Hope in the Dark and my thoughts

I've been on this fresh self-reflective perspectives kick as you can tell from a few of my recent posts specifically relating to what we have been blessed and what we don't realize we have and how we should be different. Anyway since I posted some of my previous posts I recieved this book "Hope in the Dark" about Africa and was amazed how refreshing and accurately it has penned some of my thoughts. It says much of what I've been thinking in different words so well. So I picked some clips from the book that may astound and shock you but they are true. As you read them think how life would be different and how it changes the lenses you look through.

..........................

"We know that American pity Africans," he told me. "But sometimes I think Africans pity American."
"How so?" I asked him.
"American seem to expect that everything will be provided for them. For us," he said, "this ear of corn is a gift from God. This evening's rain is a shower of mercy upon us. This healthy breath is life-giving. And, maybe tomorrow we will not have such things, our hearts are so full from God's provision."

...........................

****Decisions I must make on any given day:
-Blue shirt or pink cardigan?
-Tall soy chai latte or Grande caramel macchiato?
-Write reports first or work on budget?
-Text message or call?
-Eat out or frozen dinner?
-Reality television or Headline News?
****Decisions SHE must make on any given day:
-Blue dress or blue dress?
-River water or puddle water?
-Walk once for four hours to get water or walk twice for eight hours to get more water?
-Sleep with the fisherman who will give food in return or let orphaned grandchildren go to bed hungry?
-Persist through the struggle or give up?
-Curse God or praise Him?

........................

"When she gave birth to an HIV-positive child, she named the baby "No Hope", for there was none. The mother's life was an isolated of stigma, abondonment, and fear. But her community began to shower love instead of judgement, support instead of neglect...and everything changed. Glimpses of grace enterd into the darkness of the pain, and hope made itself present. She has changed the name of her child to "Jesus is my hope."

........................

There's something incredible about African skies. It's as if God said, " I have so much beauty to give My world. And I'm going to shower it on this place because I can."

.........................

"If you want to know the pulse and strength of Africa, spend a day with the women of a village. In the midst of deep suffering, domestic abuse, societal and poverty constraints, the women are the stability of Africa. The will carry the buckets upon thier heads, touch the wounds of the sick, accept the burdens of helping the village survive-and all the while, the will be singing praises to God."

..........................

In this world, God has given us the gift of choice. Injustice threatens to take it away. They can drink the filthy, bacteria-ridden pond water or drink nothing. Clearly, that is no choice at all.

..........................

There is a quote(below) in this book Hope in the Dark that I believe that anyone who goes to Africa can identify with and find totally true. Its something that you can only experience and when you see it you know it and its both amazes and inspires. -Luke


People ask me, "Doesn't it paralyze you to walk so closely and intimately with suffering?"
"No", I tell them.
"If I learned anything form my time in Africa, its that though the suffering is overwhelming, so to is the hope."

.........................

Well let all that soak in a bit and see what you realize. See what you learn. I hope that this at the very least prompts you to look at your own life and see if you can say the same as some of these amazing people do who don't know where todays meal for themselves and their family will come from, battle with AIDS or don't even have remotely clean water. To be happy, content and free is a choice. Its a perspective of hope, love and grace that you chose to rest in.
Until Dukey Drops Again......Much Love............

10 things God may ask

This was a email I wanted to post that I got from a friend.
Just some thoughts to ponder...

1. God won't ask what kind of car you drove: He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.
2. God won't ask the square footage of your house: He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.
3. God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet: He'll ask how many you helped clothe.
4. God won't ask what your highest salary was: He'll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.
5. God won't ask what your job title was: He'll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.
6. God won't ask how many friends you had: He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.
7. God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived: He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.
8. God won't ask about the color of your skin: He'll ask about the content of your character.
9. God won't ask why it took you so long to seek Salvation: He'll lovingly take you to your mansion in heaven, and not to the gates of Hell.
10. God won't have to ask how many people you share this with: He already knows whether or not you are ashamed to share the good news of his love and salvation.

Until Dukey Drops Again.....Much Love.........

By choice or necessity

I was thinking in the last few days about how we as wealthy Americans have so many options and opportunites all around us. I mean if we get a little hungry and there is nothing in the fridge or cabinets that we would care to eat we can jump in our cars and drive up to the window at the local Burger King, Spangles, Taco Bell, Wendys or whatever we choose, depending on how late it is, and they give us food that was picked out on our own. We get to choose what food we would like to consume and however we would like it! We don't even have to get out of our cars.
I'm curious in such a make-it-your-way have-it-how-you-want ready-to-eat-in-10-seconds-society with opprotunity and convieneince everywhere how would our lives be different personally if we were born into poverty. Not American poverty where we claim to have it rough but 3rd world poverty where you dig in trash in hopes to find a chicken bone to suck on or boil with some water or where you are extremely excited and consider yourself blessed because you have one meal a day that is a bowl of rice and whatever else you may find.
I try to put myself in an element that I've seen but not experienced and I find myself asking would we be so picky if we were born into a different life? Would we even know what it is to be picky? Would we be so selfish? Would we be so ungrateful and unappreciative? Would our expectation of deserving or having rights to certian things instead of giving still exist? Would it take such a drastic change for us to realize the blessings we have and maybe cause us to be a little more selfless?

Luke 16:13"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

This is not to make us look at ourselves and be disgusted at all that "we" are but to recognize the blessings we have and still be different while sharing those blessings. Don't be consumed by this world....Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Until Dukey Drops Again.....Much Love..........

My Sisters Wedding

The week prior to July 8th 2006 I thought to myself this can't be real. My little sis is getting married!?! She's my little sis, she can't. As I began to work on the slideshow for their wedding it gave me a little chance to stare at the fact that yeah my sister is getting married. I'll be honest there were tears of joy and excitement for my little sis that she was...GETTING MARRIED!
It was a beautiful wedding and an awesome celebration of D.J. and Amanda(Ross) Castilleja (Cost-ee-yay-ha)!! For those that don't know D.J. he's a good guy and a great other half of the new Castilleja couple.
So I guess there is a time for each one of us when we enter a new season. A new season which brings new challenges and new surprises and blessings in which we become that much closer to who God has created us to be! I love these two and wish the greatest blessing upon them both for their lives and those that they touch!
Well thats it for now....Until Dukey Drops Again.........Much Love..............

Artist of the Sky...

I am continually amazed at the beautiful displays of artwork that we so often get to experience as the sun sets or the sun rises. How can you not see these things and not be in awe of our Creator!? Does he have time to paint the sky? I don't know probably. Does he paint it for us? Maybe, if not I'm sure enjoying the heck out of it anyway. Does he paint it as a reminder of who our creator is and his greatness? I think most likely.
Could you imagine if every morning at 6:43am a flash of light would appear and the sun would be up. Then as the day concludes and the sun nears the horizon like a light switch turning the light off the sun is gone. Not real exciting and not really that impressive.
I am however impressed and wonder likely till the day I die how it is that on a 99% clear evening that there may only be a few clouds in the sky and they are so convieniently placed right where the sun is going down causing beautiful colors to emit through the clouds as the sun sets. How? Why? The sky is clear except for the four clouds in the west changing from yellow, to gold, to orange, to pink, to red, to maroon and on in to darkness. Incredible.

Its absolutely inexplicible how light, the sun, refraction, speed, time, rotation of the earth, 24hours, lightyears, atmosphere, and clouds all work together to create such masterpieces. Coincidence of the daily occasion? NOT HARDLY. More like Perfection.

Yet we sit here on this ball of dirt and if we so choose to pause we can enjoy and experience new and unique works of art almost daily. How fortunate are we!? Its right before us screaming in color and vibrance asking us who is your creator? So then what is our response?

Until Dukey Drops again..............Much Love....................

Sleepless in Hays

You ever have a night where you just can't go to sleep? Its not so much that you're not tired becasue I am but that you've had some great conversation and you're pondering your dilemas, the worlds dilemas and everthing in between. You could have went on and on until the sun came up but you HAD to quit because the sun will come up and you will have to go to work. Its great but knowing that I have to work in the morning really isn't so great. And when you make yourself conclude you wish you could write everything thats in your head on to paper and pick up where you left off....almost impossible. Its just one of those moments that you just want to sit and marinate in...or at least I do.
I guess with that I'm going to marinate.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke

Until Dukey Drops again.......Much Love..................

Comfort of the legalist

I know its late...but I got some stuff so its just gonna be late.

le·gal·ism Pronunciation: 'lE-g&-"li-z&mFunction: noun1 : strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code
What is right? What is moral? Is the church right? I ask this not in the reference to "ethical relativism" with the idea that there is no truth, and what I do and believe is my truth and your truth is yours but more so just to ponder the thought and evaluate the values of which we stand by as Christians or as churches.
We as Christians are quick to lend grace and love to someone who we may not see on Sunday at church or at any given ministry but one of our Christain brothers or sisters make a mistake and by all means Gods grace is the only grace they can find becasue it sure isn't coming from the person that sits in the row in front of you at church. In fact its likely that they will talk about you and how what you did was so wrong or that maybe it was something else. I'm not gonna pull up any definition but I'm pretty sure thats gossip. Still as much of a sin as bring drunk, murder, adultery and everything else thats gonna be named in church as the bad sins. Oh we won't say it in so many words but our actions and the way we talk we give gossip, among other things, the free pass in church.
Someone who is going to be this way is most likely not going to go out of his or her way to be apart of someone elses life but instead will sit at church in spiritual arrogance and condem and gossip. How is that right? Let me answer that question...ITS NOT.
And so we preach we need to reach the world. We want people to be saved. We want more people to come to church. We will invite people we work with to church and we will tell them about the great sermon we heard. We, in our hearts, want people to know Jesus but how is it that they will know if they never see. Yeah we all have co-workers that we share our "neutral" workspace with but when we leave work we never see them outside the workplace. Our occupation is rarely a real picture of your life. And we say, "but I invite them to church all the time and they never come?!" It may be true and they may never come to church with you but thats all they see. So the perception they may have is gossip, church on sunday and revivals that shapes who Jesus or being a follower of Christ is to them. Then we ask them to come be uncomfortable in our environment. Given that picture I would likely not want to step into an uncomfortable environment either. Maybe they have church experience and all they see is they get the obligitory "welcome" hand shake, some gawks, a "gold star" for attendance and a nice talk when they show up. I'm thinkin' naw I'll stay at home. Its comfortable in the chair or the pew at church for the Christian but not for everyone else and again we want them to join us. No wonder they think we are too good because we are never willing to be uncomfortable and join them in their environment. To live life beyond our daily comfort zone just may communicate that you really care about who they are as a person and not more so as another person sitting in the pew or chair on sunday...because Lord knows we don't need more people just sitting on sunday. Yeah its comfortable but whos life do you impact? They may gossip that you walked into a bar but I'm pretty sure that life will go on. Jesus was judged and ridiculed for some of the company he kept and the places he went so why shouldn't we. Now this isn't to suggest that six days a week we should go find the local bar, strip joint, club or any other place for that matter and just be there but if you're invited by some friends to meet up at a bar to watch the All-Star game, have a meal or just chat don't find some lame excuse about your bible needs polished and you can't make it. Maybe it should be dusted off and see where Jesus walked. Be uncomfortable. Be available. Share in life with others. Sharing isn't with the expectation of getting anything in return. I believe that lasting impacting life altering change happens not just when something is heard but seen.
Well theres a truck load....Enjoy. Thanks for the chat pops. Look what you started. HA!! Until Dukey Drops again...........Much Love...................

When to Say When?

Just a thought or two I have pondered in this season of change for me.
As one looks to move on to whats next at what point is it time to lay that dream aside and move on to whats next or is there a point where you become defiant of what you should be doing next and instead postponing God's plan for you?
I mean Louis La'Mour, the famous western novelist, submitted his novels 350 times and was denied the opprotunity to have his stories published. Should he have given up? Would I have given up? But he tried once more and 351 was the magic number. Now his novels are known worldwide.
So I ask again is there a point where clarity or lack thereof lends itself to persist after a dream or perhaps just to be still?
Please feel free to share your thoughts......Until Dukey Drops Again.......Much Love...............