Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise YHWH: “YHWH looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” So the name of YHWH will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the people and the kingdoms assemble to worship YHWH. — Psalm 102:18-22

Monday.

I usually complain about Mondays.  This Monday wasn’t really an exception.  As an adult leader, I had to be up and in devotions with the SOS staff and other adult leaders at 630am.  I’m not a morning person.

However….

When you start a day with worship, it’s hard to complain about being up early.

After getting the youth up, having breakfast, and a bit of fun in the chapel, we headed to our worksite.

Once there, we met OUR angel — Ms. Hanh.

I call her OUR Angel for a reason.  Many times throughout the week, Ms. Hanh referred to us as her angels, yet as is always the case, when God makes you into a blessing for someone else, you WILL end up being blessed far more.

Ms. Hanh came to the United States from Vietnam in the early 1980′s.  She lived in a small apartment for the first four years while she saved up enough money to buy a little (1k sq ft) house in the Binghampton neighborhood of Memphis.  Ms. Hanh works full-time, but makes only enough money to met basic needs.  Her house needed work.  Lots of work.  She prayed for many years for someone to help.  Finally, SOS came.

For seven weeks prior to us arriving, SOS had been working on her home.  They had replaced the roof, redone the front two rooms, kitchen, and outer walls.  Work was outstanding in the front of the house on the outer walls, in the kitchen and in the hallway.

We prayed and went to work.

God moved in us throughout the day.  We all overcame fears, learned to do things we never thought we’d ever need to learn, and saw faith in action.

James tells us that faith has an actionable element associated with it.  We witnessed that first hand.  As we worked on Ms. Hanh’s house, she was always right there paintbrush in hand, working alongside us.  We learned about faith.  We learned about hope.  We learned about love.

1 Corinthians 13 became very clear to us very early on in the week.  As you do the work of God, then the cloudy reflection in the mirror becomes more complete.  The image of God becomes reflected back as one created in God’s image.  Being created in God’s image, truly means that you have God’s heart, you are God’s hands, and you do God’s work.

There was much work to do.  I can’t speak for all of the team, but I know that as the day wore on, I was a bit overwhelmed.  The emotions of the hardship that Ms. Hanh (and others in the Binghampton neighborhood) lives every day hit me.  I began to realize the excesses in my own life.  I began to realize the pettiness in my own life.  Yet I also began to see that there was faith.  Ms. Hanh was exhibiting faith unlike any that I have ever seen.

In devotions at lunch on Monday, we learned how man is by nature a slave to sin.  How due to the fall of man in Genesis 3, we were condemned to die.

That evening in my personal quiet time I read this passage in Galatians 4 (verse 7): “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”

Now, a week later, as I reflect on that passage, I think of Ms. Hanh.  I think of the faith she exhibited.  I can do nothing but pray that God gives me (as well as the rest of the team) the revelation that Ms. Hanh clearly has.  It is a revelation that tells us that we are no longer slaves.  It tells us that we are not merely children of God.  It is a revelation that proclaims that WE ARE HEIRS OF GOD!  In other words: “All that belongs to God also belongs to us”.

But, it’s not about us.  It’s about taking all that belongs to God, and giving it away.

I have read over 2800 pages of material and have written over 195 pages of material.  I have compiled over 600 pages of notes from the readings.

From a reflective point, here are five things that I learned:

• Time-management is crucial. It is hard to take a course (or two), work full-time, and have a family. Yet, fortunately, my family is very understanding of the fact that every “not at work and awake” hour was spent in my office working on this (or my other) coursework.
• Learn to love to read.   Between required journals, chapters, and journals to support discussions/papers, I’ve read northward of 2,800 pages in the last 10 weeks.
• Discuss what you’re working on with everyone.  I have had discussions with my co-workers about points that I extracted from readings.  I have discussed points on Facebook, Twitter, Chats and Email.  This really helps formulate your own views and opinions as well as gain insights from people with a different set of experiences and understandings.
• Read Bandura’s writings on Social Cognitive Theory.  With the direction of my dissertation, this theory is largely applicable.  While his research is “older” the principles that he outlined are still at the heart of modern research in Social Cognitive Theory.  Amazingly interesting stuff.
• Develop strong writing skills, and use them everyday — not just in your coursework.  I have recognized gaps in my writing abilities through this (and my other) course.  I have tried to be more cognitively aware of my writing in not only course-related work, but also in my day-to-day personal communications (both written and spoken) of grammar, word choice, and structural elements of the English Language.

Well, Q1 is done.  I’m now officially in the off-season.  Start back up with Q2 in April.  Between now and then, I have another 1500 or so pages of journal articles that I want to work my through (on a MUCH MORE LEISURELY pace), and a couple of books related to my education, and a few related to other subjects (like Estes’ SimChurch).  My first reading though, will be the oft-reference Jospeh Schumpeter classic: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942).

But first, a nap.