man relaxed.

    He felt love.

    For some reason, I have never thought about a human’s need for love. Well, I have, but always thought about it conciously. I know when I feel loved and affirmed. I know when I feel alone and hurt. I can sense these feelings and most of the time do what is in my power to get over them. I am able to talk about my needs.

    I’m not a doctor or a psychologist, so I am probably off here, but just based on what I saw, I don’t think these three very special people can conciously express their needs. I’m not sure if they even know “I feel lonely today” or “Man, I could use a hug.”

    But they NEED it anyway. And this family…I am literally speechless to the way that they showed them love…unconditional, accepting love. It was such a reflection of our Father. Probably one of the purest reflections I have ever seen.

  • Copycat

    wow.

    i have so much to learn.

    so many habits to let go of…

    ways of thinking to change.

    a new lens to look through.

    being the same is making me sick.

    i feel like i am watching our culture…our time in civilization depreciate.

    culture (in all aspects) is like biology. a living, breathing cycle….but filled with the fingerprints of humanity’s interpretation of life.

    it seems as if we are going in the direction of cloning everything, music. art. religion. methodology. ourselves.

    why can’t we be different? why can’t we be authentic – to ourselves. to others. to our world. our world deserves nothing less from us.

    personally speaking, my Father deserves nothing less from me. how can i glorify Him with what he has given me…set me apart to do…if i am just like everyone else? He is singing to me. a unique melody. just like he is singing to you.

    but if we continue in this cycle of reproducing each other’s “songs,” it will eventually lead to the destruction of all things sacred. glory in it’s fullness will not exist. how can it?

  • Philosophy in Mowing the Yard

    Philosophy behind Mowing the Yard

    I just got done talking with our lead pastor, Dave, about mowing yards. He was on his way out and mentioned he was going to go home and finish cutting the grass. I replied with my longing to have a yard of my own to mow (we live in a maintenance provided area, so they cut the grass, shovel snow, the whole bit) to which he said if I wanted to, I could always go and mow his yard.

    I told him about how when I was in middle school, we had a huge front yard. It would take me 3, maybe 4 hours to mow it. I’d grab my kool-aid and put on my red sony walkman and mow away. I daydreamed about riding horses, going on drug busts, or my current crush.

    Thoughtfully, he came and sat down on my filing cabinet retracted his offer. “Actually, forget about it. I could have any one of the boys do it, but I don’t.”

    “Because they won’t, or because you don’t want them to?”

    “Oh, I could make them mow it. Especially if I paid them to. But there’s just something theraputic to it. I get such a feeling of accomplishment from seeing it get done.”

    We began to discuss about how so many things we do in our lives aren’t tangible. It seems like we serve and teach and relate time and time again. Sometimes you see a payoff in that, but many times you don’t.

    Not that being in ministry promises a payoff – at least in this life – nor do we expect one. We know the things we do are for the Glory of Him – not us – but in our humanness we long to feel that sense of accomplishment. That feeling of completeness.

    Mowing a yard, you can go strip by strip, line by line and see the progress you are making. You know there is a bag that is collecting all of the grass you are cutting off. It is easy to see how your hard work is paying off.

    Imagine that feeling you get when you mow the yard. When you finish that paper. You complete that final. When you walk across the stage and get your diploma….

    God has given us the pleasure in feeling that sense of accomplishment. On the eternal spectrum of things, imagine how amazing it will be once this life is over and all of the things we have accomplished for Him will be put through the fire and revealed. For His glory. Imagine how much praise we can give, and how we will feel when we see it all come around.