February 19, 2009
Sometimes I wonder about mosaics. I find them extremely fascinating, the way that each little intricate piece, put together with great care, become an incredible masterpiece. What strikes me most, though, is how each piece independently is nothing more than a shattered tile; a fragmented and broken piece of pottery. Mosaics have become a bit of a life image for me. It touches my heart to know that the Lord takes the shattered things in our lives; the areas that feel too broken to be healed, and turns them into breath taking beauty before our eyes.
“We have this treasure in broken vessels to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)
February 1, 2009
“Dora, what have you been learning about God lately?”
I sat there with my Hazelnut Latte filling the air with an aroma one could taste pondering this profound question a student posed to me, with deep consternation. It was a wonder I was so perplexed, when this question, innocent and sincere, was merely a reiteration of one I asked her each week we met together. As I racked my mind, conviction filling my soul that I should never ask a question I myself am not prepared to answer, I realized that the greatest lesson I have been learning about God existed in that very moment. Seeking my mind for a “successful answer”, I began to realize the lesson God has been teaching my soul all along; that success and failure are not the measures of a staff worker. As I am beginning to settle into a greater level of confidence in my successes, I am also confronted with the brutal reality of my failings. And in the midst of all the clamor of success and failure, I am realizing that those things do not really matter so much in the eyes of my Lord. What matters to Him is me… simply me. May I be marked not by success or failures, but by the love of my Lord.
March 20, 2008
“I’m lost for the words to say, Lost for another way. Ruined for anything other than Your love. I’m desperate to know You, Lord. Desperate for what’s in store. Finding my hope in only You, in only You. Take me beyond this door. Lead me to something more. Open my heart up for more of You, more of You…” (Starfield, Over My Head)
It is so ironic of the Lord that roughly 2 days after I wrote my lost post, I completely lost my voice. I went the the urgent care and found out I had Laryngitis and Brochitis. I wonder what the Lord is trying to teach me as I find myself without a voice to speak? In a lot of ways I feel that my voice is all I have, and I am beginning to wonder what it means to pair up a desire to speak with a desire to listen and to serve silently? The work of the Lord is more than words. More than the visible and the seen. It is within the invisible attributes of the Kingdom of God that we must find ourselves.
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March 9, 2008
I am learning to find my own voice… or rather to be comfortable and confident in it. Sometimes I think we struggle and strive to feel like we have a voice, when all along the Lord has given us one, and the challenge is not in finding that voice… but in using it for His purposes. As I am moving into a season of greater influence, I am finding greater obstacles to be overcome in fighting for faith and fighting for the Lord to be heard above the noise around me and the noise within me. I am learning that the greater challenge is not in fighting to be heard, but fighting to hear… to hear the still small whisper of the Lord as He whispers His deep love and satisfaction over me. May I find peace and rest in hearing that voice, and may the words that I say be few, so that His words may be much in my life.
Hey dora,
love, Randy
Brilliant website. I miss UCSD/IV more than ever now. I looks like you guys have kept IV’s passion for social justice alive! I can’t wait to see you someday soon.
“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all the he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious. ” Vince Lombardi
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