smelling the roses

Pictures from our birthday bash in Vondelpark. Gloria (age 4!), John, and I all celebrated our birthdays. It was lovely fun to enjoy the gorgeous day together and bring all our friends together for some cupcakes and joy!

do you ever feel like you're on the verge of greatness?

So, today I woke up and wanted to change the world... to speak for human rights, to facilitate conversation between people of many faiths, to end world poverty by walking in to a conference room and yelling at every money hungry ceo I could find convicting them deep in their soul, to recycle more faithfully, to cut my shower time down, to write letters to politicians, to be better informed, join a community organization, grow my own tomatoes, personally greet every person I pass on the sidewalk, become fluent in Dutch overnight and move on to Arabic, get my masters in Islamic studies or something fascinating like that, maybe at the same time start studying art history while trying to one and for all kick the word "like" out of my vocabulary, running to help when I see an accident, and on and on...

...and I one hand it can be dreamy and adrenaline inducing to think along these lines but then I think about Jesus who brought justice and life to every person he encountered. Not just the big dogs. He didn't just try to bring justice to women by making a new law, or feed the sick by forcing all the rich to empty their vaults, he simply encountered each person and one at a time loved them. And I'm not saying that people shouldn't change laws and do the "big" stuff, but it does comfort me knowing that I'm not a politician and won't be doing that sort of thing, that I can still be a apart of the change.

... and I think of the Middle Eastern concept of being bound to whoever is in your presence.... even if you're on the way to the most important meeting of you life and you run in to your neighbor who's car broke down and they need a lift, since they're in your presence, as a Middle Easterner that would trump all else. The meeting could wait, the next thing can wait.... this sister of brother is in your presence and in that place is where we're called to act, to be. And for me, as a westerner, that's one of the most terrifying things for me. I love my agenda, I fill each day nicely full, trying to use my time wisely, checking things off as I go....

And just as I head out the door to "change the world," it hits me... ok, who changed the world? Jesus. He was a human living and being love to people. Yes, He was God.. but He was also just as much human, and as a human I can learn from Him. He changed the world through interacting in radically different ways with people... with the people right in front of him.... remember the story when Jesus is on the way to heal the leader's daughter and the woman who'd been bleeding for a long time touched him... he stopped and talked to her, healed her first before going on to the house. I want to be like that Jesus, someone who changes the world by loving the people who are in front of me.... whoever that may be, whether it's a friend in language school, or little Grayson, or my old neighbor downstairs, or the person in the grocery store yesterday who was only short 1 euro at the cash register and I didn't give it to him, oh I long to be that person... and I think, I hope that in the process of loving who's in front of me, I do get to take part in changing the world.