Crafting the call

The temperatures in Bandung this week peak at 89o (days) and swoop to 62o (nights). What's not to like?!

As we pare down clothing for a smaller closet and a new climate, I'm happy. I've experienced so many occasions in the clothes that I'm giving away. There have been birthdays, funerals, weddings, dinners, walks in the neighborhood, bike rides on the trail, and everything between. Groceries and a grandchild have leaned against them. Very few haven't been worn often: I like variety in dress.

We're looking forward to two days of instruction: our ministry network hosts a LAUNCH workshop in Snoqualmie today and tomorrow. The landscape is gorgeous nearby, but the people in the room are more precious. We're learning to gather resources for service to others.

W spoke in chapel Wednesday. Students asked how they could go to Indo: that's very cool! The missionaries have told us to recruit people, as well as our necessary finances. We believe God will use every kind of participation to bless this country. Will you be part of that effort?

Do you sense a change coming in your own life? Is God asking you to go? Is he calling your name, whispering a new job, different country, or ministry challenge into your ears? Are you willing to listen? To respond?

For us, saying "yes" means clearing away anything that doesn't belong in the new season. It's an arduous process because we've rooted ourselves deeply in our community, church, and home. It's an ambitious project because there's so much to learn and to do.

This season is also reflective and meditative. We're rethinking life, going forward without all the props we've enjoyed. God is confirming our calling. He's drawing us in through scriptures, mentors, and stories. [Our story here.]

I want to ask you again: Do you sense a change coming in your own life? Is God asking you to go? Is he calling your name, whispering a new job, different country, or ministry challenge into your ears? Are you willing to listen? To respond?

Read more:
*Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. Joel 2:23 ESV

*God says, "I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily." Hosea 14:5 NLT

*Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. Luke 12:27 NLT

Moravian Prayer: Providing God, grant us the faith to trust in you providence. If you care for the simplest parts of creation, how much more do you care for us whom you created in your own image? May we cease to worry and put our trust in you. Amen.

Lent Day 6: A father's confidence

I grew up with absolute confidence in my father. We kids were thrilled by how he loved Mom and treated her as his sweetheart. He embarrassed us as youngsters when he came home from work and danced Mom around the kitchen to kiss her. "Ooooo, yuck!" we'd scream, covering our faces to hide our happiness and embarrassment.

He has always believed in the potential of others, and conveyed his optimism about what we would accomplish. "You can be whoever you want to be," he communicated, though he is a man of few words.

Each of us children had the freedom to find our diverse callings. We tried all kinds of endeavors, some successful, some not. Through it all, Dad's wise words summed up the experience and encouraged us. I got fired from a summer job as a food server, and came home in humiliation. Dad shrugged it off with, "Well, I guess God hasn't called you to be a waitress, has he?" That settled down my wounded pride and squared my shoulders for the next task.

My younger brothers have a definite flair for their jobs: the youngest, a computer consultant, works from his office in Canada for a British firm. The middle brother, with a high people IQ, makes everyone feel welcome and included, working as a successful and sought-after realtor.

My oldest brother and I are officially in ministry, though not in the traditional sense. He wanted to do music, and nothing but music. He learned to play one instrument after another, loathing his post-high school job at a building supply and running a thriving retail business into the ground. When he heard God's call, he bought plane tickets dated seven weeks hence, picked up his wife and two kids, and moved to Europe without pledges of support or guarantees. Thirty years of God's provisions later, he continues to compose, arrange music, and design special-events productions. He leads worship in the most creative, missional ways I've ever heard of. His touring "big band" consists of a small cadre of volunteer musicians who play in towns where churches are dying and need renewal or where churches are being planted. Local musicians (often professionals) join the team to play his big band arrangements of World Music. The audience, whether in taverns, theatres, town squares, or churches, sing and dance along, opening their hearts to stories of the gospel and God's love ("testimonies," between songs.) The IHS Orchestra has traveled the globe, including Africa, Cuba, Israel, and Europe.

I learned early that when God called, the only answer was, "Yes, please speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." My father taught me what Jesus' father taught him: a father who believes in you invests his character, resources, and confidence in his children.

Our heavenly Father can be trusted to take care of the details of provision and care, leading us from one place to the next. In the process of maturing us for Kingdom service, he may lop off beloved appendages that are unhelpful to the missio dei. He may place us into hard schools to train us and shape our gifts. He oversees our development, not to control us, but to release us into the freedom of being fully human.

Jesus assured us that God responds to our needs and knows what is best for us and for his whole Family: "You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him (Matthew 7:9-11)."

Today, our Father in heaven has confidence in us. But do we have total confidence in him as our parent—who knows us, believes in us, and calls us to tasks impossible to do without his help?

Has he called us to life and ministry that seem beyond our capability? Perhaps he knows things about us as his children that we haven't yet recognized or accepted. Let's trust him completely, as a child trusts a good father (someone like my dad!)