My wife recently served as a Table Leader for a Women's Walk in the Brazos Valley Emmaus Community. This was her first talk and I wanted to share it here:
August
2001 was to be the beginning of my new and improved life. I was leaving behind a dead end job and
Houston traffic. I was moving toward
wide open spaces and a slower paced country lifestyle. Our family of three was about to welcome a
fourth. I was excited about being able
to stay home and enjoy my new son's early childhood. We were happy that our older son David would
attend a school with a smaller student to teacher ratio. Everything was going to be perfect.
So,
we dropped David off for his first day of Kindergarten, which was three days
before the baby was to be born. About
the middle of that day, I started to feel “off.” I was 100 miles away from my
doctor in Katy, so my mother-in-law suggested we drive on down to the doctor
being so close to the due date. The
doctors decided to proceed with my Cesarean and Kevin was born. Jaundice isn't an uncommon birth issue, but I
was required to stay in town for 2 weeks, away from my older son and my new
home, until Kevin was released.
As
the next 2 years unfolded, Kevin did not develop speech, nor did he acknowledge
basic commands from us such as stop, wait, and come here. Trips across parking lots became terrifying
as Kevin became a flight risk, heedless of the world around him.
I
cannot explain or describe all the feelings and issues that I experienced, but
I can tell you I fell into a strong depression.
We had no social life or support outside of our family. We felt unable to leave Kevin to anyone's
care, even for an hour, outside of my in-laws.
David was evaluated and labeled ADD and Dyslexic in first grade. Finally after years of fear and frustration,
we had a name for our struggles with Kevin.
At 4 years old, Kevin was diagnosed as Pervasive Developmental Disorder,
a form of Autism. Both boys were now
medicated, the youngest with severe development issues.
I
had no prior practical knowledge or experience with special needs
children. Ed , my husband, took
everything in stride, having experience within his own family and having taught
special ed classes. I was afraid to
visit my own family at that time. I didn't want them to find out my kids were
medicated, as they did not believe in ADD.
I didn't want to seem a failure as a mother to my own parents. I wondered what I had done to cause this and
what I needed to do to “fix” my children.
My
name is Tracey Wetterman, and the title of this Talk is Changing Our World.
This
talk concerns a plan for changing our world: making the world a more
Christ-centered, just, and loving community.
You have heard about piety, study, and action and about the world's
desperate need for Christ and Christian leadership. But how can you respond to the challenge?
Sometime
in the middle of the unfolding of the early years of Kevin's life, when all the
doctors and teachers only seemed to have negative comments, when learning that
all the experts published said 2/3 of autism spectrum patients were mentally
retarded, and when feeling cut off from my family, a ray of hope began to bloom
in my heart. That hope matured into
faith when I forcefully told my husband one Saturday night that I was waking
early the next day and taking the kids to church with or without him. To my great surprise, he went with us, but of
course, he got to pick the church.
My
husband and I were both raised in church as children, but of different
denominations. He had some hurtful
experiences with Sunday school teachers in his youth. He took the attitude that he could be a
Christian without attending church. I
had a strong faith and positive church experiences prior to my marriage, but
young newlywed life, my job, and socializing with friends distracted me from my
faith in God. Now, when I needed him the
most, the Holy Spirit was whispering to me how to find help.
In What's
Wrong with the World, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian Ideal has not
been tried and found wanting. It
has been found difficult; and left
untried.” For the next few minutes, I
want to talk with you not only about trying Christianity but also about making
a plan to successfully live it and help Christ make a difference in the world.
Changing
our world involves four fields of ministry:
yourself, others, your community, and the world.
Micah
6:8 provides a helpful framework for understanding what God requires of us and
how we will bring about change: “What does the LORD require of you but to do
justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Your actions within your community and the
world should be just. Show kindness to
your neighbors and all “others” that you meet.
Walk humbly with the Lord by making the time for prayer and worship
regularly.
In
this first field of ministry, you are called to walk humbly with God. Before you can change the world, you must
have a plan for anchoring yourself spiritually.
If you are to bring change to the world, you must start with yourself.
Elie
Wiesel tells the story of a Jewish man who set out to change the world. In making his plan, the man said to himself:
Basing myself on the Talmudic saying that if all...repented, the Messiah would
come. I decided to do something about
it. I was convinced I would be
successful. But where was I to
start? The world is so vast. I shall start with the country I know best,
my own. But my country is so very
large. I had better start with my
town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No: my home.
No: my family. Never mind, I
shall start with myself.”
When
we try to change the world without firm roots in a relationship with God and
Christian community, we can fall into traps.
1.
The Pharisee: Because the Pharisee
is not motivated by God's grace, he or she is driven by rigid perfectionism and
guided by legalism. The mission is
perverted into attempts to force everyone into one's own mold.
2.
The Do-Gooder: Do-gooders are
often motivated by their own need to be needed or to make a notable difference
instead of by true compassion and commitment to meet human needs.
3.
The Savior Complex: Without a sense of God's providence, caring people
may feel they must save the world by themselves. Far-reaching plans or feverish activity may
be based more on anxiety for the future than attention to God and discernment
of God's will for the present.
4.
The Burnout: Without a vital
relationship with God and other Christians, one's fire for the mission burns out. You cannot change the world if you are
running on empty.
Our
model to follow is Jesus. The strength
of Jesus' ministry came from his relationship with God and close friends, the
disciples. Between times of intense
ministry, Jesus withdrew with his disciples to a lonely place to pray and share
his concerns. Luke 22:39-41 states, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of
Olives, and his disciples followed him.
On reaching the place, He said to them, “pray that you will not fall
into temptation.” He withdrew about a
stone's throw beyond them, knelt down, and prayed.”
Changing
our world begins with changing ourselves and sustaining that change in our
piety, study, and action. Or more
clearly, we sustain the change in ourselves through our heart, mind, and will.
Our
second call to ministry is to serve others.
We are called to love mercy. Our
most immediate opportunity for changing our world is by sharing God's love in
our relationship with others: family members, colleagues, friends, neighbors,
and acquaintances. John 12:26 says “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where
I am, my servant also will be. My Father
will honor the one who serves me.”
Your
mission is to infuse your network of relationships with the grace of Christ, to
make mercy and outreaching love part of your everyday life. Take inventory of your relationships and the
grace they call from you. Who do you
need to encourage? Who needs what only
you can do or give? Who needs to hear
about Christ from you?
Your
attitude toward others will either open or close relationships. “So in everything, do to others what you
would have them do for you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matt
7:12 Do you affirm others? A judgmental attitude can be the greatest
obstacle to the spiritual growth of another.
Do you only see someone's past and condemn them, or do you encourage
them to rise to their potential? Your
attitude toward others can be an offering of love.
Your
prayers for others are also acts of love.
Through prayer, God can transform your relationships. Through prayer, you help others become
changed persons and support them in their new life. Through prayer, God can open opportunities to
reach out and witness. Make sure your
ministry to others flows from your prayers for others.
Your
friendship with others is the means by which you can share your life and offer
Christ. Remember the motto from the
Christian Action Talk: Make friend, Be a
friend, Introduce your friend to Christ.
Seek opportunities to share your relationship with Christ with your
friends. Expect them to be
receptive. Be authentic in sharing your
faith and your testimony of your relationship with Christ. There is no right or wrong way to share your
faith, only authentic and inauthentic ways.
When
friends make a commitment to Christ, encourage their new way of thinking and
living through spiritual support, study of scripture, and involvement in church
and meaningful ministries.
In
the third field of ministry, we are called to work for justice within our
community. Your world does not consist
of one-on-one relationships alone. You
are an integral part of society and culture, groups, families, organizations,
institutions, workplaces, and governments.
You influence your society by how you do or do not participate as a
Christian. You are called to help Christ
transform your part of the world into a more Christ-centered, loving, and just
society.
A
wonderful example of how I was blessed and became a blessing in Caldwell is
through Cub Scouts. I was invited by a
church member, Mendi, to sign up Kevin for cub scouts when he started first
grade. Cub Scouts accepts boys, grades
1-5, of all abilities and skill levels.
Kevin & I experienced a warm welcome and acceptance within our den
(grade/small group) and Pack (all grades)
community activities. In our
second year of scouting, I stepped up to be a committee member for the
Pack. During Kevin's fourth year of
scouting, Mendi stepped down as Cub Master, as her son moved on from the Pack and
other commitments arose. The new Cub
Master had to move during the middle of the school year, and quit with very
little warning before a major scouting event.
With
the Pack threatening to unravel, I had to determine if Cub Scouts was worth
putting forth more of my personal time and resources. I was afraid that if I tried to lead the
Pack, the other families would abandon scouts, knowing my son was
Autistic. I thought who am I to lead a
youth organization when my kid isn't “normal.”
I decided to step up in my role as Chairman for the Pack and opened up
lines of communication between the different dens (grade levels) in order to
keep us organized. I was not alone. I was just the first parent to come forward
to preserve our scouting program. As a Pack,
we were able to continue to support our community by supporting our local food
pantry through Scouting for food, and by our service to clean the local
Davidson Creek Park as part of the Keep Burleson County Beautiful program. Our Pack is still going strong and in
February, I passed the torch to other dedicated parents to keep Pack 181 going.
Kevin and I have moved up to BS Troop 181.
Your mission is to help Christ change
your community by acting as an effective Christian influence in it. In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus said, “The Spirit of
the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom
for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
We
are to identify situations of human need.
Jesus identified such situations to which we are called to respond in
Matt 25:34-36. “Then the King will say
to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your
inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry
and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to
drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
He makes clear the significance of our
response. Working to correct the
situation calls for both mercy and justice.
Think of mercy as giving a starving man a fish to eat. Justice is teaching the man to fish so that
he can feed himself throughout his lifetime.
In
everything you do, be a joyful witness for Christ. As Christian witnesses, we should seek
tolerance and mutual understanding.
Christ's spirit should be evident in what we do and how we do it.
In
the fourth field of ministry, Jesus send us out into the world. Luke 6:12-13
says, “One of those days Jesus went out
to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to
him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.”
This field of ministry calls us to stretch our
hearts, minds, and actions. Your church
or church mission board will offer opportunities. You will need a strong and
firm foundation based on faith, study and action.
Now,
let me share my plan with you. I
minister to myself each day by prayer in the morning along with the Upper Room
daily devotional supplied by my church.
I am the first one up in the house and so the morning is the best time
for me to pray. I also have a wonderful
husband that sponsored me on my walk and helps me daily mature in my faith.
I
serve as Family Council leader in my church by organizing our monthly fellowship
meal. I serve the Caldwell Boy Scout
Troop 181 as Treasurer. My husband and I
also teach Sunday school for the middle school students in our church. This July, I will accompany our middle school
youth for their Big House weekend service project. For support, I meet weekly with a Christian
accountability group to share prayer concerns and fellowship in a small group
setting.
As
for my boys, I have been blessed. By
listening to the Holy Spirit telling me to find a church home, I actually found
help, encouragement, and a lot of teachers in my congregation that give me
positive feedback about my kids. By
stepping out in faith, I have provided an example for my kids to follow in the
service of church and scouting. Both
Kevin and David are successful in school.
And most treasured in my heart is that my mother told me before she died
that I was a good mother and she was very surprised and proud of me for the way
I respond and show love to Kevin. She
never once said anything negative about the medicine.
As
disciples for Christ, we are not called to be successful; we are called to be
faithful.
De
Colores
