A Tale of Two Conversations
I had two conversations recently.
One was over dinner with my dear friend. C___ needs to break out of the life place in which she currently finds herself, but the life place in which she finds herself also has the relative comfort that always comes with ruts. A decision to go to ____ would be a huge first step for her, but it's going to take some doing financially.
So, she told me, she laid down a fleece in front of God. If you'll take care of ____ bills by May 1, then I'll know I'm supposed to go.
He hasn't done anything yet. God, that is.
So what does that mean?
***
Earlier that day, I had a phone conversation with my sister Emily. She and her husband Phil are studying to be missionaries. To Great Britain. London, to be more exact.
She was telling me that they have purchased plane tickets for a survey trip to London this summer, and she was ecstatic. "We saved $700 off what we thought we were going to have to spend! We may have to pay on these tickets for two years, but we're going!"
How amazingly cool is that? To know that you're supposed to do something, to own it within your very being so intensely, that life becomes an adventure you take with God, interest rates be darned. To know that you have to do something at your core, to the point that how God takes care of the details of things becomes a non-issue in the blinding light of the journey on the horizon.
***
The two conversations presented an interesting contrast to me. On the one hand was a follower of Christ, kind of wanting to see the pot of gold before walking toward it; on the other, Phil and Emily, charging over the hill headlong, not blindly, but comfortable with trusting God that He was - is - going to hold up his end of the bargain.
God never gave Abraham the fleece deal. Moses neither. The disciples? Nope. They just followed. We could do a lot worse than for the journeys of our lives to turn out the ways that theirs did.
The girl in the first part of the story? She going to be fine. She's got more fight in her than she knows, and she's gonna step out, and it's going to turn out awesome.
Emily and Phil? Those crazy kids are gonna spend two weeks in London, stoking a fire that will burn in their bones until the moment they set foot back on British soil for good. The things they experience will give them dreams to carry them through disappointments, struggles of every kind, and the time-consuming red-tape-ish experience that can be the deputation period. They'll put faces with their calling.
They could pay ten years, and it'd still be totally worth it.
It's got me fired up to help 'em out. So Kristy and I are saving up to help get 'em over there, and be part of God's holding up His end of the bargain. We won't be able to give them a ton of money, but I'll be darned if I'm gonna sit here and not be part of something special.
Godspeed, Phil and Emily. Keep your eyes on the horizon.
Gospeed, C___. The best part of your story - your best sense of yourself - is yet to come.
I'm proud of all of you.
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- The Bible, Hebrews 12:1b, 2
Wanna help Phil and Emily? Send letters and contributions in care of "Phil and Emily's tickets" to Bethel Baptist Church, 2720 Broadway, Pekin, IL 61554. They'll see it gets to them.
One was over dinner with my dear friend. C___ needs to break out of the life place in which she currently finds herself, but the life place in which she finds herself also has the relative comfort that always comes with ruts. A decision to go to ____ would be a huge first step for her, but it's going to take some doing financially.
So, she told me, she laid down a fleece in front of God. If you'll take care of ____ bills by May 1, then I'll know I'm supposed to go.
He hasn't done anything yet. God, that is.
So what does that mean?
***
Earlier that day, I had a phone conversation with my sister Emily. She and her husband Phil are studying to be missionaries. To Great Britain. London, to be more exact.
She was telling me that they have purchased plane tickets for a survey trip to London this summer, and she was ecstatic. "We saved $700 off what we thought we were going to have to spend! We may have to pay on these tickets for two years, but we're going!"
How amazingly cool is that? To know that you're supposed to do something, to own it within your very being so intensely, that life becomes an adventure you take with God, interest rates be darned. To know that you have to do something at your core, to the point that how God takes care of the details of things becomes a non-issue in the blinding light of the journey on the horizon.
***
The two conversations presented an interesting contrast to me. On the one hand was a follower of Christ, kind of wanting to see the pot of gold before walking toward it; on the other, Phil and Emily, charging over the hill headlong, not blindly, but comfortable with trusting God that He was - is - going to hold up his end of the bargain.
God never gave Abraham the fleece deal. Moses neither. The disciples? Nope. They just followed. We could do a lot worse than for the journeys of our lives to turn out the ways that theirs did.
The girl in the first part of the story? She going to be fine. She's got more fight in her than she knows, and she's gonna step out, and it's going to turn out awesome.
Emily and Phil? Those crazy kids are gonna spend two weeks in London, stoking a fire that will burn in their bones until the moment they set foot back on British soil for good. The things they experience will give them dreams to carry them through disappointments, struggles of every kind, and the time-consuming red-tape-ish experience that can be the deputation period. They'll put faces with their calling.
They could pay ten years, and it'd still be totally worth it.
It's got me fired up to help 'em out. So Kristy and I are saving up to help get 'em over there, and be part of God's holding up His end of the bargain. We won't be able to give them a ton of money, but I'll be darned if I'm gonna sit here and not be part of something special.
Godspeed, Phil and Emily. Keep your eyes on the horizon.
Gospeed, C___. The best part of your story - your best sense of yourself - is yet to come.
I'm proud of all of you.
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- The Bible, Hebrews 12:1b, 2
Wanna help Phil and Emily? Send letters and contributions in care of "Phil and Emily's tickets" to Bethel Baptist Church, 2720 Broadway, Pekin, IL 61554. They'll see it gets to them.
posted by pastor mike at 2:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home