Every July we find ourselves meditating on God's grace. You see, in July of 2006 we first arrived in this country and with each passing year we become more aware of our own weaknesses and more stunned by the goodness of God.
This year we celebrated enduring for 11 years working cross-culturally. But enduring is hardly the right word. Yes, there have been many difficult moments. We have seen two teams fall apart. We have seen many friends move on for a variety of reasons. We have endured our fair share of smoke, heat, and power outages. But honestly, we cannot claim anything as coming from ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). It is unfathomable to me that 11 years later we are still here and doing reasonably well emotionally and physically.
Why, Lord, are we of all people still here? We have seen so many high-quality, amazing, diligent, and more qualified people come and go. All we can come back to is that God has sovereign plans that make no sense to us. We just keep walking, trusting, doing what we find in front of us as best as we know how to do it.
What I find most striking the longer we are here is the richness of life that comes from doing hard things. James 1:2-4 says it well, 'the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.' I see that in my own life and I see that in the lives of those around me. Something about digging deep into the darkness of your own heart unleashes a flourishing of grace. James calls it the full effect of steadfastness and he says that this full effect makes you perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing. I by no means can call myself perfect, but there is indeed a spirit that springs forth in me of true completeness or contentedness. And that is the joy that comes from not giving up, staying loyal to people even when you want to get as far away as possible, listening closely, and simply doing what you cannot do on your own.
Maybe enduring is the right word, but it is the Lord himself who has given us this gift.
This year we celebrated enduring for 11 years working cross-culturally. But enduring is hardly the right word. Yes, there have been many difficult moments. We have seen two teams fall apart. We have seen many friends move on for a variety of reasons. We have endured our fair share of smoke, heat, and power outages. But honestly, we cannot claim anything as coming from ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). It is unfathomable to me that 11 years later we are still here and doing reasonably well emotionally and physically.
Why, Lord, are we of all people still here? We have seen so many high-quality, amazing, diligent, and more qualified people come and go. All we can come back to is that God has sovereign plans that make no sense to us. We just keep walking, trusting, doing what we find in front of us as best as we know how to do it.
What I find most striking the longer we are here is the richness of life that comes from doing hard things. James 1:2-4 says it well, 'the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.' I see that in my own life and I see that in the lives of those around me. Something about digging deep into the darkness of your own heart unleashes a flourishing of grace. James calls it the full effect of steadfastness and he says that this full effect makes you perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing. I by no means can call myself perfect, but there is indeed a spirit that springs forth in me of true completeness or contentedness. And that is the joy that comes from not giving up, staying loyal to people even when you want to get as far away as possible, listening closely, and simply doing what you cannot do on your own.
Maybe enduring is the right word, but it is the Lord himself who has given us this gift.
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