May 1, 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
In my last prayer letter I wrote about wanting and needing to be part of something big in the world, something that is close to God's heart. I wrote about seeing God's hand in history and how history has changed abruptly because of the obedience of His people.
I long for His people to really care for those who are suffering in our world. A friend of our WMF community, Laura Alley, presses us to love those around us. She reminds us that Scripture tells us that in the end times "the love of many will grow cold". Has the love of many already grown cold?
Sometimes I feel like my heart is full of stone; that I have accumulated 33 years of heartache and defensiveness so that I don't love how I was created to love. Sometimes I feel like I have compassion fatigue, that I either feel things too strongly or I can't feel things at all. It's like there is a toggle switch in my brain. I either get depressed at the state of the world or proverbially change the channel. I either become paralyzed by grief or I don't care to know about the problem at all.
How can I not veer from extreme to extreme? How can I have a compassionate response and it still be sustainable? How can I live my faith, but also live in grace?
One of the things that has helped me over the years is to listen to the voices of people like Mother Teresa. She says that we don't have to do "big" things. We have to do small things with great love. The irony is that when small things with great love have been practiced, they have turned into very "big" things.
I have been praying lately that I would listen to His voice and be obedient to Him. That is my hope for all of us…that together we would listen to His Spirit and be obedient to Him.
I recently re-viewed a video of Henri Nouwen. In it, Henri Nouwen says that the Latin word 'audire' means 'to listen' and to listen attentively is 'obaudire,' or the root word for obedience. Listening attentively to the Father is the same as being obedient to Him. Nouwen contrasts this with the Latin root for being deaf or 'surdus.' When someone is absolutely deaf, they are 'absurdus,' the root word for absurd. When we don't listen to God, we tend to live a life of absurdity.
Besides sharing what I'm learning in Word Made Flesh, I also wanted to let you know where I am at with my financial support. Thank you to so many of you who are supporting me as I serve with Word Made Flesh. I have already articulated that my needs have increased the last few years because I am covering more and more of my own salary. I need more people to help support me because I have been short around $400 each month since my support needs increased January 1st. Please consider whether the Lord would have you support me in this way.
If you'd like to support me on a regular basis, I have included an automated deduction form. We have had several people write in to Word Made Flesh and say they wanted to give every month but forgetfulness sets in. They wanted to be set up for auto-deduct to help our missionaries budget and plan their expenses.
Thank you for your encouragement, friendship, and love. I couldn't be here at Word Made Flesh without you.
Love,
Brent