music :: worship :: life
Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
makes me feel secure.—Psalm 23:4
Afternoon was waning and the hiker was still far from her destination. The terrain had been rougher than she had expected, and she had been forced to make some detours to get past unexpected obstacles. Now it was getting late, and although she didn’t think she was lost, she knew she still had a long way to go. And from the looks of things, the terrain ahead grew even more rugged. This worried her especially because she was afraid of heights.
There was nothing for it but to do the best she could. She quickened her pace and began to pray. Within minutes, though, a thick fog settled in, obscuring her view. Soon, all she could see was the path a step or two ahead of her. “Great!” she thought, “I start praying and it gets worse! Now I can’t even see where I’m going.” But on she went.
Pacing herself, sometimes jogging, sometimes walking quickly, stumbling a few times, but never falling, praying loud and fervently for God’s protection, disappointed and a little resentful that God was not helping her, she went on, plunging headlong and blindly along a path she could but dimly see.
Just at twilight, the road leveled. And as the last glow faded in the western sky, the fog began to lift. Ahead, she saw the lights of civilization and the promise of welcome rest.
The next morning, looking back over the terrain she had crossed, she could see by the light of day that for the last leg of her journey her path had been along the edge of a deep gorge. The slightest mis-step would have sent her plummeting to her death. Had it not been for the fog, her fear of heights would have caused her to lose her footing and sent her over the edge, or would have paralyzed her and left her stranded in the wilderness to die of exposure.
He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]
So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified].
—Hebrews 13:5b-6
I have begun a list of job descriptions for some of the leadership roles we have been studying in Church Government class:
This is by no means an exhaustive list. Feel free to add to it.
Always listen to the experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it.
—Robert A. Heinlein
Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters;
They have seen the works of the LORD,
And His wonders in the deep.
—Psalm 107:23-24
Those who remain in the shallow waters along the shore have little to worry about from the sea. It is out in the deep waters that the waves rise towering overhead, and the troughs send ships plummeting toward the depths.
Along the shore we feel safe—we are always in sight of dry land. We feel secure knowing we can fend for ourselves. Out in the deeps, there is no safety in sight; we are entirely reliant on God’s protection.
So why not stay in the shallows? It is only in the deep waters that the real work of the Lord can be done. In Luke 5, Jesus tells Peter to take his boat into the deep water and let down his nets.
But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
—Luke 5:5-6
There is little to gain secure near the shore.
What about those storms at sea, though? Remember, it is God who commands the sea. He spoke it into being, and with a word, can “rebuke the wind and the raging waves,” as he did in Luke 8.
So why doesn’t he still every storm? First of all, just as storms at sea test the integrity of a ship’s hull and the character of its crew, it is in the storms of life that our integrity is tested and the strength of our character is built. Second, just as storm winds may blow a ship to a different port than it set out for, so too with the storms in our lives. A jujitsu master uses the force of his enemy’s attack to defeat him. And God is the greatest jujitsu master of all. When Satan stirs up a storm in our lives, God can use the enemy’s own force to propel us on a course of His choosing, sending us flying all sheets before the wind to a haven we never hoped to reach. Don’t forget that on Good Friday, it looked like Satan had won. But God used Satan’s own schemes against him. And by Easter Sunday, he had turned apparent defeat into the greatest victory of all time!
God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. Sometimes what he asks us to do doesn’t make sense to our natural, rational minds. Like Peter, we want to say, “We already tried that, and it didn’t work.” We would rather stay safely in port. But Peter went on to say, “Nevertheless, at your word—” and he piloted his ship out into the deeps.
Jesus soon invited him into even deeper waters, far from any sea, to seek an even greater catch. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) Peter could have stayed safely in Galilee, living a comfortable life, running a successful fishing business. Who would have blamed him? What Jesus asked was unreasonable. But at God’s call, he answered, “Nevertheless, at your word—” and left safe harbor forever behind.
The storms at sea are fierce and daunting, but in the deeps God’s harvest waits, and there, the workers are few.
A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.
—Admiral Grace M. Hopper
There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known by Jesus Christ.
—Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.”
—Gen 12:1
I know it sounds crazy, but I’m convinced it was the voice of God. It’s the only time I’ve heard God speak in an audible voice.
For many months I had been praying for some clear direction, and God’s silence was getting on my nerves. I had gotten quite adamant one morning and insisted on an answer. “Tell me what you want me to do with my life!” I demanded. “Please.” The response, as ever, was silence.
Days later, while I was working, a voice behind me spoke. “It’s not your life,” it said. “You will know what to do.” There was no one else in the building, and it so clearly responded to my prayer. It made no sense to interpret it as anything but the voice of God. I had absolutely no idea what it meant, but at least it was an answer.
I know God has plans for me, but no matter how much I argue with him, he refuses to let me in on the details. Sometimes he lights the path ahead one step at a time. Other times, he simply opens a door and shoves me through, and I can only keep moving forward until he opens another door, or I reach the wall and have to wait. Often it feels like God has left me to wander in the dark. But in truth, even his silences are purposeful. He uses them to develop our trust and obedience. When I simply trust him and remain obedient, even though the path ahead is dark, I always find that he has invisibly guided me to a destination far better than I expected. Sometimes it has felt like Dorothy awakening in Oz.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
—Heb 11:8
God did not give Abraham a road map or an itinerary. He simply told him to go, and promised to tell him when to stop. I think this is how God’s call always works. He gives us no more than we need to know and says, “Go.” In the words of the song, what he asks of us is that we simply “trust and obey.”
Many more months have passed since God spoke to me, and I don’t pretend to know much more about what his words meant. But I have seen enough to know that the journey is worth the effort, that each stop along the way surpasses expectations, and that at our journey’s end, we will gasp in awe at where he has led us. For as Paul put it,
No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him.
—1 Corinthians 2:9
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