Turtle in the Road and then a Better Part of the Entry

I was driving to the Divinity School hooding ceremony and I saw a turtle in the road. That is a prime animal rescuing incident. So I pulled over, in a rather stupid place, and felt my car strongly leaning to the right as I was about halfway in a ditch. Upon righting my car and moving up to park in a driveway, perpendicular to how driveways normally run, I realized there was a couple sitting on their porch watching me.

I hopped out in my dress and told them about the turtle, to which they responded that they thought my car was gonna tip over (when I became friends with the ditch) and that they thought I was going to run over the little guy.

I ran up to him on the back road and realized he was a honking huge fella. He went in his shell, I picked him up (standard turtle rescuing procedure), but then he started to go crazy and I dropped him. He scurried off into the grass. That's all.

Now for a more important portion of this entry. I recently read Hebrews 11. A lot of us know it as the Faith Chapter. In fact, I was pretty sure I knew what it said that I didn't necessarily feel like I needed to read it. But then I did read it and was like, whoa! I read it in the NIV and here are some verses that stood out:

"For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ~verse 10

Now this verse talks about Abraham living in tents in the wilderness, but I love how it relates directly to me too. Keep in mind that I am called to urban ministry. I just spent the semester in Chicago and it's pretty awesome. Amazing buildings, tons of people, so many cultures in one geographical landscape. But in my future Heavenly city the architect and builder is God! Whoa! I mean, cities now are great, but when they are designed and built by God!?! That is super amazing. Can you imagine?? Huge cities like Chicago and New York are nothing compared to the city God's got for us!

Other verses:

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earch.....Instead, they were looking for a better country- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." ~verses 13 and 16. Guys, we're temporary residents of this earth....there's something so much better! The heroes of the faith said as much and were looking forward to a heavenly country. God was not ashamed to be called their God! That is awesome enough to leave you speechless.

"God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." ~verse 40. I mean, wow! These amazing men of faith...some of them martyrs....need us, their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to be made perfect! God doesn't only use the gifts of the local church, he uses the gifts of the church throughout all time! Just makes me marvel.

It's absolutley fascinating to read through account after account of people acting on faith. Some of the stuff sounds pretty crazy, but they did it!

Seriously, read through this chapter and respond with a comment about what verses spoke to you. It's amazing how well we think we know something and then we go back and see so many different ways we can apply it to ourselves. God's word never ceases to be relevant.