Hi Sweet Friends,
There is a verse in Isaiah 6 that has been used at many mission conferences and sermons compelling the faithful in Christ to give up everything and commit to going and doing whatever God asks of us. In the days of Isaiah of the Old Testament, God was going to send a warning to Judah that their sin and idol worship would lead to their overthrow and captivity. All they had known would be taken from them and they would serve a foreign, Godless people for seventy years. God gives Isaiah this news in a vision and asks, “Who shall I send and who will go for Us?” Then Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me.”
My family was privileged to meet life-long missionaries Frank and Marie Drown in my parents’ home years ago. They were contemporaries of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot and Nate Saint and the other martyred missionaries to the Auca Indians in Ecuador in 1956. The Drowns were elderly when we met them and were absolutely fascinating. Frank told us in tears of leading the rescue team to find and bury the five missionaries killed by the people they went to tell about Jesus. We all listened with big eyes, fully aware of the treasure given us in that encounter. Frank also had a passionate spirit and great sense of humor. He said that so many people hear the calling of God to missions asking, “Who shall I send?” and their answer is, “Here I am, send my sister.” And I know exactly what he was talking about. I sat through many sermons and altar calls being urged to give it all and go. I was hoping I wasn’t one of the “special called ones.” I felt like a character in The Hunger Games, praying my name wasn’t drawn from the selection jar. If God hadn’t called you to the mission field or “full-time ministry,” you were pretty much free to pursue life the way you enjoyed and thought best. Like being in the draft for war, how relieved to find out your number didn’t come up. What’s wrong with this picture? I think we all instinctively know.
When God told Moses that He had chosen him to lead the nation of Isreal out of Egyptian slavery into a free and beautiful land, Moses had several reasons why he didn’t think it was a good idea. He felt inadequate to speak well. He didn’t think the people would believe him. It felt impossible. He could imagine nothing but disaster and failure. Moses tried to negotiate his way out. He responded with something like, “Here I am. Send my brother.” Literally. God granted Moses’ fearful request and sent Moses’ brother along to do the public speaking for Moses. Sounds like a win/win. Until after the long, hard escape from Pharoah, Brother Aaron gave in to the harlotry of the people and made a golden calf to worship while Moses was away receiving the commandments of God. Moses was asked by God to lead, not Aaron. It was Moses’ fear that brought Aaron to the position of power and sin for the nation. You can almost hear Moses saying to God, “Please, don’t make me do this. This is just too hard. The stakes are too high. It’s too expensive. There is too much to lose.” That would all be true, unless God is the One making the promises. God doesn’t make us obey. That’s slavery. God invites us to join Him. That’s relationship. God asks for belief and obedience in impossible situations. He wants us to join Him in a story beyond our strength and ability where there is no mistake who is the hero. When we think we have a better plan than God’s and seek a compromise, God often grants our request. There are consequences for every decision we make, good and bad.
God created the nation of Israel through the faith of one man, Abraham. In their allegiance to only one God, the only true God, the world would see the futility of their idol worship and self-preservation. God told Israel that He would be their King. They would live differently than the other nations, and God would fight for them and do miracles on their behalf. God tells Israel clearly in Deuteronomy 7 not to mingle, marry, or give mercy to the idol worshiping and pagan nations they conquered. Verse 6 says, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession. The Lord did not set His affection on you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your ancestors that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery.” And as the nation of Isreal went into the foreign lands to whom they were supposed to show the greatness of the One true God, they instead took on their customs, worshiped their gods, intermarried, and demanded that God give them a king to rule them. They wanted to be like the very ones that God told them to destroy. They wanted a king they could see rather than a God they couldn’t. God granted their desire and allowed them to reap the consequences of unfaithful kings that sent them again into bondage and captivity. The only strength and victory and freedom they ever knew was when walking in obedience and letting God show Himself strong on their behalf.
And speaking of Abraham, remember when God promised to create a nation from the obedience of this one man and his barren wife Sarah? While Abraham was waiting on the fulfillment of the promise, Sarah talked him into having a child with her maid Hagar and calling him the promised son. God stood firm on Sarah giving birth in her old age to the promised child, Isaac. We can imagine the background noise of Sarah saying, “Please, don’t make me do this. Don’t make me wait. Your way is impossible.” Hagar’s son Ishmael was rejected and sent away. He is the father of many Arab nations still making war with Israel and, many believe, of the Islam religion. There are always consequences of coming up with a better plan than complete dependence on God.
What are some of your “Please, don’t make me do this” moments? I’ve had plenty, So have you. Like when my eight-year-old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Life would never be the same. Or when we lost babies to miscarriage. Or when my parents became helpless. Or when counseling was needed in family relationships. Or basically when I’m asked to do anything that I don’t want to do. I have a friend with a baby with severe health issues. I have friends begging God for the salvation of their children. I see grown children warring with their parents over their parents’ lack of support for their sin. I have friends living as widows in a life they never imagined living alone. What about the scary diagnosis? Or the marriage that failed? Or the constant pull to return to the drug of choice that turned your life upside down? We look around and imagine ease in the lives and stories around us and say, “I want to be like them. Why do they have an easier story? Please, don’t make me do this hard thing. What will it cost me to obey?” Answer: Everything. And that’s the point. We traded everything about us for the gift of salvation in Jesus. “It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galations 2:20) Everything!
Our church is in a new place for us. It might seem scary to me if it weren’t so obvious that only God can make any of it work. We are a small group by most standards. We’ve rented a building to headquarter our church life for about twelve years. We have no paid staff, only cleaning help. We’ve been able to maintain the rent and expenses all these years. God has granted us favor and opened doors for relationships in the recovery world that have so blessed us that we need more room to accommodate all that we feel God inviting us to. We prayed and were excited when a new building appeared for us to buy. It is taking more money and more time than we expected. It is expensive in time and energy for the faithful ones working hard on plans, codes, blueprints, permits, contractors, and things I didn’t even know exist. We made a video so others could see our vision and join us in helping physically and financially if they feel so led. I have always been very confident that this is God’s story and we just want to join Him in it. It’s on Him to provide and make a way. And He has, step by step, not all at once, but little by little. Like the children of Israel entering the promised land, we have faithful work to do. God continues Israel’s story in Deuteronomy 7 by telling them to not be afraid of the mighty nations they are to conquer. “Don’t be terrified by them, for the Lord your God who is among you is a great and awesome God. The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.” It was God’s protection over Israel that led them to the new land, little by little. Step by step. And they didn’t just walk in and say, “Give us the keys.” They had to fight battles and sacrifice. It was war. Faithfulness and obedience was required. Doing really hard things was required. It’s required of us as well. We don’t know what all God is protecting us from with all of the delays and hoops we have to jump through, but He does. I can’t tell you how uncomfortable talking about money is for us, especially the need for it. But we know that humbling ourselves and inviting others into what we feel is God’s story for us is one of the battles for us to fight. It’s on God to provide. It’s on us to let obedience cost us something. Obedience always costs us something. And that’s when I hear the familiar words, “Please, don’t make me do this,” echo in the background of my mind.
If Jesus had the same mindset about cost, faithfulness, sacrifice, and battles that we often do, we would have no Savior. I always feel that Jesus, like a loving brother, says to us, “I’ll go first. Do it like Me.” Jesus’ hard “Yes” makes my hard “Yes” look not so hard. The inconvenience and uncomfortable places that I call sacrifice are nothing standing next to the willingness of Jesus to go to the darkest place possible, separation from God, so that I could escape it. Jesus bought my salvation, and with it, He bought my story. I’m living in His story now. So, when I hear the question, “Who shall I send?”, instead of avoiding eye contact, I pray that my answer is, “What time, and what do I wear?” When there doesn’t seem to be enough money, enough man-power, enough strength, enough bravery, enough faith, enough love, enough desire; ask God for it. When you feel the automatic reaction of dropping your head and whispering, “Please, don’t make me do this,” ask God to make your heart match His. And watch for it. He delights in doing the impossible. There will be no mistake in who is the Hero and who gets the glory. Standing ovation! For eternity.
Amen!!