Back in August 2010, as I watched my daughter, Alli, first prepare for and then depart for a two year mission to Caracas, Venezuela I recalled some lessons the Lord had shown me over the past twelve years from two overseas medical mission trips that I was privileged served on, from helping Larry Shingler establish a missions board at our church, then the very week Alli left we learned of eight medical missionaries and two of their translators being martyred by the Taliban in Afghanistan. It was with all those thoughts racing through my mind that I watched God call one of my precious girls to serve Him on a foreign field, especially one where the country’s leader, Hugh Chavez, absolutely despises America. It all came to a head the day she left when I received an e-mail from my dad [Alli’s grandfather] which stated, “I'm frankly worried about Alli being in Venezuela. While I'm very proud of her answering this very noble calling, I do know they don't much like Americans in that country. Just what protection do they provide for those Americans who teach there?” I’ll share with you a portion of what I shared with my daughter Alli and our family on the night before her departure.
First of all, I reminded her that those of us who have had the privilege of living as a citizen in this country have, in many ways, lived in a unreal world. Our ordinary experience would appropriately be described as surreal by most of the 7 billion people who live on our planet. Though most of us have lived out “the American Dream” it has also been accompanied by a bit of delusion. Most of us have begun to feel that life comes with certain guarantees. We have even created a false theology that validates our false sense of security. Peace and prosperity have become expectations … and many have been dumbstruck over the last three years in America to see that this isn’t always the case. Concepts such as sacrifice and suffering were left to describe only those who were living outside the blessings of God.
We live in an era of peace and stability though even the edges of that have become progressively more frayed … recalling the two wars in which we are now engaged and the brutal attacks of 9/11 that precipitated them. But even still, we hire others to fight for us so that we can largely be left unaffected. And even now this month as we see the Arab world seemingly coming apart at the seems, I think now even more this has led us to come to wrong conclusions regarding what the human spirit needs. You would think that what we need is certainty, the promise that everything is going to be all right, the guarantee that we’ll be safe. While I, like everyone else, would love to know that this is the life that God would choose to give my family and me, the security that we often seek is not necessary to living life to the fullest. And sometimes it can actually be the great deterrent to seizing our God-ordained moments.
In I Samuel 14 we read about Jonathan moving with God in a situation where his father, King Saul and his army was paralyzed by fear in a standoff with the Philistine army. Jonathan was certain about some things, and at the same time he was able to operate in the realm of uncertainty. He called out to his armor-bearer and said, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.” You’ve gotta love that. In today’s vernacular he basically said, “Let’s go pick a fight. Maybe God will help.” Jonathan understood that not everything was guaranteed, that you don’t wait till all the money is in the bank. There are some things that you can know and some things that you will not know. He went on to say, “Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”
God had promised Israel deliverance from the oppressive hand of the Philistines, and the way He would do it was by raising up an army of men who would trust in God and go to war against them. Jonathan was clear about one thing: he knew for certain that nothing could stop the Lord from saving, and God could use a lot of people or only a few people. The odds are always irrelevant to God.
Jonathan had an unwavering confidence in God’s capacity. He had absolute trust in God’s character. He seemed resolute about whether God could be trusted. That was all settled for him. His focus was not, What is God’s will for my life? but How can I give my life to fulfill God’s will? He had no certainty concerning his personal well-being. That he was moving in line with God’s purpose was the only certainty that he needed. He understood that to move with God is to accept a life full of uncertainties.
Our wealth and abundance of human resources have positioned us to accept a paradigm that provision precedes vision. This has been the foundation of our building a no-risk faith. This is a tragedy because part of the adventure is the discovery that vision always precedes provision. It may seem like a stretch to many, but it is always right to do what’s right, even if it turns out wrong. Jesus did the right thing when He left Gethsemane where He struggled to embrace the Father’s will and began a journey that would lead Him to the Cross. The consequence to Him was severe. Our response to His coming was to crucify Him. We should not be surprised, then, that a lifelong journey with God might bring us suffering and hardship. If the Cross teaches us anything, it teaches us that sometimes God comes through after we’ve been killed!
If we are going to seize divine moments, we must accept the reality that we have no control over many things. We have no control over when we die or even how we die. We must instead take responsibility for what we do have control over – how we choose to live.
Jonathan wasn’t choosing to die, but he was choosing how he would live. He left the consequence of his actions in the hands of God. He chose to do something that he knew was right. Again, God was doing something in history, and Jonathan gave his life to it. This realm of uncertainty is also the place of miracles. Sometimes the miracle is wrapped around the person we become, the courage and nobility expressed through a life well-lived.
When you move with God, He always shows up. It’s just difficult to predict what He will do or how He will do it. If you wait for guarantees, the only thing that will be guaranteed is that you will miss endless divine opportunities – that you can know for certain.
Lastly, I want to tell you the last thing I told Alli …the difference between Jonathan and us is though Jonathan had no idea whether or not God would act on his behalf, in that particular engagement, he knew who God was. He knew if he would seek God, he would live, even though he died in the trying. It is ironic then, that we run to God to keep us safe when He calls us to a dangerous faith. He will shake loose everything in which we place our trust outside of Him and teach us how to thrive in a future that is unknown. There is only One who is certain; everything else exists in the realm of uncertainty. To place our trust in anything other than God is nothing less than superstition.
And lastly before we pray I just want to publicly thank God for making Larry’s dream, my dream, Scott’s dream, Mike Sloderbeck’s dream a reality at Four Oaks. Nine years ago my family attended a worship service at John Piper’s church, Bethlehem Baptist, in Minneapolis and I was most struck by the back page of the church bulletin listing their homegrown missionaries and where they served all over the world. The entire page was full. I begged God to make that true of Four Oaks … amazingly, we are now almost there … so I am going to pray for two pages! Someone asked me a few years ago about how we are able to mobilize so many people to overseas missions at Four Oaks. My answer was if your church is full of members, you will get an occasional missionary. But if your church is full of missionaries [people on mission for God], well then, the rest is just about geography!
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