Oswald Chambers once
wrote, "Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test
of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold
back?"
As we get closer to our
departure date, the reality of what we are doing is setting in. This whole
adventure that we are going on seems crazy, and at times, impossible. However,
if there is something I have learned in the last few years, it is that when a
task seems impossible, that is when God can do His greatest work in and through
us. When we admit our incapability and learn to rely on God for strength it
means that God will get the glory.
In all areas of life, we
want to see God work in us and through us in ways that clearly show that it is
He who has done this. It’s easy to expect big changes on an international
missions trip, but to me, God’s working through me should be just as visible at
home in Canada as it is halfway around the world. In whatever I am doing, He
must get the glory. A principle I learned from Elisabeth Elliot springs to
mind: in making a decision, choose the harder of two things. That goes
absolutely against my normal mode of thinking. However, it is beginning to make
sense. When I come to a circumstance which is impossible for me, that is when I
must rely on God, and others will see the result. As David wrote, in
Psalm 109:26-27, “Help me, O Lord my God; Save me according to Your
lovingkindness. And let them know that this is Your hand; You, Lord, have done
it.” Oh, may that be true in my life!
Francis Chan said, "I
don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to
look at my life and know that I could not be doing this by my own power. I want
to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through.” Wow. Is
that true for me too? Would I be willing to pray that prayer and accept
whatever adventures God leads me on?
Chambers
lays down the challenge, "Trust completely in God, and when He brings you
to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We
act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough
to invest his faith in the character of God." We have taken this
opportunity for adventure. We are investing our faith in the character of God.
Now we are stepping out in faith, and expecting to see God do some great things!
One of the books I'm reading now is by Jennifer Rothschild who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa which is a degenerative disease that slowly eats away the retina of the eye. Leaving behind her family, friends, and comfortable environment and settling in a new environment where she can't even see what that place is like was a real challenge for her. Here's the lesson she learned: "Unless we trade our fear for fight, we may never find the treasures that are hidden in the dark."
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