Answered Prayer

It has been about 3+ years since my sister began her adoption journey.  She knew it would be frought with hurdles.  She knew she could choose to have a baby or adopt domestically much more easily.  So why did  she fight the fight?  Why did she take on a third world government and the worst of the bureacracy of the US government for 3 years to fight for a child she had otherwise no connection to?  The simple asnwer is: God told her to.  She was obedient to a special call to save a life, and raise an orphaned child doomed to poverty in a muslim nation.  Can you imagine what the Lord may have in store for this young man? 

It is not always black and white.  My sister originally was going to adopt from Burundi, but the process stalled and they decided to restart a year into it with Ethiopia (which has recently dramatically cut their allowed adoptions).  They even considered giving up and adopting domestically at one point, but they laid out a fleece, and God answered clearly just in time.  It takes perserverance and committment to answer God's call, but it leads to blessing and fulfillment found nowhere else.  The same is true whether you are a missionary, pastor, parent, or postal worker.

I fought my own battle of sorts for the last 2 1/2 years.  Ever since leaving public school teaching, the Lord had lead me and my family on an exciting journey.  Many, many times I have looked back on the relative security of that job, and wondered what I was doing at Teen Challenge.  I have even applied for public school jobs, but the Lord has miraculously and firmly kept me on course.  Still, I felt an urging, a prodding, almost a compulsion to take another step.  How do you take another step without leaving what you are called to?  The Lord answered me these past few weeks.  While still working with Teen Challenge, I will be returning to Graduate School at Liberty University and pursuing my MA in Professional Counseling.  I always look to my wife for confirmation and support, and she gave me the best response: "I think you would be great at it.  You should do it.  I just wish you would have figured that out 15 years ago!"  Me too, but the Lord doesn't do anything by accident.

If you are struggling with unanswered prayer, please do not give up.  God knows what he is doing!  Take comfort in your faithfulness, and knowing he will always reward it.  Persuing his call is not easy, but easy isn't the goal.  Obedience is the goal, and complete joy and fulfillment is the reward.

Going Back to Egypt

In the book of Exodus, we see the nation of Israel finally set free from the brutal slavery of the Egyptians, and embark on a journey of freedom.  It only takes a few days, however, for the grumbling to start, and the Lord shows his power to provide with the quail and manna.  Then when they reach the promised land, they hear the report, and grumble again.  "Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:3).  Are you kidding me?  They wanted to go back to slavery!  What was so bad that they wanted to go back to being beaten, killed, and forced to build shrines to foreign gods?  It was probably the most frightening thing in humanity: the unknown.

At least in Egypt, they knew what to expect.  It was slavery, sure, but at least they knew they had food, a place to live, and as long as they did their work they would survive.  Here they would have to fight enemies that looked terrifying, grow their own food, and face danger.  That was slave thinking. 

It took two generations, or 40 years of wandering in the desert, for the Israelites to stop thinking like slaves, and start thinking like soldiers.  As children of God, we are soldiers, but too often we think like slaves.  We pine for the "good old days" when life was more secure, more peaceful, and more predictable.  The problem with predictable is that it doesn't leave a lot of room for faith.  We can sometimes find ourselves wanting to "go back to Egypt."

God has once again reminded me I need to stop putting my security in the things of this world, and put it in him.  I don't want to be OK because I have a good job or solid investments.  I want to be victorious because I trust the Lord in everything and with everything, including my family.  Lord help us all to stop thinking like slaves, and start living like soldiers so God can do all he has planned for us.  Wouldn't that be the greatest legacy to leave our children?