January 18, 2009: Annoyed for the Glory of God

It is Sunday afternoon and I am sitting in the Grace Language School office under the front stairway of the church. Kids are running around and playing. One of them who has decided evidently that he does not want to play has been screaming for no apparent reason for about 5 minutes now. I am not sure if this screaming is bothering anyone else the way it is me but thoughts of the child falling down or being knocked over by one of the larger kids, or even someone going to the child to comfort or discipline him fill me mind (the wheels begin to turn). Why do things bother me the way that they do? Why am I so irritated by little things like the faint screaming of a child or the rattle of a car window slightly ajar? Did Jesus ever get annoyed by little things like this? And if he did how did he use it to glorify God and bring him honor?

The answer I think has to do with perspective. What am I focused on when I am feeling annoyed? Usually, as with most situations in my life, my focus is on me and how the given situation/annoyance is affecting my happiness or peace. I am usually so absorbed and preoccupied with myself that it only serves to draw me deeper into me. Were my perspective to shift towards how this thing can be used in drawing out of myself and towards fellowship with God and glorifying Christ through my thoughts and actions then these troubling things would be seen as agents of God for spiritual growth instead of agents of Satan for disharmony and inner strife.

So how can I do this? First I will decide to use the annoyance as a stimulant. I am making a conscious decision to think of God and how to glorify him when something annoys me. I think that I will begin to look at annoying situations more as blessings than annoyances as I continue to pray for God to use them to work through me to glorify himself. Next I will act on the annoyance (blessing) to be an agent of change in the situation in a way that honors and glorifies God. In the case of the screaming kid I mentioned earlier I can see several possible pointers to glorifying God:

1. Go to the child and do all that I can to bring peace to him. Whatever you do to the least of these you have done to me.
   
2. 12.6 % of the worlds total population is undernourished according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Most of these are Children (33% of the worlds children are undernourished), that is a lot of crying children. I commit myself to pray for the worlds hungry children every time I hear a child scream. (UNFAO 2006)
   
3. According to estimates from the UNAIDS 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic, around 30.8 million adults and 2 million children were living with HIV at the end of 2007. That is a lot of children that will probably die as children. Again, pray.
4. I know of many children that need prayer, a big brother to love them, a friend to play with them...I can actively seek them out and fill what ever need I find them to be in at that time.

It is not hard to see opportunities to bless others and glorify God if I will just stop looking so intently at myself. Please pray that in what ever I do, whether I eat, or drink, or react to an annoyance I will do it all to the glory of the Lord.

This was just a reflection I had and wanted to share with you guys. Bum is upstairs at a Sunday School Teacher training workshop and I am still sitting in the office writing this blog. Last night we had a small dinner at the house with a few of the girls from the church to celebrate Lek's graduation from an online Bachelors degree program. We will not be able to go to the actual graduation so we did this just a way to be able to fellowship with her give thanks to God for His helping her accomplish second university degree. I got to make spaghetti for diner and this was the first time i have ever made the sauce completely from scratch. i think it turned out alright and we all had a great time.

Friday night I put on the second English Coffee House for Grace Language School. Coffee House is a way for us to bet together with students outside of class and build relationships that go beyond those of the teacher student classroom relationships. I feel as though this coffee house did not go nearly as well as the first one did. The first coffee house was a Thanksgiving/Halloween themed night where we spent most of the time playing games and talking about the two holidays. The picture here is of me dressed (rather last minute) as Kung Fu Panda. Please pray for God to help me as I begin planning for the next coffee house. It will be food themed and I will be playing the fear factor all your favorite foods in a blender and drink them game (reference Gregg Key, a happy meal, and nausea). Also pray for me to become a better leader and planner. I think I lack skills in delegating responsibility and time management. Most of you know that it is my goal to be a preacher/teacher one day and to plant churches in unchurched regions of the country. I think that I lack many skills that will be useful in accomplishing these goals and ask that you would pray for me as I work towards becoming all that God would have me to be in Christ Jesus. I ask for this in regards to both spiritual and practical ways as I try to walk, and work, and minister to the world that I we are in and not of.

My teaching load has gone from one class two times a week to two classes three times a week plus the original one class twice a week. All the classes are after lunch so I am pretty busy in the afternoons. I have been able to share the gospel in two of the three classes naturally due to the fact that we talk about Christmas and Resurrection Sunday (Easter) in those classes. Pray that God will open doors for the gospel to be proclaimed more often in natural and effective ways. Also pray that God would draw people to himself and "shine in [their] hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ Jesus."(2 Cor 4:6)

Bum and the rest of the church staff along with Michael's family and the Webb family (Our friends and members of the church) went yesterday to Open Arms to minister to Burmese and Thai street children living near the Thai Burmese border. Open Arms in a ministry of a member of our church named Frank. The staff and others go to his building near the boarder to help play with feed and bless the children in various ways. Saturday they took about 30 boxes from Samaritan's Purse to give out to the kids. Bum said they had a great time and I think that she was probably blessed just as much as the kids were in her service to them. For any of you who may not have met Bum she is in the front of the picture wearing the pink shirt, pink scarf, and huge smile. I think that you would agree that God has blessed me much more than I deserve. As for Bum, perhaps God is using me to punished her for some great unconfessed sin. Poor Bum.

That is about it for this week (I'm sure its not, but I can't think of the rest right now). I will try this evening when we get home to post some pictures of what all has been going on along with some other pictures of general Glynn and Bum day to day living. Also in closing if you have any questions about anything that Bum and I do or are involved in or are just curious about Thailand and the people that we are ministering to please feel free to ask here or send it to me in an email at life_nchrist@yahoo.com.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the glory of His name
Glynn and Bum
2 Corinthians 1:3-7