Real Recognition

There's something special about genuine recognition...about truly feeling seen and sincerely valued by another.  To feel at least one person or two on the planet longs to hear your voice, your ideas, seeks your presence, your advice, your friendship.  Who really knows you and understands and even laughs at your quirks (weirdness...which we all have if we admit).  Someone who desires and appreciates your influence, your stories, your experiences, and one who doesn't judge you for the past but believes and helps seek out your potential.  Who says good morning and good evening and good day to you. Who calls you to share triumphs or pain.  Someone who prays for you and with you.  It's a regal and royal and deep connection of the heart...it’s real recognition.

Here in Ethiopia- being a “foreigner” brings much unwelcome recognition.  I stick out more than I'd like to.  Every day I'm called various names...sometimes I get names like “forengie or forenj” or “money”.   But it's recognition not from a true connection, but just a surface acknowledgment.  These times often make me miss “home” and the deeper recognition that comes from longer relationships forged.

But then I’m always challenged in thinking about the recognition I give God.  Is it truly out of a deeper connection with Him, or just a surface acknowledgment that He is God?  Which does He prefer?

This weekend here in Ethiopia, the Epiphany (Timket) holiday was celebrated.  To me it felt like the whole country paused to celebrate the baptism of Jesus.  Streets were decorated. People of all ages dressed in traditional clothes.  It felt like royal recognition.  A big part of the celebration was the moving of the “tabots” from one Orthodox church to another...for a blessing. There was singing, dancing, bowing, priests dressed in what looked like ancient royal robes carrying these tabots (symbolic of each church's piece of the Ark of the Covenant.) Choirs and crowds preceded these tabots. Red carpet was rolled out and grasses were thrown on the ground before this procession. It felt like a Biblical march right of the Old Testament. 

And it made me wonder what God thought of all this recognition.

And it challenged me to really think again about the recognition I give God.

Is it the royal and deep recognition and honor He deserves…One that is deep and is given not because of obligation or tradition, but because of deep relationship and love?

For God sees our hearts. May we continue to be reminded and challenged by these scriptures…

Isaiah 29:13

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught…

Isaiah 58

For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?  Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings…

1 Thessalonians 2:4

…We speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.

John 4:23-24

…true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

I also continue to be challenged by the life of Jesus.  That He left the comforts and deep recognition of His home to come here.

To walk the dusty roads of our planet…to submit His infinite power to a human clay tent…

And to even end up being labeled and described this way...

Isaiah 53:2-6

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.  Like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we held him in low esteem.  Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

.Philippians 2:5-11

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As I continue to live and work on the planet in this new season…wherever God leads me to be in the time ahead...may I honor God with my life. May I give Him continually the true and deep recognition that He deserves.

And may I also recognize the value and potential in others...and call it out as God does...encouraging others on the journey...

Matthew 25:40

…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress

  

Galatians 6:2

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ

Please pray for me as I continue to pray for you.  Thank you so much!

Prayer Requests (Many of these are repeats…)

-Please continue to pray for the healing of my Dad’s back. They’re running more tests this week to see what is going on. 

-I give thanks for my GREAT DAD- who celebrates his 65^th birthday on Wednesday. Pray He has a wonderful birthday on Wednesday!!!!

-Please continue to pray for my good friend Debelle’s wife- Chale. She still needs healing.

-Please pray for my sister’s new schedule- as she’s now back in the Czech Republic.

-Please pray for my work permit that is being renewed, I have an appointment, tomorrow-Tuesday, that all will go smoothly.

-Please pray for our students and staff as we prepare to finish out this semester at the end of February.

-Please pray for my schedule after February- that God’s perfect plan unfolds for how I can best serve.

-Pray for many people serving international during this time and those serving soon- that God will protect and give courage.