We spent Sunday morning worshipping as a team, engaging in
some beautiful praise led by one of my roommates, Jenna, and then sitting at
the table to eat from the Word as taught by Alistair Begg. We are listening to a sermon series about
Abraham from Begg called “Venturing in Faith.”
Check it out if you have the chance, the first sermon is rich!
Begg starts this series by talking abut Abram’s
background—not something we often look at with Abram, but something we all
wonder about with one another. Where
have you come from? What are my roots?
Our backgrounds influence our behavior, our stories, and our lives. They matter.
Yet I have never spent much time looking at Abram’s background, so I really
appreciated Begg’s message. The main
crux of his teaching in this was that God can use anyone, the most ordinary,
the most flawed—our backgrounds do not determine whether or not He can use
us. He’s the one who makes that
call.
In the midst of talking about backgrounds, an idea Begg
taught about really struck me. He asked,
“Have you come to the point where you’ve asked God “What do you want me to do?”
Where you’ve stopped telling God what
plans you have, or making plans and asking for His blessing, but truly laid all
that down and said, not my plans but yours.
Begg states, “When Abram asked this, his answer was “Get up and leave
all of your security, everything that represents security to you—and go.”.” He didn’t say where. He didn’t say for how long. He said leave it
all, and go. That’s what I want you to
do Abram. And Abram followed this call
into the unknown, following the One who Knows, the One who is trustworthy and
worth it all.
On some days here, I wrestle with longing for all I’ve left
behind—family, friends, a church home, community, wonderful Nashville, secure
jobs, {relative} safety and peace, ministry, the known of day to day life. In
the settling in, learning language, meeting people, building relationship, all
of it new, I wrestle with wanting to trade all this unknown back in, and get
back some familiar. Maybe even just some
bits and pieces?
Yet God meets me in it and He sets before me Abram’s
example. He sets before me the example
of Scott and Jennifer Myhre who are celebrating their 20th
anniversary of serving in East Africa, with the majority of those years spent
here in Bundibugyo. He sets before me
dear friends who have lived in this country for years laying their lives down
for His name’s sake. He reminds me that
this unknown, it is for His glory and renown.
It was never in the deal that it would be easy or familiar. What was and is promised is that laying my
life down is where I truly find life.
Giving my life away is where I will find joy. Loosing the chains of captives and bringing
light in the darkness is where I will find Him and where His banner will be
raised high. And every step, every
moment, is worth it. And I am so
thankful His grace is enough to carry me on the days I forget these examples
and His promises, and His grace call me back to His purposes and plans for me and this
place—glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. Loving the one He puts before me and pouring myself out for the sake of His name.
In the words of the old hymn, He’s asking me to “venture on
Him, venture wholly, let no other trust intrude.” This is my prayer and hope, that my trust
would rest secure in Him, and that in the unfamiliar, His presence would
continue to lead and guide me. I’m full
of trepidation mixed with anticipation in this new venturing, wonder mixed with
some fear. And in it all, I feel on the
brink of great and glorious things, if I venture out to engage them and find
Him.
As Begg concluded, “God used Abram’s leaving the best
society can offer, the most advanced city and people of the time*—he turned his
back on all this represented and turned forward to all He had to offer.” As Abram turned to follow God into the
unknown, he proclaimed to his generation and all to come:
“I’m heading for a
city whose builder and maker is God.”
Amen and amen. I’m
following your lead father Abraham. Unto
that redeemed city will I run, and on behalf of this city will I work for
shalom and restoration. Even in the
unknown, I know Whom has called me and where we’re headed. Today, I’m venturing on Him from
Bundibugyo.
*check out some history, Ur of the Chaldeans was pretty
legit…they even had central plumbing y’all!
