Sunshine2010!

Our 6th National Synergy conference is just around the corner! In less than a month now, we'll all be in warm, sunny, no-ear muffs, no-snow-boots, no-mittens Orlando again. I must admit, beautiful as winter is in Massachusetts, this sounds great to me!

This year's theme is “Conflict in The Story—The Shaping of a Leader's Soul.”

Conflict is an everyday part of all of our lives. Hate it. Avoid it. Shut down when it happens. But none of us can escape it. We face conflict from within, from relationships, circumstances, losses, and the turmoil in our world. Conflict takes us into valleys that slow our pace, that darken and define the landscape of our lives and draw us into soul-shaping struggles with God.

Conflict is where God does some of his deepest work in us. It is also where advocates are born and leaders are forged. God uses our private, localized struggles to make us strong, to sensitize us to the sufferings of others, and to embolden us to move out of our comfort zones to do whatever we can to reach out to others who are hurting, taking the Gospel with us everywhere we go.

If you haven't registered yet, there's still time. You can learn more and register here.

If you can't join us, you can still be involved. We need lots of prayer as we come together, March 5-7. And you can make it possible for someone else to attend. $100 will scholarship one attendee. This is a great opportunity for you to get behind your sisters in Christ in a tangible way. We are trying to raise $2000 in scholarships. To contribute, go here.

See you soon in the Sunshine State!

CJ

Modern Marriages

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that according to a recent Pew Foundation Study there's been a shift in the economics of marriage that has "turned the marriage market on its head." The subtitle of her report, "The Rise of the Sugar Mama," is sure to raise eyebrows. You can read or download her report here.

This trend raises some interesting questions. To make this a bit more interesting, factor into the scenerios Ludden describes the fact that in tough economic times men are losing their jobs or having their salaries cut back.

So, does the notion of men as providers set a woman up to feel she's crossed the line or to struggle with resentment if she's bringing home the bacon? Do men feel their manhood suffers if they don't or can't or if a wife simply can earn more money? If God created the woman as ezer ['helper'] to the man, when it comes to marriage, is there a limit to how much help a wife can or should offer her husband?

Emptying Fills the Soul

Nicholas Kristof's latest piece in the NY Times carries echoes of what God had in mind for us in the beginning–getting caught up "to work with others on a cause larger than yourself . . . being hard-wired to be altruistic."

Doesn't that sound like the Blessed Alliance?

In times of crisis, such as we are witnessing in Haiti, we are distracted from our selfish pursuits, compelled to think of others and reach out to them. This is where we uncover clues that tell us who we were meant to be and what it means to become our true selves. Not because God is running some kind of matching fund whereby He returns to us in hard cash whatever we give away. The Gospel is deeper than that.

There may be far more to the second Great Commandment than we yet realize.

Read Kristof on: Our Basic Human Pleasures: Food, Sex and Giving

Something to ponder . . .

I do not understand the mystery of grace—only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

—Anne Lamott

Jesus and the Unclean Woman

Don't miss this eye-opening article on Jesus healing of the unclean woman in Mark 5. Author L. Lewis Wall is professor of obstetrics/gynecology in the School of Medicine and professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

The article connects this Gospel story to the current suffering of millions of women in Africa and Asia from fistula.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/january/17.48.html

We are all Haitians

"After 9/11, the French newspaper Le Monde declared: We Are All Americans. And after yesterday's earthquake: Today, we are all Haitians. No country seems to have had worse luck with misrule, environmental mismanagement, natural disasters and poor governance than Haiti. Haitians are a lovely people who deserve far better."

—Nicholas D. Kristof, 1/13/10

Another Ezer Story

Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family for two years during the Holocaust, died at the age of 100. She preserved Anne's diary which was eventually published by Anne's father and has given the world an intimate and powerful glimpse into those years of hiding.

Despite the risks Gies willingly took, she didn't consider herself as a hero and was dismissive when others praised her valor. "This is very unfair. So many others have done the same or even far more dangerous work."

Here's a fuller account of her story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122469287