I had the honor of filling-out a recommendation for a Peace Corps applicant this week. And though its questions were impressive, they weren’t unlike what I’d expected—except for one. And as I’ve sat with this particular question since, I’ve realized it’s one we rarely pose, either to ourselves, or to each other, and yet one I’m increasingly convinced as destructive to live without.

“Are you aware of any circumstance this applicant may be resisting in light of his/her pursuits with the Peace Corps?” In other words, are they running from something? And if so, please extrapolate on the vacant lines that follow.

It’s (delightfully) tempting to think if I jump-ship from my current circumstances, I’ll jump-ship from my current consequences too. If I cut ties with that person, or cut communication with that situation, life with once again breathe free and easy. And in an extreme case, like joining the Peace Corps, what could be better than few thousand miles of virtuously directed breathing space, right? Wrong.

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My friend told me she was an addict today.

I was so proud of her, not because she confessed some profane form of activity, but because she cooperated with some unpleasant part of being human.

None of us escapes addiction. And though some are more identifiable, like porn, food, or shopping, others are heinously scripted into our DNA, like self-promotion, ease and vanity.

My friend and I realized that to sever her addiction altogether would mean severing parts of her that were good, like desire. And yet, fully submitting to its patters didn't feel right either, so we decided there must be an alternative route. Seems like we can either turn away from our addictions, or we can face the truth of them, and hope to God love exists in that vicinity.

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Modern medicine and I have been about as amicable as oil and water. We share each other's company when we have to, but otherwise don't mix well. But healing and intervention have decorated my conversations lately in such a way that I've been forced to (re)think this mix.

Scenario #1: I was speaking with a young girl who leaves tomorrow to spend the remainder of her year in Mozambique, Africa. Sharing her greatest fear, she expressed that of contracting Malaria. When I told her I'd had it myself, and clearly survived, tears of relief streamed down her face. I explained though, that as soon as my symptoms took hold, I'd gotten myself to a nearby clinic. A neighbor diagnosed that same summer, however, chose a different route of believing God as the perfect Healer and refusing the clinic. She died within 48-hours.

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It's tough to stay up-to-speed on global and local news, sometimes due to busyness, or laziness.  And other times just because I don't feel ilke the post-read depression.

More times than not, reported news is about trauma, tragedy and the negative movements of society. And although these are crucial to a holistic worldview, they are also less attractive to internalize, let alone handle.

I believe there will always be poor among us*, and that ending poverty will not heal humanity, but I also believe that helping poverty is a means healing humanity. And the following article from “World Ark Magazine” echoes this hope—that no matter how bad an impoverishment, there is always room for healing.

Bangladesh is a country I didn’t know much about before reading this, but now have a keen respect for, let alone inspired hope. It’s impossible to walk away from its content and not agree that although much remains undone in the aid of our broken world, much good is also being done.

http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.5299859/

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woe to those who attempt to outrun their addictions: will we slow down and seek help?

Addictions simply can’t be outrun.

They will not be silenced by noise, exhausted by activity, or intimidated by sacrifice.

Slow down.

Come in out of the noise.

Face the ugly.

Now IS better than later.

Later may be a little too late…for you, for those you love, and for your full potential in this generation.

Pause.

Get help.

Freedom has never been free.

He paid in blood. You may have to pay in tears, postponed dreams, and humiliation.

The fallen would beg you from experience to pay now instead of later.

ChristianityToday.com writers Gregory Fung and Christopher Fung explore results from a prayer study released a couple of years ago and their implications as it deals with faith and prayer. The study, along with others like them, attempt to measure differing results from a group of heart patients who receive prayer and a control group which doesn’t.

The study found that the prayed-for group actually fared worse than the control group. The CT article, “What Do Prayer Studies Prove?,” draws some positive analysis from the study’s findings, including:

• The study actually supports the Christian worldview, the writers say. “The real scandal of the study is not that the prayed-for group did worse, but that the not-prayed-for group received just as much, if not more, of God's blessings. In other words, God seems to have granted favor without regard to either the quantity or even the quality of the prayers.”
• God appears inclined to heal and bless as many as possible and supernaturally intervenes and disrupts the nature of the universe to do it, whether they acknowledge it or not. 
• Our obsession with whether prayer works is the wrong question. “We know prayer works,” the writers say. “The real question is, are we prepared for God's answer?”
• God is eager to answer our prayers, and it has little to do with how correctly we say them or how fine-tuned our orthodoxy is. “This ought to give us confidence to act, believe, and work alongside the good and generous King, who calls us to advance his kingdom, bring healing to the world, and pray.”

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