God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded. — Romans 11:29 (The Message)
I realize this verse is actually referring to something else when taken in context, but it’s what echoed through my mind this afternoon and evening. See, Wade did it again; got me to thinking about the mission field overseas and helped me once again connect with the reality that my heart breaks for Japan, and India, and to so many other places.
Around this time five years ago, I was sitting in a hotel room in Richmond, Virginia at the beginning of the candidate process to serve long-term with the IMB. Four years ago I was overseas, finishing up a 6-week trip in Ethiopia heading back to my "home" in Cyprus, and wondering what in the world had I gotten myself into. Three years ago I was in desperate pain grieving the losses of my parents, my job, my home and my dream of being a missionary. I never thought I’d recover. Two years ago I was swearing I would never again serve overseas, but feeling guilty for it, and last year I realized I am finally content to once again live my life stateside outside the realm of official ministry.
So why is it today my heart was stirred like it hasn’t been in many years? Why is it when I went to the IMB website and looked at the current opportunities, all the openings I saw
in South Asia, particularly several in the city I lived in 2001 and one with the people group I learned about, learned from and became friends with–why is it those openings so excited me I began thinking through the process I might take (as well as the length of time it would take) to ultimately fill one of those positions — or something like it. Why is it, when I finally decided the issue was settled, the love affair with overseas ministry was over and I was content, my heart is stirred and excited?
Is it true — could it be true — that once God lays His hand on your life for a particular service, that that call is just as irrevocable as His call to Follow, or His command to Go?
1. You could go.
2. You could stay, but be a missions mobilizer and get people there.
3. Both 1 and 2.
4. Neither.
5. Certainly God used before to prepare you for now. How, I can’t say.
6. If I don’t number my thoughts, they won’t come out tonight.
7. I just thought there should be a seven. Call me old fashioned.
Guess this proves for certain you aren’t a “5-Pointer”. 😉
Yeah, I’ve thought of most of those too. In fact, before I went overseas — and one reason it was such a surprise when I realized God was pointing at me when He said, “I want you to go now…” — was that I thought my personal mission was as a mobilizer. You know, I’m that person that runs around telling people there’s a fire and we need help to put it out. I always felt that it was more important to me, and that I could do MORE good, be of more help to the cause, by telling people of thneed and convincing them to help, at least for a little while rather than standing in the bucket line myself. I mean, how will people here about the needs if I’m just standing in a bucket line? (the previous analogy, by the way, came from my Perspective on the World Christian Movement class I took in 1997). That’s why it so took me by surprise when God called me to stand in the “bucket line”; then I was just as surprised when He told me to leave the line and heal…. and hasn’t called me back to it since.
Perhaps I still am a mobilizer, and always will be… dunno. Maybe that’s why the jobs I saw were so exciting and encouraging to me–it looks like they’re building a whole team right now, rather than adding one person at a time. A VERY wise plan in my mind. I could see that they are actively working toward reaching a pg my heart breaks for and longs to see Jesus redeem and transform. Yet, even as I looked and got excited and thought of the possibilities, I didn’t hear God whispering that it was time to go back. And I don’t yet get the sense that He will.
As to point 5, part of how He used it was in helping me see and experience what I don’t want in the future, how things went wrong and what to do in the future to keep the same thing from happening again. I was so naive then. So trusting, too trusting of others to get information and assess the landscape before I went, rather than doing it myself–as well as seeking their opinion. I’m still sorting through all that and coming to conclusions, making my own lists of what I do and don’t want in those kinds of situations.
Just a few things to think on Lu.
People get WAY wound up about Ministry. Sometimes that clouds our thinking.
There’s never a bad time to serve the Lord here or there or anywhere.
There are a whole bunch of Asian folks right here in the U.S. that probably need someone to minister to them.
God is not surprised by any of this.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” Ephesians 1:3 (NASB)
Josh
“…the word of God is not bound.”
–2 Timothy 2:9