Broken Dreams

January 14, 2009 in Articles

Life with God can be challenging when you are trying to figure out God’s will. So I asked Natasha to tell her story of the struggles she has had over the past year or so. I asked her to do this because I do not want people to think that because I write a few articles about how to figure out God’s will for our lives that I have somehow "figured it out" or that I am over simplifying life. I am not.

I know first hand how hard it is and Natasha’s story here for this reason. Maybe you have a similar story that you wouldn’t mind sharing in the comments below. I don’t want to keep you any longer. Here’s her story.

Having the rug pulled out from under you hurts more than you think.  I’m 25 years old and am definitely not where I had planned to be.  My junior year of high school is when I started toying with the dream of living overseas.  I had gone on a few mission trips and felt more alive and more like me than ever before.  I fervently pursued this new passion over the next few years of my life.  I went to college to be a missionary.  I traveled through Mexico, had an opportunity in Europe and lastly my heart was left in Sudan, Africa.  I visited Sudan in my last year of college.  When I stepped off the plane onto this foreign soil I had no clue what was going to happen.  The drive from the airplane to the orphanage, where we were ministering at, was silent as I processed this new world whizzing by me.  Once we arrived at the orphanage we were slowly introduced to many tiny faces, and my heart slowly fell in love.  These kids didn’t know who their family was or where they were, but they were beyond joyous.  After a week of visiting with these kids I wanted to go back. 

Coming home I had to evaluate whether this longing was a “mission trip high,” or truly the Lord calling me into my dream of overseas missions.  Within months I was going on interviews, filling out applications, and then I started raising my support.  I don’t let myself embrace exciting situations in life because they will usually end up sour.  This time I couldn’t help but be enthralled with living out my heartbeat.  After graduating college I sent out my support letters, and within a months time I had raised two years of support.  If that wasn’t a confirmation of being in God’s will, I don’t know what is.  A few months later I was packed, saying farewell, and stepping on a plane.  I finally understood the word “bittersweet.”

The next two months was similar to watching a horrible car crash in slow motion.  You’re not quite sure how bad the accident is going to be, but you know it’s gonna hurt.  Well, my plan of being in Sudan for two years was shortened to two months.  (And not by choice, mind you.)  I came home numb.  I came home embarrassed.  I came home.

I didn’t understand what God had done.  I understood why I was home, but I didn’t understand why a God who knows how much I struggle with trust would allow this to happen.  How the crap am I supposed to trust Him again?  The one thing I desired was ripped away from me.  He isn’t a loving God.  He isn’t trustworthy. Sure, He’ll give me the desire of my heart, but only for a little while.  There were a good two days I was done with Christianity.  Yet, apparently, He is a loving God because I’m still following Him.

The next year and a half was rough.  I wanted to numb my pain so I drank adult beverages, ate a lot of food, started running a lot, got into shallow relationships, dot, dot, dot.  I was hurt.  I finally stopped and let myself embrace the pain.  I sought counseling and a friend helped disciple me.  Both of these women told me time after time, “It’s ok to cry.”  Emotions are valid.  Our society teaches us they aren’t, but emotions are who we are.  If we deny our emotions, we deny ourselves.  When we deny ourselves we’re keeping God out.  So, I cried.  I spent many days lying on the floor in tears.  I realized I was in mourning.  My dream had died.

I confessed many times that I was tired of crying, but I didn’t know how to stop.  I was scared I would never be able to move on.  Nine months later I really started to feel like I could start standing on my own two feet again.  I wrestled with God.  I told him how angry I was with Him.  I was honest about not wanting to trust Him.  I embraced my doubts in religion.  We truly serve a patient and loving God.

My foundation of faith was hit with a sledgehammer.  God wanted me to build a new foundation…one day at a time; one brick at a time.  I went to India on a mission trip.  I lead a group of middle school students on a mission trip.  I took political stances.  These were major bricks in my foundation.  I’ve been trying to figure out what the next step in my life is.  I’ve been searching for what I’m truly passionate about.  I’ve realized my heartbeat is to be overseas and to be in relationships with the hurting.  Life is a process that can sometimes be beautiful and sometimes repulsive.

God took me and smashed every part of me, and has created a new person.  I may have the same heartbeat, but it’s a different person pursing.  The pain and doubts I felt, and still deal with, have made me more personable.  Christianity isn’t easy.  It’s hard.  Whoever coined following Christ is easy, must not have been a true follower.  It’s difficult but together as a family we can fight this exquisite fight.

Natasha

Do you have a story of difficulty about trying to figure out God’s will? Have you taken risks in life and things not turn out the way you planned? Do you feel like you have any shattered dreams? Share it in the comments below.

The Real Question About God’s Will

January 14, 2009 in Articles

This is part 1 of the Broken Compass article series about the will of God.

I don’t know about you but one of the most challenging aspects of life is trying to determine God’s will for our lives. A lot of people start really putting a lot of emphasis upon this at the beginning of a new year. Why? Because there is a newness in that time of year that makes people feel the importance of starting off on the right foot and starting off on the right foot involves doing what God has purposed you to do.

 

In case you have not realized it, God has a purpose for every single one of us and it has been his design from the very start that we live out that purpose in our lives. But figuring out that purpose can be one of the most frustrating experiences a person can undergo. There is hope because God has actually made it a little bit easier than many think to discover his will for our lives. You see, the problem with a lot of us is that we are looking at this discovery process from the wrong angle; one that is focused more on man than on God.

Our approach to finding God’s will for our lives revolves around finding his will for me. Instead, God wants us to take a step back and figure out what God’s purpose is for him. In other words, it is important that before we know what specific role God has for us in this life that we figure out what God intends for this world and get involved.

Our Most Important Task
Our most important task as Christians is the worship of God. Missions is probably second to that. Why? Because God’s intent is for the entire created order to worship him as preeminent. Missions exists to make this reality. In other words, missions exists because worship doesn’t.

Missions is at the heart of what God is doing in Scripture because his desire is that the world worship him (Isaiah 42:8, 12). This is why he created Israel (Exodus 6:3-7). He wanted a unique group of people who would make the leading others to worship him the preeminent task of their lives.

It seems to me that the establishment of the Abrahamic covenenant (Genesis 12:1-3) is the climax of the book of Genesis. The creation of man and everything up through chapter 11 all seem to point to this critical moment when God makes a covenant with Abraham. This is why Genesis 2 cannot just be about a marriage. If it is true that everything God does has mission in mind, then the purpose behind Adam needing a helper (Genesis 2:18) had more to do with him needing someone to help him fulfill mission God gave him than about him needing a woman to complete him (Genesis 2:15). In other words, in order for God to create a nation, the plan needed to include humans with the capacity to procreate and fill the earth with people from which the nation of Israel would come (Genesis 1:28).

The plan from the beginning included a nation, and eventually a world full of people who would worship God. Worship is ultimate and is the goal of missions. Jesus reiterates this in Matthew 28:19-20 (the Great Commission) when he is spending his last moments with his disciples. I like to think of this as some of his most important words to them because this is the last time he will be with them for an extended period of time. He tells them to go into the world and make disciples, and teach them everything he taught them.

Think for a moment what you would say if you were spending your last moments with someone you really cared about. You probably would not waste time with meaningless words. You would probably choose what you wanted to tell them carefully. I think this is what is happening here in Matthew 28. It’s probable that in Jesus’s mind these are words he most wants them to cherish and take seriously.

The fulfillment of the Great Commission is probably the most important task a Christian is to be engaged in outside of worship even though fulfilling the Great Commission in itself is an act of worship. This is something that every Christian is to do. God has told us fundamentally that his will for our lives is that we lead others to worship him. So a Christian should never be confused about what his life should be about to the extent that he/she does not do anything.

The Real Question
So now that we know we are all to fulfill the Great Commission, the real question becomes, what specific role are we to play. This is where a lot of the people are frustrated because they want that sense of fulfillment in their lives, but they just don’t know what they are supposed to do. Or perhaps they have taken the risk only to have everything fall apart on them.

Let me suggest the following. I think that in many instances, God is not going to show you your individual involvement in the Great Commission until you first find out what God is doing in the world and get involved.

Do you like working with kids but not quite sure if that should be with 8 year olds at church or in an orphanage? Then get started working with kids anywhere and the specifics will eventually become clear. Do you have a heart for unreached people groups? Go on a mission trip to any unreached people group and the specifics will become clear. Do you feel like God has put you on the shelf and is not using you anymore? Is it hard for you to trust him in this area? I would like to encourage you to get back out there and get involved.

In the next article in this series, I will show you an example from scripture that explains exactly what I am talking about. Stay tuned!

 

Is Theology Really All That Important?

January 6, 2009 in Articles

To many theology should only be limited to the seminary. It’s for pastors only. This thinking has impacted Christianity in significant ways. In some ways it’s understandable that people will think this way. When churches deemphasize theology and emphasize pop psychology, people tend to forget the importance of understanding who God is. This quote from The Culturally Savvy Christian, by Dick Staub concerns me,

There is ample evidence that in attempting to influence culture, Christians have jettisoned basic, historic Christian beliefs. Not only does Christianity-Lite fail to advance Christian beliefs and practices, but it has forgotten what they are! How else can you describe a situation in which most church-going adults reject that accuracy of the Bible, claim Jesus sinned, believe that good works will persuade God to forgive sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as moderate or even less firm? Our numbers indicate strength, but our shallowness betrays our weakness. We are a mirror image of the moralistic therapeutic deistic culture.

Vibrant faith involves understanding Scripture, employing reason, benefiting from the lessons of tradition, and engaging in a profound personal experience of God.

A few years ago I had a conversation with a college student who told me that he was tired of going to church because all he was hearing during sermons was theology. There was not a lot of practical teaching to go along with it. In another instance a female student that was in the college ministry I was leading said that she did not feel theology really mattered all that much and that all we needed to know as Christians was that Jesus loved us. In both cases, these students believed theology was irrelevant for our times. What’s interesting about these two people was that they both went through some painful experiences where the only answer to their questions involved theology.

They’re not alone. There was another group of people who felt theology was irrelevant. Paul addressed them in Romans 1. God made truth about his character evident to them but they ignored it (Romans 1:16). The NASB version says they suppressed the truth. Even though they knew about God intellectually, they did not know him. Whenever the knowledge of God is suppressed, pride sets in and idolatry rules the day (Romans 1:23). When these men and women suppressed the truth they declined morally and engaged in all sorts of act from greed to homosexuality (Romans 1:24-28). This is the inevitable state of a culture who ignores God. In Staub’s words,

Barna’s research…also indicates troubling trends in behavior among the “born-again population,” including a higher divorce rate than the general population and patterns of consumerism matching the general population. Evangelicals condemn abortion and sexual immorality but are relatively silent about the accumulation of wealth and concerns for the poor.

He later says,

Within evangelicalism, many thoughtful people are troubled about the price we have paid for our “success.” Some believe that in our quest for numeric growth, we have grown big but are shallow, producing an American Christianity three thousand miles wide but two inches deep.

Is theology really all that important? Yes. Theology is the most practical and relational thing about us and it always shows itself in how we relate to one another. What you and I know about God determines EVERY dimension of our lives.