Living faithful, fruitful and fulfilled on the mission field
Though I was born in Nigeria, my passport says I am an American. I love my country. But I have never felt like a “real” American. Preparing for a trip back to the USA, someone asked me, “Are you going home next week?” That is …
Disruption releases innovation. We discover untried ways of serving God, of accomplishing His purposes. Do you maximize or resist the opportunities disruption or crisis brings? Often, instead of embracing new things, we get stuck. We experience a nostalgic longing for the way things used to …
This past weekend I went away for a quarterly retreat. This spiritual practice I’ve done for years keeps me grounded and abiding in Jesus. On this recent retreat, I read Rich Villodas’ new book The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls.
The book focuses on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It offers insights and asks questions about what is perhaps the Lord’s most well-known and important message spoken to a crowd.
Villodas shares his personal experience and effort to apply this timeless sermon to his life.
I came away inspired and with some key new practices I will be working into the rhythms of my life in the coming month or two. It’s great to be a reader, but a reader who applies and puts things into action, now that’s what leaders who want to grow do! My hope is that I am that kind of student of both God’s Word and good books like this.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book, things I need to chew on and think about a bit more.
Am I God-attentive? The pure in heart will see Him.
Do I call out the best in people? Do I see good in them before they see it in themselves? How can I do this more?
Does my life display his character or my own? Do they regularly see His goodness? His kindness? His compassion? His mercy? When they experience and encounter me? Probably not. Maybe sometimes, but not nearly as often as I want it to.
This isn’t new information for me, but I need to keep asking myself the question; Where might I be deceived into thinking that I know something and that’s enough, even if I don’t do it? Where do I exalt myself or pride myself on being knowledgeable about something like disciple-making or theology? Knowledge is not the goal of the Christian life, knowing Christ and transformation into His image is.
I’d like to add to Villodas’ definition. It’s not just the people I have a hard time loving, but also those I find it hard to think well of. Those are the people Jesus said I am to love and pray for. I’ve got some homework to do here!
On pages 164-165 of the book, he shared a prayer that a Benedictine monk had shared with their church. It is a prayer for your enemies.
I have set myself the task of praying this prayer each day this coming week for someone I find difficult to love and think well of. Yes, there are a few people who come to mind! 🙂 Maybe you’d like to join me in this?
So many of us call ourselves leaders or spiritually mature people, but we don’t look like Jesus in relation to how we love those we don’t like, disagree with, or who have offended or hurt us. I know there’s room for some growth in me as I consider this! My spiritual maturity meter on this one isn’t super high. Yours?
There is great value in Christian meditation as a discipline and practice. I’m challenged by this book afresh. Over the next few months, I’d like to slowly read the sermon on the mount daily, to journal on it, and continue to allow it to speak to me.
Feeling encouraged and challenged by these quotes? I made some flashcards of these and other quotes from the book. I’ll be returning to them, praying about them, and letting them create a space within me for God’s transforming work. We can’t change ourselves, but reading and meditating on Scripture and good books like this are part of creating room for God to work in us.
Thanks, Rich, for taking the time to challenge and inspire me (and many others) in this book.
Which of the quotes and questions above spoke to your heart?
“Ughh. Not again! Another day of language learning. Why not quit? I can already understand and speak more than a lot of people.” These, and other negative thoughts cross my mind as I stare at my language books. Language learning is hard work. You need …
When we go on dates, I like my husband to open the door for me. When he walks around and opens the car door, I feel special, loved, and valued. For some people that doesn’t matter much. I guess I am a bit of an …
A week ago today, my mother-in-law, Sylvia Anderson, went to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As you approach middle age, you know your parents will not live forever. That doesn’t make it any easier when the time comes for them to go. Their stable, comforting, encouraging presence, their prayers, love, and help are not easy to let go of.
The night of her passing, I moved with my husband into her home to care for and be a support to her grieving husband, my father-in-law, Jerry. I wanted, together with Todd, to do everything I could to serve and help him through this tragic loss. Yes, though she was 83, and not in an accident or anything, it is always a tragic loss when you lose someone you’ve been married to for 65 years.
It’s been painful to stay here and has made me miss her so much. Stepping into the role of the female in this household… let’s just say they are shoes I could absolutely never fill. She was an amazing homemaker and hostess.
When Todd and I were dating and first married, I was quite intimidated by her baking and cooking. She always had these amazing caramel rolls she’d make for us, and her freezer was continually full of cookies and bars…at least six different kinds. They were ready to be pulled out and served to anyone who might stop by to visit. Mom Anderson never expected me to be like her and always made me feel welcome, but still, those were big shoes to fill.
When Todd and I prepared to go to Nepal for the first time, I was three months pregnant with our daughter Jenna. She would be Sylvia’s first grandchild. Not once did she speak a word about the pain of us leaving them, or giving birth to their first grandbaby on the other side of the ocean. She cried many tears when we said goodbye, but never in any way tried to discourage us from going. I know it was hard for her. I realize it even more, now that I am a grandma, living far from my precious grandkids. Sylvia supported and believed in the cause we were working for, and was willing to release her son and family to serve God. Mom Anderson always put Jesus first.
Upon returning to the USA every three years or so, we were welcome in their home. Though I was terrified of ruining her beautiful white carpet with our toddler’s spills or breaking something lovely, she never made me feel that way. We were always picked up at the airport by mom and dad, with all our luggage, and brought to their house.
Since I grew up in Africa, and my parents were still on the field, I didn’t have a home that I lived in for many years as Todd did. The house in Lakeville, became an anchor, a place we always came home to. It gave me a sense of rootedness. It feels so strange to be here without her. I miss her greatly.
The strange reality of death is part of the cycle God designed. We know that He is absolutely and only good, so this too must in some way be good. Yet it is hard. It is a suffering we must bear. I feel for Dad Anderson, and can’t imagine what it would be like to lose my husband. Why God created this passing to be such a loss, I cannot comprehend. Why we must come into the world helpless and leave it in pain I don’t understand. What I do see is that in our suffering, we are carried by Him. In difficulty, we draw near. And that, is a good thing, for it is there close to Him, that our souls truly live.
I am not much like my mother-in-law. She was a quiet homemaker who mostly stayed within an hour of her home. I am a world-traveling speaker, podcast host, and missions leader. What I have learned from her, though, is the power of discipling your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren well. She loved her family and always had time for them. She was generous toward them. Sylvia made sure they knew they were loved. Faithful in her church, her relationship with the Lord, and in practicing spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible reading was exemplary. Her husband was her top priority, next to Jesus, and she served and loved him well. I hope in those ways I can be like her.
I miss you, Mom. This world is not as nice without you here, but we will carry forward your legacy.
Goodbye for now, until we meet in Heaven.
“I don’t have connections and contacts with people I could raise support from. I don’t know any __________________.” Fill in the blank. Some would say I don’t know pastors. Others would say I don’t know many foreigners. Some would say all my friends are fellow …
“Jesus is not looking for converts to Christianity; he’s looking for apprentices in the Kingdom of God,” writes John Mark Comer in his book Practicing the Way. This book is a refreshing and insightful encouragement to 1) Be with Jesus, 2) Become like Him, and …
Looking to our own resources and abilities can be discouraging. The task seems so big. We seem small. When I was young, I thought I could take on the world. As I’ve grown older, life’s experiences have taught me how fallible I am. Apart from God, there isn’t a whole lot I have to offer. Yet that little, in the hands of a mighty God, is more than enough.
Several times each day, we get messages from missionaries suffering financial hardship. They struggle to make ends meet. They are serving the Lord in their contexts, with great commitment, heart, and faith. They often see miracles of healing or deliverance.
But money…that’s another story. Many feel they need financial help from the West. They hope to find a wealthy American or European sponsor to invest in them and their projects. There is nothing wrong with that, per se. It’s not, however, an effective or reproducible strategy for fundraising and ministry.
Perhaps more importantly, it falls short of what God wants to do in and through their lives. God is more than able to provide for us in our context. He often does this by using what we already have in our hands, as we offer it back to Him.
There are two stories in the Bible I’d like to consider related to this issue. Let’s begin with the Old Testament.
In the book of 2 Kings, we find an interesting story about a widow (2 Kings 4:1-7). Her husband served in ministry. A prophet among many prophets, he had passed away in a time of great economic difficulty in the land. As was the custom in those times, the debtors she’d been buying food and supplies from were threatening to take her two sons as slaves. She desperately needed to pay what she owed.
The woman approached Elisha with her tremendous need. His response is interesting. The prophet asks her two questions.
Her response spewed out of her trembling lips. “I have nothing at all,” she exclaimed. I can picture her frustration at the prophet’s question. Why would he ask that? Hadn’t he been listening to what she had said?
Knowing he was a prophet, and wanting to be completely honest before the man of God she adds, “except a small jar of olive oil.” Her cupboards were bare, but they were not empty. Not completely empty anyhow.
That offering of oil was enough. More than enough for God to work with.
We know the rest of the story. Elisha instructs her to gather jars from her neighbors, as many as she could find. She then pours the little she has out into the neighbor’s vessels and…God does a miracle. The oil does not run out until all are full. Selling the oil, she pays her debts.
Even more well-known is the story of the feeding of the great crowd found several times in the Gospels. In the book of Mark, we see Jesus did this same miracle in two different locations; once near Bethsaida, and again in the region of the Gerasenes. Both times he used loaves and fish provided by someone in the crowd and fed thousands. See this helpful comparison of these two miracles if you’d like to study it further. http://rosetta.reltech.org/UTSA/HUM3223/Feedings.pdf
Any time you find a story repeated in scripture, it’s notable. Jesus wants us to sit up and pay attention. He did this provision miracle not once, but twice. The disciples (and we today) must have needed a repeat lesson on this one!
In the first instance, found in Mark 6:30-44, the story begins with a strange command from Jesus. Though aware of the situation (thousands of hungry people), the Lord commands His disciples, “You feed them.” How in the world were they going to do that? It was beyond difficult. This was a humanly impossible command!
Their response was incredulous. That would take way too much money! Finances we obviously don’t have Jesus! He then asks them a question. “What do you have?”
Notice the similarity to Elisha’s question.
He then tells them to “go and see.” They return after realizing that they actually do have something. It isn’t much, but it is definitely something. It is more than enough for Jesus. Taking and blessing it, that bread and fish are broken and distributed. It feeds thousands.
These stories are definitely about material provision. The widow needed actual food and money to pay her debt. The crowd was physically hungry. They teach us more than that though.
There are many kinds of emptiness Christian workers face.
Whatever your situation, God is asking the same question He asked in those stories.
What do you have? Look beyond emptiness and see what He has given. There is always something. Offer it to Him. Then listen to what the Almighty God says to do. Simply obey, and watch miracles begin to happen.
With God, what we have, is always more than enough! He is the same God today as He was in the time of the widow or when the hungry crowd had gathered.
How do these stories encourage you or apply to your situation? Let us know in the comments below or on the Missionary Life Facebook page.
“Jesus can do anything,” we say. Except for when He can’t. “What? Are there things Jesus can’t do? Isn’t He the God of the impossible,” you might be thinking. Yes, there are some things He cannot do. And there are many things we cannot do. …