Walking Together as THE Church

As we have just finished celebrating Thanksgiving and we enter into this joyous season of Advent, have you ever really looked into the history of Thanksgiving?  Outside of what you grew up learning about in school? As I have really begun to look into the true history it is exciting to see the incredible example of perseverance that the pilgrims exhibited centuries ago.  It inspires me in my walk with Christ today.  (Disclaimer:  I admit I still have a lot to learn about this history outside of what I learned in school and ask that you bear with me as I share a little about what I have been learning and how it speaks to me.)

In listening to a podcast by FamilyLife today called “Remembering the Pilgrims” I was brought to tears by the historian’s words in relation to us today.  He said, “American Christians today, largely, are stranded in the present.  We really don’t think of ourselves as being part of a church that not only transcends cultures, tribes, and nations, but transcends generations and ages.  When we gather around the throne, at future time, we’ll be seeing a church that spans centuries as well as cultures.” 

The pilgrims should be counted among our great cloud of witnesses that go before us in the faith; in our greater body of Christ. 

As I learn more about the pilgrims, I realize they were very much like me and you.  Ordinary people who served an extraordinary God.  I am not seeking to put them up on a pedestal or even to say that everything they did was right. (In actuality, it was never just believers who came as pilgrims-you also had a lot of unbelievers-coming to the colonies for reasons as varied as adventure seekers to escaping their criminal past across the ocean.) The pilgrims who were believers had many great flaws and sins (as we all do) and yet possessed a love for God that compelled them to look at every aspect of their lives in light of their walk with Christ.  Yet during a very turbulent time of church history, we see the pilgrims being courageous in standing up with conviction against what they believe is not of God.  This action could ultimately lead to persecution-at the very least fines, prison, or their very lives.  

And I am not only talking about persecution from within the church but also the cost many of them paid in the colonies-during the journey in tight quarters within the ship, and then the hardships that came as they arrived in a new land-the cold winter, very difficult country than what they expected, struggling to adapt and make shelter and find food in the midst of sicknesses and diseases.  The statistics say a lot about this-of the 102 passengers who arrived on the Mayflower in the fall, only 50 were still living by the following spring.  Of the 18 married couples on the ship 1 or both members had died in 15 of the 18 families. Yet they still stopped and gave thanks.  What can we learn from their example centuries ago?  Resilience and steadfastness.

William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth, wrote in his letters that this church body had made a covenant with one another.  “They would walk together in all God’s ways made known, or to be made known to them, according to their best endeavors, whatever it should cost them.”  

That last part really resonates with me, “whatever it should cost them”.  It stirs my heart with many questions as I look now at some of the history that is known about the pilgrims.  Could they have really know what that meant?  If they had, would they have gone?  I think about my own life.  Your life.  When we step forward in obedience-when we say “yes” to God in one area, do we ever really understand what it will ultimately cost us?  

I think not.  So why do we continue to step forward in faith. Or do we?  How many times have I been scared of the unknown and tried to understand all parts of my coming story-to weigh the good and the bad and the possible what ifs?  And in doing so in my own limited human mind, I have greatly missed out on the incredible power of our Almighty God in whom ALL things are POSSIBLE?  The same God of the believers in Hebrews 11, these great members of the hall of faith “who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength after being weak, and put armies to flight….some were tortured, not accepting release, others mocked and scourged, put in bonds, imprisoned, stones, sawed in two, died by the sword, others wandered about in sheep and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated.  The world was not worthy of them.  They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.” 

These great heroes of the faith are a part of THE church of our Savior that transcends the ages!   They are a part of MY church.  YOUR church.  OUR church.  Will you allow their walks of faith to speak to your current life?  To help you transcend this current time and place and the every day things that make up your life.  To help you gain a kingdom, eternal perspective.  Every day people like you and me-like my beautiful Karamajong friends here striving to follow Christ in an animistic culture, like the sweet, old man who is the door greeter at your church, the single woman with 5 kids who goes to your kid’s school, the African believer striving to plant churches in the largest refugee camp in the world here in Uganda…..WE are the church now and let us encourage one another.  Let us not forget those who went before us and fought the good fight of faith-made up of every tribe and nation and tongue…..let us endeavor to make a covenant with one another, as the pilgrims did, to WALK TOGETHER in ALL God’s ways, WHATEVER IT SHOULD COST US….until we STAND TOGETHER before the throne of God.  Let us truly walk together as THE Church.

Lamentations Stretch Our Souls

“My eyes are worn out from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of my dear people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. They cry out to their mothers: Where is the grain and wine? as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.”(Lamentations 2:11-12)

The day has come that I have dreaded and it has filled my soul with anguish and trepidation.  For this season, the Lord has called us out of South Sudan.  It has come for various reasons-many I understand and accept; others I cannot.  I am in the midst of a season of grief and mourning for the goodbyes that we have painstakingly wrought. My heart breaks for the people of South Sudan and the tremendous suffering they are enduring-while much of it may be seem self-inflicted by corrupt government officials and decades of worshipping pagan gods-much of it seems to be out of their control-famine and war.  I have been crying out to God with so many questions, holding onto the promise that He is the beginning and the end and the God of all the stuff in between (as Abby and Ella sang in a recently learned kids’ song).  

During this time I don’t want to just rush through this process or sweep my emotions under the rug as I jump into this new season and ministry God has for our family and team with another people group.  We are now beginning to settle in with the Karamajong people in the bush of Uganda and while I am hopeful and excited about our future here, I want to embrace healthy emotionally spirituality and properly mourn and reflect and wait for the Lord to speak to me.  As a team we’ve been reading through “The Emotionally Healthy Church”  by Peter Scazzero and the Lord has used this book to teach me so much. He says, “Stuffed down and denied, losses gather in our souls like heavy stones that weigh us down…loss is loss.  It is the norm of life, not the exception….What is universal is that we all experience sorrows and are invited to grieve and grow through them.”  

The Bible has so many places where we see grief and sorrow vividly displayed-raw....ugly....riveting pain that cannot help but render depths of emotion from our very own souls as we relate-from books like Lamentations to Job in his immense suffering to Psalm after Psalm where David poured out his heart before the Lord in wide open, holding nothing back emotion. Then we get to the New Testament where we see Jesus in his earthly ministry moved by emotions.  One that especially stands out to me is when Jesus is praying to His Father, the night before his brutal crucifixion and when his tears flow like blood in his agony of the expected hell-shattering suffering to come. I am learning there is a purpose for lamentations-they grow our souls-stretching us to experience Jesus in a more personal way.  Our Savior King who was moved to compassion to leave heaven and come rescue us.

As I take time to rest in the Lord and embrace my grief He is enabling me to become more like Him, my Jesus who is also called a “Man of Sorrows”.  Jesus, fully God and fully man who wept when Lazarus died, taking time to mourn with some of his closest friends, although He knew He was going to fix it and raise Him from the dead!  And the beautiful thing about mourning is that we truly learn how to relate to others in their grief.  For me right now, this means knowing how to better pray for the Sudanese as their country and daily lives are split open by war, famine, tribal wars and the threat of genocide to their people. As thousands of refugees flee the country by the day, oftentimes separated from their families, watching them be shot and killed before their very eyes, wearing nothing but the clothes on their backs. 

As I look back and search my heart for some measure of closure, I sift through hundreds of pictures of what life looked like for us in South Sudan.  Countless shared cups of chai and meals with Dinka friends, many shared Bible stories, our kids chasing goats across friends’ immaculately (African trademark) swept dirt yards, pounding out hundreds of hours of language learning with increasingly more and more humility, being the church as a team and living Jesus (by His grace)-making our Savior meet able among a people who had never seen this before.  Yes, it is indeed a heavy calling and it has been a humbling servanthood endeavor where I have never leaned on Jesus more.  And I wouldn’t trade one minute for that life; it has been an honor and despite some of the hardest days of my life I have been filled with His everlasting joy and peace.

Yet even as this future is uncertain I am clinging to my God who is not.  He is not shaken by any thing that happens in this world-He is STEADY. SURE. STEADFAST.  UNCHANGING. And by His grace, I can lean on His strength.  He has especially given me the song “Take Courage” by Lindy Conant and the Circuit Riders during this time to breath life and hope into my soul.

My King has conquered every mountaintop

With scars that prove that He cannot be stopped

And history was changed upon the cross

With victory You rescue all that’s lost

And silence will be broken with our lives

As we live out the love of Jesus Christ

What our eyes have seen our hearts cannot ignore

We’ll lead this generation to the glory of the Lord

Take Courage

The harvest is ripe

And lift up Your voice 

Because Jesus is Alive

There’s no heart too hard for Jesus,

There’s no people too far gone

He’s already won the war

There’s a yes in our hearts

And it carries through eternity

Simple obedience 

It changes history

So it is to my King that I cling to.  He has conquered every mountaintop.  He cannot be stopped!  I will take courage and praise my Jesus.  Nothing is impossible with Him.  He’s already won this war.  I pray these words of Lamentations 3:21-26, 31-33 over my life and the lives of our fellow believers scattered throughout South Sudan right now.

“Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope.

Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish,

for His mercies never end.

They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

I say: The LORD is my portion,

Therefore I will put my hope in Him.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

to the person who seeks Him.

It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the LORD.

For the Lord will not reject us forever.

Even if He causes suffering, 

He will show compassion according to His abundant, faithful love.

For He does not enjoy bringing affliction or

suffering on mankind.”

To My Dear Missionary Daughter,

I watched you hug your extended family goodbye one last time-dark rain clouds of grief poured down your normally sunshiny face.  I saw your sweet little frame clinging to your loved ones.  You finally tore yourself away and as you pulled your suitcase, walking beside me, tears streaming down your face you said, “Mama, I don’t want to say goodbye.  I don’t want to leave our family.” ALL. THE. WAY. THROUGH AIRPORT SECURITY.  Tears dripped from my eyes and I felt as if my heart was torn in two. I struggled to keep from completely losing it and breaking down right there in the airport.  I wanted to just stop, gather you in my arms, hold you and cry with you then and there.  But as we made our way through, I tried to comfort you as best as I could until we could finally talk at the gate.

As I write this now, the back of my throat burns, my heart aches, and tears fall unchecked from my eyes.  You are flesh of my flesh and my precious daughter.  When you hurt I hurt.  And our Father, HE SEES.  I give you the timeless words of His never-changing book of life.  We have his precious promise of Psalm 56:8  “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”  He knows when we are sad and HE CARES.  

How thankful we must be for the sweet time with our extended family.  And how difficult it is to say goodbye for a while.  But rest in this truth that will never change-HE LOVES YOU.

On some of our hardest days such as this, let us cling to Him.  Because JESUS, He is ALWAYS. WORTH. IT.  Let us remember the hope to which we are called.  Our SAVIOR, who brought us out of darkness into His great light.  Making His name known to the nations.  Through His great POWER and MIGHT, He is using you even now to build bridges to Himself.  Through your sweet, hospitable 6 year old mentality who loves adventure but also needs to know the plan.  Who is learning to be flexible when plans change and making our hearts swell with pride when you say “it’s ok, no problem, I understand”.  Who isn’t afraid to tell us how you feel yet is also so emphatic towards others.  Our Jesus, whom you trusted with your life just last year, He is not mad when you pour out your heart with all its different emotions as you adjust to life back here in Africa, He comforts you.  It is ok to tell him exactly how you feel.  Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” I give you these words from Matthew:  “Blessed our those who mourn for they will be comforted.” Our Father sees you and HE HOLDS YOU NEAR in HIS GREAT LOVE.  

God paid the ultimate love sacrifice when He sent His only son to provide a ransom for a dying world, to provide a way to eternity for those who trust and turn to Him.  Now He sends us as His messengers to share His love with an aching world.  JESUS IS ALWAYS WORTH IT.

How deep the Father’s love for us
How fast beyond all measure
That He would give His only son
To make the wretch his treasure.