Confetti, Silly String, Masks, and Streamers Everywhere!

Milan has just had its Carnivale celebration.  Carnivale is the last hurrah before the carnal deprivation of Lent, and should technically be celebrated on Fat Tuesday (or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday.

In Italy, however, Carnivale is celebrated for two weeks.  Unlike the nearly naked and drunken celebrations of Carnivale in Brazil or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Carnivale here is mostly for children.  Confetti, Silly String in aerosol cans, streamers and costumes can be found in most every market and shop during the month of February.  And a two week celebration means that a child can celebrate Carnivale with her grandparents in Parma one weekend and celebrate at home in Milan the next weekend.

One February I was in the small town of Iseo, Italy by the like-named lake.  I was tired, so I sat on a bench near a place where the sidewalk narrowed.  There was a boy about 3-4 years old in costume.  His dad was also tired so they shared my bench.  The boy had a bag of confetti and every time he saw another child approaching he pulled out a fistful and—POW!—showered the other kid with confetti.  The giggling that followed was positively contagious.  Then he would load up again and wait for his next victim.  We passed an hour or so this way.

February of 2010 I was in Venice.  I would never have deliberately gone to Venice during Carnivale because I don’t like being in crowds, but since I was there and it would probably be my only chance to do so, I went to St. Mark’s Square and watched the celebration.  Venice’s Carnivale is quite a spectacle, with some of the most opulent and elaborate costumes I have ever seen.  It reminded me of the costume party scene in Hitchcock’s “It Takes a Thief.”  I was told that some people save up all year for their Carnivale costumes, and I can believe it.  But it was a also an event for children.  At one point, I found myself near a family with two children.  The little boy kept tossing confetti on his little sister, who was too little to understand or appreciate the fun.  Finally he got frustrated with her and turned and threw confetti on me.  “Whee!”  I giggled every time he did it, which made him keep doing it until his mother stopped him.  I think she must have thought I was just being kind, but really I was having fun.

The very next day was when God told me about my ministry to Europe.  I like to think that God will use me and the rest of the missionaries in Europe to bring revival, and then we’ll celebrate in a party that never has to end.

Yesterday celebrations ended here in Milan—just when I had gotten used to riding the subway with fairy princesses and Power Rangers!  All that’s left is Carnivale’s detritus: confetti and spent streamers all over the ground, and silly string going gooey all over the walls.  The city is really good about cleaning up after Carnivale, so there will be hardly a trace of its silly fun.  I don’t normally mind the winter, but February really needs Carnivale’s fun.  I think God knew that!

Step into your Destiny

I believe that it’s with a false sense of humility that many of us excuse our inactivity as Christians.  We think that we’re being meek and humble, when what we’re actually doing is exhibiting is a staggering lack of faith.  We think, “God would never use me to bring revival to my city,” for example, when that’s exactly what He would do if you would only cooperate and obey.  The thing is that it’s not your personality, charisma, or strength.  Spiritual victory depends solely upon God’s ability worked through an obedient vessel.  God is giving you an opportunity to work alongside Him, like a mother baking cookies with a child or a father working on the car with a child.  Does the mother need the child’s help to bake cookies?  Does the father depend on the child’s help in fixing the car?  No, but it’s an opportunity for closeness, and it also gives the child the chance to learn and feel empowered.

Here’s the thing: God is preparing us to reign with Him, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with him,” (2 Timothy 2:11-12, emphasis mine; see also Revelation 5:9-10).  This life is our training ground for reigning with Him.  But we won’t reign if we don’t endure.  To endure, we’ve got to bear fruit (see John 15:1-2), and we’ve got to overcome (see 1 John 5:4).  And that brings us back to faith.

Back to that passage in 2 Timothy, notice that some will be saved, but not reign.  You might think, “Well, I don’t really want to reign, I’ll just be happy to be there.”  Not me!  I want to reign, but not to be a big shot.  See, I want to sit with Jesus, right by His side.  He will be in His glorified, resurrected body, and me in my resurrected body, and I want to get as much face time with Him as I can.  But that’s not a privilege that will be handed out to everybody.  Only those who endure, bear fruit, and overcome will be invited to sit with Him on His throne, right by His side.  I am running this race to win the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24).  Is there anything else that is worth living or dying for?

Contrarian Kingdom Part Two

Greetings from Cardiff!

Yesterday we went to the Senate building to pray for the Welsh Parliament.  The building is right at the docks, which historically have economic importance for Wales, being the place where so much Welsh coal was shipped to the rest of the world.  The demand for coal declined and the docks became a derelict area.  In 2005 the docks area underwent a transformation.  And now it’s a great place for people to meet and have a meal.  For our purposes, it was a great place to come and pray for revival in Wales—specifically, for a revival that will dwarf the previous revivals that started here.

In this beautiful setting in the capital of Wales, I found that for some reason I was having some trouble focusing and praying—the reason I’m here.  So in desperation, with my mind wandering this morning I finally said, “Lord, please tell me what to pray!” Sometimes desperation leads to wonderful contrarian things:

• I want to be brilliant—a genius—at faith, even if people think I’m stupid about other things.  
• I want wisdom to live out that faith.  
• I want and need discernment of the schemes of the enemy.

All my life, the thing that was guaranteed to anger me was to be called stupid or treated like I’m stupid.  And there have been plenty of people who have thought me stupid.  When I lived in California as a child, the other children teased me and called me stupid because of my Texas accent.  In New York as an adult, people occasionally mimicked me because my accent made me sound stupid to them.  Their logic being that you might be a stupid redneck because you sound like Jeff Foxworthy.  In Italy, people sometimes mistake my slow speech (Texas drawl in Italian) for a slow mind, and try to take advantage of me.  So for me to pray for a faith so smart that people think I’m stupid is inspired by God because I would never ask to be taken for stupid.  But God’s wisdom turns the wisdom of the world on its head.  And one thing I am ready to embrace above all others is God’s wisdom.

Recently I wrote a blog post about God’s contrarian logic:  https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/contrarian-kingdom/.  And in true contrarian, non-conformist fashion, I love the idea of asking for something that in my flesh I never wanted.  But there it is:  I want a faith so big that people in their flesh think I’m stupid.  It’s turning the world’s logic on its head.

Come on, people of God!  Let’s live a life that’s absolutely contrary to the world’s way!