Lessons From Alice

Alice is a 50 year old refugee from Liberia (a country in Africa) who stopped into our house for two days of rest from her journey. She is homeless and is one of the 2% of people in the refugee program who just can't or won't adjust to life in the states.

Lessons from Alice

1. More of a chicken is edible than we Americans think!

2. Egg yokes will make you fat if you don't cook them through.

3. Education is a privilege, not a right.

4. The freedom to cook the things I like in my own kitchen is also a privilege.

5. I take for granted so many of my freedoms and privileges.

6. There are so many compassionate and selfless people in Colorado springs and most people who really want help can get it.

7. There are those few who no one knows how to help and if more of the church was acting like the church, some of these people would find their place.

8. Helping those who need our help is not heroic, it is simply the way it's meant to be.

9. Not everyone will accept help, therefore you can't help everyone.

10. Though God is not a helpless God, He knows the feelings of helplessness and chooses to subject Himself to them by giving us the choice to accept or run from His embrace. He knows the heartache of a parent whose child rejects His love. He yearns.

11. He continues to offer places of grace and rest even when we have no idea that He is doing it and still run away.

12. Sometimes the only way you can help someone is to let them go into the hands of God.

13. The battles we fight for His causes are sometimes limited and short lived, and that's OK.

14. Be so careful not to hold out hopes for someone if you don't know you can fulfill them; even if you really believe you can.

15. Sometimes you just have to trust that God's purposes were fulfilled even if you feel that you might have actually made things worse in some ways.

16. At times we are called to speak hard truths bluntly without cushioning it, even if the truth is heart piercing and they might hate you for it.

17. Anger and compassion can go hand in hand; both can be appropriate at the same time for the same person.

18. Christ's provisions go above and beyond what we can imagine. The limits we put on His grace are man made. We all need so much more Grace than we know.

19. Someone who appears to be as innocent as a dove can also be as shrewd as a snake!

20. We don't have as much control of our lives as we think.

21. Who we are and the way we respond to the world is largely molded by our circumstances. We are products of our families and culture as much as I try to reject that reality.

22. We all have brokenness to work through and many of us are not so blessed with a vision of what “healthy” looks like.

23. I must have compassion on others and myself and give room for the process not expecting others to think and act the way I do. I need to ere on the side of grace rather than personal offense. I hope others will do the same for me and, when they don't, I hope I can still offer them grace.

24. God uses our neediness to draw us deeper into Himself and closer to each other.

25. We are all needy.

26. Christ can suddenly burst into a room through a persons smile that has been made startlingly radiant from suffering.

"Do not hand over the life of your dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
Have regard for your covenant,
because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
may the poor and needy praise your name.
Rise up, O God, and defend your cause..."
Psalm 74:19-22

“Come to ME all who are weary and heavy-laden,
and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28