Joshua 1:8

"Never stop reciting these teachings. You must think about them night and day so that you will faithfully do everything written in them. Only then will you prosper and succeed."


I got a double retrospective this week: my parents visited over the weekend and I spent the last 23 hours in Sarasota, FL, where I started college.  And it was doubly strange to look back on the various ways I had expected my life to turn out compared to how it is now.  I didn't graduate from the school I wanted to, I don't live where I wanted to, I don't have the job I wanted.
I had a couple conversations with old friends about who is doing well, who is successful.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to hear people cite money or a career (or at least a chance at one; we're in our early twenties, after all).  I'd like to think that success is more philosophical, less quantifiable, but I can't give a solid definition.  I want success for me to include an active role serving God's people, a healthy community, a life stable enough to raise a family, and eventually the family to go along with it.
Honestly, I'm not sure if I'd count myself as successful, even by my very loose definition.  My current position isn't sustainable -- it only lasts for a year -- and I certainly don't have anywhere near the resources to support anyone but myself (and I can just barely do that).  But I want to think of myself as successful, not just someone floating through life.  Does it count if you're only on your way to "success"?  Can success mean following God's path, even if that path leads somewhere most people, or for that matter anyone, wouldn't classify as successful?
I hope you'll all pray for me as I grapple happily with these questions and maybe give me some guidance.
Peace of Christ!

Internal Happy Dance

Last week, we found out at Grassroots Leadership that the bid by GEO Group to privatize the Kerrville State Hospital has been rejected by the Texas Department of State Health Services.  The battle isn't totally over -- the rider in the last legislative budget that instructed DSHS to look into reducing costs at a hospital by 10% is still there -- but this is still a major step forward for us.

It's amazing to me that I got to experience an actual victory so early in my YAV year; at orientation we talked a lot about how few and far between actual, tangible results can be in this type of work.  I came into this job expecting to be part of stemming the tide or pushing back what's already happened, knowing that something like this might not happen at all.

What ended up surprising me the most was with how little fanfare it actually happened.  While there have been a flurry of celebratory email, tweets, and Facebook posts, most of my day went entirely as usual.  So instead of popping open a bottle of champagne with some activists, I've been doing an internal prayer/squeal/happy-dance since about 11 this morning.

And, of course, the work never stops.  I still have to get private prisons abolished by July!

God's Eye is on the Sparrow

     Why should I be discouraged?  Why should the shadows come?
     Why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home?
     When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He --
     His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Only in the last few weeks has it really hit me how far I am from anything I've known.  It's so easy to see all the difficult parts of what I'm doing -- I'm emotionally and physically distant from everything familiar, I'm trying to do work I've never done before, I'm spiritually challenged day in and day out -- and sometimes it's hard for me to see the bright spots.

Luckily for me, the victories have been coming in droves.  Recently I heard from my pastor in Birmingham that three churches in the city have made hugely generous donations to my mission.  First Pres of Birmingham, Mountain Brook Presbyterian Church, and Independent Presbyterian Church have provided so much to me that I'm entirely done with fundraising.

So I've been singing this song to myself all week -- Why should I be discouraged?  His eye is on the sparrow.  

Schedule change

Now that my job has picked up, I'm cutting updates down to once a week on Wednesdays.  However, my first post on the Grassroots Leadership blog just went up!  You can check it out here:

http://www.grassrootsleadership.org/blog/2012/10/social-justice-hero-gail-tyree/

Jesus Made Me Do it; or, why I pierced my nose

I'm preparing to deliver a sermon this Saturday at the Texas Festival of Young Preachers.  From the provided list, I chose Jeremiah 7:1-7 as my text:

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message:

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord.  This is what theLord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.  Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”  If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,  if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,  then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 

Try as I might, I can't avoid the fact that Jeremiah is the character in the Bible with whom I identify the strongest.  Yes, Jeremiah, the one who made his name by acting ridiculous, ranting about things no one wanted to hear, standing at the gate, and reaching out to the Outsiders.  I like to think I'm a little less insane than Jeremiah, but it's doubtful.

The truth is, the reason I love Jeremiah so much is that he gave God full control over his life, even when he did it begrudgingly.  Over the last couple years, and especially now that I'm a YAV, I've striven to cede control of even the most banal aspects of my life -- what I eat, what I wear, where I live, how I get to work. Like Jeremiah, I've felt pulled towards unpopular choices, not only taking a vow of poverty, but also sticking a big piece of metal right in the center of my face.  (Yes, my mother hates it; no, it didn't hurt.)

Like the prophet's unorthodox clothing choices and spiels against the rich, my septum piercing helps me identify outwardly and openly with the people I'm here to serve.  And so I honestly don't care what the folks on velvet pews behind stained glass windows think; I didn't do it for them.  I did it because I'm an Outsider, Jesus was an Outsider, and the people I serve are Outsiders.  I'm committed to following my call down to the smallest aspect, even if it means eating beans and rice every other day and looking a little strange in a church.

How blessed I am that the Spirit pushes me and gives me peace.

Peace of Christ!

I'm a real intern!

Forgive me for another late post!  The AYAVA house internet was wonky all weekend and I wasn't able to sign on.

As promised, a (somewhat) funny anecdote: about a budget hearing!  And let's face it, budget hearings are always a hoot, particularly four hour ones at the state capitol.

Never in a million years would I have expected my time as a missionary to be spent listening to the director of Texas State Health and Human Services describe his plans for the next two fiscal years.  The hearing started at 8:30, which is as much proof as anything that sometimes governments can be straight-up evil; I was there to hear my boss deliver his testimony about why the Kerrville State Hospital shouldn't be privatized at the end of the meeting, so I was in for the long haul.  Both of us had missed our coffee, and I was seriously suffering.  Finally, about ninety minutes in, my boss texted me:
Could you go get us some coffee?
I nearly fainted with joy.  Also fatigue.

He passed me the organization's card and I walked across the capitol grounds to the cafeteria.  As I stood there, filling two giant cardboard cups with mediocre coffee and trying to remember if he wanted sugar or cream, I had a realization.
I'm a real intern now!

I was so excited I texted both of my parents.

Blessings of Christ and coffee, and peace of the Spirit!

On “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

            Some thoughts have been weighing on me that I need to share.  I hope you’ll all forgive me for a long and somewhat less personal post – I promise to come up with some funny anecdotes for the Sunday update.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it now, and you will probably hear me say it again: it is always time to do what is right.  It is always time to fight for human rights, support the liberation of the oppressed, and give voice to the silenced.

The source to which I turn most frequently (excepting, of course, the Bible, the Book of Order, and the Book of Confessions) is Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, written in response to cries from the white Southern church that the courageous fighters of the Civil Rights Movement slow down, that they wait until it was less socially divisive, that they wait for a time that was more politically advantageous.  In the most beautiful, powerful, and straight-forward way, Dr. King sounded the call to action that has not lost any of its significance.

The passages from this letter that speak most strongly to me are those in which King speaks directly to the church (some of which I have included below).  I’ve been sent into a mission that isn’t politically popular which can be extremely draining.  In my heart I know that human rights should not be a political issue, but still I hear rhetoric from all sides that dehumanizes the people for whom I am working (immigrants, detainees, and prisoners) by addressing them as an issue rather than as human beings.  My own organization is often hesitant to work with conservative groups because of the harsh platforms of the Republican Party; as a result, many are skeptical of churches and Christians because of our reluctance to commit to this struggle.

I hope you all will continue to pray for me as I confront extremely troubling aspects of our society.  Peace of Christ be with you all.

From "Letter from a Birmingham Jail":

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

[…]

In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise?