Send Me

     I'd call this post "Uprising" but that wouldn't be enough.  I'm certainly glad to see our 2 oldest girls dig deeper for the meaning of their lives.  I'm certainly glad they have the "freedom" to quit their jobs and career paths if prompted.  Because of their convictions to be chaste, they don't "have" to remain in the settings of verbal abuse just so they can put food on the table for a little person.  Tons of young women do.  Because our girls are learning what debt does, they are removing themselves from it and releasing themselves from the grip it uses to prevent them from swimming against the current. 
     Megan, when's the last time I told you about Megan?  A few months ago, she decided to step back into school and enrolled to take online classes from a Christian university, straight As so far.  She called bummed last night that she's got an 86 average in a class.  This is from a young woman who works nearly 60 hours a week, is self sufficient, and still finds a way to make it to church at least 3 times a week and to make time for her sister and extended family regularly. 
     Miranda's the one on a mission right now, down in Mississippi with her Daddy, helping tornado victims.  Megan's on a mission too; she just might not know it yet.  She can't find satisfaction in her job as a service advisor.  Some say the responsible thing is to flower or at least be content with your circumstances.  Does that apply when you have the power to change them?  It does if your purposes are God led?  I'd say, if your purposes are "right", but that term can be manipulated.
     Megan, the driven one, the stick it out to the end one, decided to give her notice last week.  That very day, a leader from her church asked if she'd apply for an intern position, the kind of thing she's surely interested in.  To that, I encouraged her neither way, but quoted to her something I'd just read, "Setting priorities means saying yes to the best. The best thing is God, because God wants the best for you. But in order to say yes to the best, you have to say no to the good. Remember, good is the enemy of best."
     Within days, Megan's boss from her last job put a personal plea in for her to come back as a technician, and for more money, because he says he needs "someone with a brain", "someone who can handle the programming and wiring".  It feels good to be wanted and appreciated for what you're trained for, but is it what God is drawing you out for?  Are you sacrificing your spiritual and physical health for it?  Is it worth it?  Or does God have something bigger in mind? 
     When God asks, "Who will go?" how many of us really can and will "go"?  How many of us will "let go" to all that we know and to all that makes us comfortable and safe?  I've been reading Francis Chan's "Crazy Love".  He sites Amos 6:1, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!"  Do we really believe that God allowed America to prosper just so its citizens could live the "American Dream"?  How selfish and unGodly.  Chan says, "Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to .  They don't have to trust God if something unexpected happens - they have their savings account.  They don't need God to help them - they have their retirement plan in place.  They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live - they have life figured out and mapped out.  They don't depend on God on a daily basis - their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health.  The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God."
     Hebrews 11:8, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into the place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."  Before that in 11: 6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."  A person can study theology all day long and miss the real point.  A person can embrace a responsible lifestyle and still miss the real point.
     For those of us who store up for the days of oblivion, remember, "And I will say to my soul; Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night they sould shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou has provided?  So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." ~ Luke 12: 19-21.  Yes, it goes on to the familiar, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on."  But why do we dissect the Bible so much and only stay familiar with our favorites?  And of course, I too am inclined to be self reliant and "prepared" but do you work out your salvation as much as you "prep" for the future?
     In another book I'm reading, "Growing Great Kids", I'm given advice to "channel" our children's gifts and I do believe that giving them tools and opportunities is crucial, BUT will they use them for their own amusements and prosperity or for the Kingdom, for the least of these?  I pray they not use them to give God tokens.  Chan writes, "It's easy to fill ourselves up with other things and then give God whatever is left.  Hosea 13: 6, 'When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; they they forgot me.'  God gets a scrap or two only because we feel guilty for giving Him nothing.  A mumbled three-minute prayer at the end of the day, when we are already half asleep.  Two crumpled-up dollar bills thrown as an after-thought into the church's fund for the poor.  Fetch, God!" 
     Chan also responds to doubt, "The answer to each of these questions is simply this: because He's God.  He has more of a right to ask us why so many people are starving.  As much as we want God to explain himself to us, His creation, we are in no place to demand that He give an account to us."  I read this to a woman in the waiting room at the orthodonist's office yesterday.  At first I was apprehensive to join the existing conversation, but I heard my "in" and it was "on".  After the hour long wait for our kids, she told me that I had blessed her.  Me?  The enemy gets in my ear constantly, "You're not ready.  Who are you to tell that?  Who are you to speak when you have so many loose ends?  Who are you; don't you know who are?"
     Why, yes, I do know who I am regardless of the thoughts and temptations that bombard me, regardless of the perfection that escapes me!  As our cousin, Kimberly, quoted this morning,
"Hello, my name is regret
I’m pretty sure we have met
Every single day of your life
I’m the whisper inside
That won’t let you forget
Hello, my name is defeat
I know you recognize me
Just when you think you can win
I’ll drag you right back down again
‘Til you’ve lost all belief
These are the voices, these are the lies
And I have believed them, for the very last time
Hello, my name is child of the one true King."
     When we claim all that grace bestows on us, everything else is behind.    While we're fighting ourselves, getting our acts together, the world's people are losing hope.  I've been putting off visiting the Crisis Pregnancy Center, not because I have no desire to assist there, but because I've been waiting for the "optimal" time.  It can't wait on me anymore.  I have a story to tell with one or a million, and it has to be told. 
     We may or may not be called to another land but while I am here, I can do more.  I WILL NOT negate my responsiblities at home, instead use them as a catapult to show our children that there is more to life than education, entertainment, security, and comfort.  When you're past the obvious, when your past apologetics because you know that you know that you know the Bible is real, when you're past 4-H  because you're livin' it, when your're past the classes and programs because you don't need to be convinced anymore, then you are the harvest.  Feed God's people unabashedly.  Storm the world with love.
     In this moment, this makes me cry, a lot, for what we're missing.  We shout out, "But we are Americans!  Land of the Free!"  And because of that, we should be ashamed for the freedoms we've stolen to ourselves.
     How many of us would, not could, just get "caught up" in the things of God?  Radically.  Miranda's only 18, but she's had her share of persecution, being called "Virgin Mary" by her superiors, taunted for her failures, used for her strengths and work ethics.  So, when she was pursued and given no relief, she simply "quit" a good paying job (in GA), packed her car with all the essentials, told her manager that she'd rather serve for God than for tips, and met up with her Daddy and Samaritan's Purse volunteers.  Not so her Daddy could console her or take responsibility for her, but so she could find something bigger than herself.  She's letting go.  Are you really, I mean really, willing to do that?  You can't; you have responsiblities, debts, issues?  No, I said, are you willing?   God doesn't need your ways or your provisions, just your will and mine.  Will your heart speak the words, "Send me"?  I don't mean only on a trip (which is a great beginning; I've never even been on one myself.)  But will you surrender your life for God's mission, no matter what it is?