Below is an email I sent to one of my college buddies this morning. He wrote me several days ago expressing concern for my brother John's ongoing battle with pain, as well as to ask for prayer as he tries to find a new job that will allow him to provide better for his family. This was my response:
_____________________________________
I appreciate your thoughts regarding John. You know what would bless John, and probably you too, would be for you to just give him a call (or better yet, meet him for lunch) and just listen to what the Lord's been teaching him. You're right about the deepness of his walk with God - I'll tell you what bro: I'm learning to pay attention to what God is teaching people who are going through times of suffering, because there's almost always something He can and will tell me through their experience. So get off your soapbox and give him a call!
Been thinking about what you wrote regarding your job situation. Interesting concept - how to provide for our families. Here's a challenge for you: find any scripture passage that specifically addresses our role to provide for our families. There is one passage in 1 Timothy where the children of elderly widows are exhorted to provide for their mother, but that's dealing with a very specific need and problem in the church. I do not know of one passage where fathers are exhorted or commanded by God to provide for their family as their primary role (you didn't say that - I'm just jumping on my own soapbox because I'm passionate about this issue). I believe we should work when God provides the opportunity, and laziness is never an option. However, I also believe that the preponderance of scriptural teaching is focused on WHO we are as husbands, fathers, elders, etc than on WHAT we do. I think as men, particularly in our Western society, we place ourselves under inordinate pressure to be "providers", when all that God is asking of us is to be "listeners". God has said - over and over and over in Scripture - that HE will provide for our needs. If we focus on anything, we should be focused on walking more intimately with God, hearing His voice, and loving those around us well. Then we just watch as God steps in to provide for us, but even more to watch as He uses us in the lives of people all around us every day.
Here's an example that happened to me recently: As you know, we're on staff with this church here in Conifer. The church can only pay us $________ per week, and I'm sure you can imagine that for a family of 5 that doesn't go too far. But I believe this is where God wants us, and the amount of money the church can give us is irrelevant. I never asked for a specific amount, nor do I plan to. My days are spent doing what I hear God asking of me, and my trust has to be in Him to provide. So how is God providing for us right now? In part through the church; through a few gifts sent in by supporters; through an occasional painting that someone buys; through the money we were able to save from the sale of our house in France. I can't say how He will provide tomorrow, or even whether He will lead me to get a part-time outside the church down the road. But what I am seeing is that day by day He comes through in the most amazing ways. I started making signs to put around the church out of wood, and I burn the letters with a wood-burning tool (they fit the "rustic" mountain theme). I've chosen to buy the wood and tools at my expense, and not ask the church to reimburse me; it's just one more way I can give by tithing my time and expenses. Low and behold, I've had several people comment on the signs and I may end up getting commissioned to make some personalized signs for other people. I didn't plan it that way - it's just how God works stuff out. Here's another example: you probably know that I started a crisis management consulting company last year, thinking that God would provide for our needs through contracts for training. I had one contract to train a local church in Texas, but other than that nothing else. To be honest, I'm just not a businessman at heart. I told the Lord that we would follow His lead to invest our time and energy in The Journey Church, and that I would not spend any more time doing marketing for Storm Guides. If He wants to use the company to provide, then He would have to drop it in my lap. Well, about 10 days ago I got a call out of the blue from a small mission agency that works in several countries in Africa. I don't know them from Adam. They have some needs for crisis management training, and they'd actually started by contacting my main "competitor" in this business. For some reason, he just dropped off the radar about eight months ago. They tried a couple more organizations, but couldn't seem to find the right fit for their needs. They somehow got in touch with me through a recommendation from a different mission agency based in Denver - a group I've never trained or even helped in any way. They tried to contact me through my website contact form, but the link didn't work and I never got the message. They finally called me, and I just sent them a proposal for training their staff that could potentially provide several thousand dollars in income… and I never lifted one finger on my side. This may or may not pan out, but it doesn't matter in the end. What God has shown me is that He can provide at any time, through any means, without me doing anything. If He doesn't provide through this contract, He'll provide some other way.
My point is this: I could be spending all my time running around trying to find work that would provide for our needs, but that would mean I would be taking things into my own hands to work out my own solutions, rather than finding rest in God's promises to provide. Frankly, I'd rather have God's solutions than my own any day. I believe both biblically and experientially that this is where He wants us to remain: at rest, free from fear or anxiety, simply trusting in Him. When He leads, we follow. When we hear nothing, we just stay busy doing what He's already shown us to do. As Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and the follow me." That's our only role in life - to follow. Do we always know where He's taking us? Almost never. Does He sometimes ask us to go through times of hardship, or sickness, or tragedy? Absolutely. And through it all, He is there for us: strong, in control, full of love and compassion for us, enjoying every minute of fellowship with His children. We're the ones who have this strange idea that we have to work everything out for ourselves, and we end up full of fear, stressed-out, and running from one job to the next. Our lives get so full of "activity" that we never actually get to enjoy the journey itself, which is what we were created for.
My favorite passage on the whole point of trusting in Him alone to provide for our needs is from Matthew 6:
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be bworried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 “And who of you by being aworried can badd a single hour to his life? 28 “And why are you aworried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 “But if God so clothes the agrass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 “Do not aworry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for ayour heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But 1seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
No comments:
Post a Comment