Living faithful, fruitful and fulfilled on the mission field
Shame is a powerful emotion. It easily controls our actions and abilities. Social researcher, Brene Brown, defines shame as “the fear that we’re not good enough.” As missionaries, we battle feelings of shame regularly. This is never truer than when in the long process of …
The holidays are amazing and wonderful! They can also be hard. I find that when I finally get time to relax, suppressed emotions find their way to the surface. When families or churches gather, there is joy. There can also be awkward exchanges with people …
Advent is a time of waiting for the arrival of Christ. We celebrate His first coming to Earth. We look forward to His second return. It is also a time where we long for Him to come into the brokenness of our lives.
Longing for God is a beautiful thing. As we wait, expecting His arrival, He too is longing for us.
I recently read The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning. A pastor friend gave it to me. If you are looking for a good read or gift, it’s on my recommended reading list. Buy it via this blog’s links and we get a small commission on your purchase.
The Furious Longing of God explores and imparts a beautiful truth. Furious can be a confusing word. It’s often associated with anger. In this book, its meaning has more to do with intensity, as in the sense of a “furious storm.”
In his characteristic way, Brennan calls our attention to the incredible, overwhelming power of God’s intense desire for us. As hard to comprehend as it is, the Creator of the Universe wants to be near us. He longs for closeness with us.
Jesus pursues us with fierce and absolutely unconditional affection. “His love is never based on our performance or moods,” says Manning.
The Furious Longing of God is a call to accept and internalize the reality of His passionate love. It challenges us to embrace the transformation that reality brings to every aspect of our lives. It calls us to be healed by it, to be ministers of healing through it. The message of His furious love is meant to be shared.
The book inspired me again with this simple truth. It’s not new content for me, but Manning has a powerful way of bringing this truth home. I felt called once again to love others the way God has loved me. He saw good in me before I saw it in myself.
Within us rests great power to speak life. “To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary,” writes Manning. We call forth goodness through our unconditional, accepting words.
We are to love deeply, profoundly, and selflessly. We obey Christ’s command to love one another as He loves us. As we do this, it is a sign, a true wonder, to a doubting world. Brennan challenged me to examine my life, areas where I am selfish, unloving, critical and condemning. I must pursue loving family, friends, and colleagues as furiously and faithfully as God loves me.
This is easier said than done.
Manning’s book is not a book of shoulds though. Quite the opposite. It calls us to embrace our darkness and struggles. “The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.”
I found myself asking this question as I read. How furious is my love for God? For others? For the lost?
Let your longing for Jesus’ arrival grow more furious this Advent. Soak for a moment in the reality of His passionate desire for a closer relationship with you.
This truth has the power to transform. In that place of wholeness, acceptance, and intimacy, we are gently changed. It is out of that place we can share about Him with others. It’s from there that we reflect His life, love, and healing to a waiting, broken world.
This Advent season be willing to speak of Him to those around you. Start spiritual conversations. Share with others about your longing for Him and your growing awareness of His desire for you. Affirm and bless, pray for and encourage all you come in contact with. Let your love for your family, your friends, and the lost shine as brightly as stars on a dark night.
We aren’t the only ones God furiously longs for. Partner with God to bring others into His loving arms. What better gift could we give to Jesus this Christmas?
When our kids weren’t feeling well and wanted to stay home from school, my husband felt their foreheads. Were they hot? Did they have a temperature? Eventually, we invested in a thermometer to measure things more accurately. Our marriages need a daily temperature reading too! …
Some people are spontaneous, their plans change often. They try something new at a moment’s notice. I like free-spirited people. Spontaneity is a highly held virtue when it comes to romance and marriage. It can help keep your relationship fresh and alive. Healthy habits and …
Ambition. It’s not necessarily a good thing. It can be positive when properly focused. In his well-known book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about Level 5 leaders. He describes the kinds of leaders who take their companies from a good company to becoming a great company.
These leaders are incredibly ambitious and driven. He goes on to clarify this however, “their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves.”
Are you driven by a passion for God and the expansion of His Kingdom? Though Collins is talking about business, the principles are universal. They easily translate to Kingdom work as well.
Ambition for God’s Kingdom is not wrong. Sometimes, we mistake ministry ambition, though, for an unhealthy striving to earn God’s acceptance. This leads to burnout, family problems, addictions, and many unhealthy things within us.
Ministry goals can push you into a performance-based mentality. Rather than living from a place of rest in the Father’s acceptance, you are always wanting more. This isn’t God’s intention for us!
He places big dreams in our hearts. We must always remember, however, it is God who will accomplish these things. It’s not us. While pursuing God-given dreams in an ambitious way, we must also rest in His amazing, absolute and unconditional love.
Paul, the apostle, was incredibly ambitious for God’s Kingdom to grow. Collins would definitely have called him a Level 5 leader. He pressed on toward the goal God had given him with all he had. In Corinthians, he tells those he is discipling to strive to excel in building up and growing the church.
“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”
1 Cor 14:12 ESV
Ambition isn’t wrong. But, there are some things to carefully avoid.
This is so subtle! We can easily confuse our passionate desires for expanding God’s Kingdom, with a need to “make something of ourselves.” We want to be noticed as being someone who is successful. Having a big ministry and growing church will make us feel “worthy” of the praise and recognition of others, we think. This perspective is self-motivated, not God motivated.
We must regularly evaluate our hearts as we do ministry! Why are we doing what we are doing…really? Is it so God will be glorified? Or so we will be well-known, recognized, and valued by others?
It is easy to tell when you are swinging into selfish motivations. Do you feel slighted or angry when others don’t notice what you have done? That is a warning sign.
Guard your heart against motivations that flow from a desire to be recognized for what you accomplish.
You don’t need to earn something you’ve already received from God. He loves us! Nothing we can do in ministry or life can make Him love us more. We are already His beloved ones in whom He is well pleased. When you see yourself striving and over-working, ask yourself if you might be trying to earn His love.
Did you have parents or key influencers in your life who loved you only when you succeeded? This can easily be transferred to your view of God. Did you have a father who only praised you when you got high marks in school? Or a teacher who scolded you?
God isn’t like that. His love is unconditional. Relax a bit, and enjoy His blessing. He takes great pleasure in you simply because you are His child.
As much as we wish missionary marriages and family life would be automatically good, that is far from true. Keeping your marriage and family healthy takes careful thought and hard work. It is so easy to let ministry demands push in and rob you of quality time with your spouse or children. Don’t allow this! It isn’t worth it.
There are seasons when demands of ministry are greater. Certainly, there are times when we have to sacrifice family time in order to serve. Don’t let that become your norm.
Take quality sabbath days of rest. Play with your kids and enjoy your spouse. Do fun things together. Take a vacation at least once a year.
Be sure that your ambition doesn’t cost you your marriage or your health. That would never be God’s desire or plan. He wants us to be healthy and thriving in our missionary lives and families. Lean into God for better understanding of how to live in that place.
Maybe you have been reading this and thinking, “I’m really not very ambitious. I used to be but somehow I’ve lost my drive to see the Kingdom grow.” If that is you, ask God to renew your godly ambition once again. It’s a good thing to have!
Or, perhaps you identify with one of the three things above. You realize there are some things you need to avoid. Take a moment to pray and invite God to work in your life. Then, find a friend to share with about that, someone to help you stay accountable to change in this area.
What is God speaking to you about this today? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or on the Missionary Life Facebook group.
Do you ever feel empty? Exhausted? I do. We all face seasons of life when we are severely stretched. Ministry and family demands pile up and suddenly you realize you are “running on empty.” God desires us to live life full, not run on fumes. …
Children’s education is an important issue for all parents – including missionaries. We want our kids to have the best schooling available. Their future matters to us greatly. Do we stretch our faith and place them in an expensive school, knowing we don’t really have …
Have you ever been on a vacation with a hyper- organizer? Every minute is structured weeks before you leave for the trip? For some people that makes the holiday enjoyable. They’ve spent a lot of money traveling to an exotic location and want to see all the sites. Others in the family might declare, “I don’t want a plan! I just want to relax and do whatever I feel like doing.” Every family has to work this out and find the right balance. Sabbaticals, are not the same as a vacation. While they definitely need to include unstructured time, a basic sabbatical plan can help a great deal.
It is best to prepare for your sabbatical before it starts. This will help you gain much more from your break from ministry. Those who take unplanned and completely unstructured sabbaticals rarely gain what they hope for.
A sabbatical is not the same as a
Sabbaticals are longer. There is no rule about how long, but most people recommend some time between three months to one year. They are based on the Old Testament year of sabbatical rest every seven years (Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 15). In the early
“But in the seventh
Leviticus 25:4. NIV.year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.”
A bit more than a year ago, I took a three-month sabbatical. Ten years before that I took a longer one of nine months. Seven years earlier I’d also done this. Each time, I learned more about sabbaticals. I find this an extremely good practice when in a season of major transition. Sabbaticals provide a chance to be renewed in body, soul, and spirit. They help us transition and pivot (turn) when we are entering a new role or period of life.
After a sabbatical, you will be able to contribute in a more effective way than before. Without planning properly, I’ve seen some ministers end up discouraged after their sabbatical. Sometimes even more than they were before. You don’t want that!
To get ready for sabbatical, the first thing I did was to talk with my coach. There are some organizations that provide specific sabbatical coaching. In my case, I just continued with my normal coach. He helped me create a plan ahead of time.
I read an excellent book called The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan.
See my Best Books of 2018 blog for a short review and my take-aways on that book.
In the months leading up to my sabbatical, I created a basic structure for what I would do. Resources such as Bill
At the end of my three-month sabbatical, I was refreshed and ready to start my new season. It would be one that would include a lot more writing – thus this blog!
I’d achieved most of my sabbatical objectives. My main goal had been to hear from God about the new season, be renewed in my walk with Him and to have genuinely rested well.
This is what you will need to do first. Decide before your sabbatical starts how much time to give to this. If you are seriously burnt out, you will need more time. I would suggest at least a month to six weeks for this phase. You may want to schedule time with a counselor. Debriefing from pain, conflicts, and wounding you’ve experienced as a leader is important. It is a time to grieve losses, and open yourself up to the healing touch of the Lord. Hear Him speak to you of His love, compassion
During the decompression phase, you are learning to disconnect from work completely. You might be surprised how hard it is to stop working, to stop being needed every moment of the day by those you minister to. In this phase, you may feel sick, lonely or lost. This is quite normal. That is why it is helpful to schedule time with a prayer minister or counselor.
In this second phase, you are now more free to enter into true rest with God. You become more comfortable with being, rather than doing, as the source of your identity. That doesn’t mean you sleep all day though! Plan for this phase of sabbatical by; taking trips to places you’ve wanted to visit, doing creative projects, etc.
Is there an instrument you always wanted to learn to play? Maybe you could take an art class, write poetry, or design a treehouse for your kids. During this rest and restorative phase, don’t schedule too much. A few creative and fun activities that are “life-giving” are what this period calls for.
The third phase is a time to hear from the Lord about the future. What is God wanting to speak to you about for the next season? Be careful not to start working on those things, but just listen to Him. You may want to include times of retreat where you practice spiritual disciplines like silence and solitude.
You can split this third phase into two segments if you would like. I prefer to combine these two; spending about half of my time listening, and half my time learning something new. What would you love to learn more about? This may be something related to your personal life, family or a hobby. Or it could be related to your ministry.
Avoid books that have to do with leadership or developing ministry skills in the earlier phases of your sabbatical. They will prevent your mind and spirit from truly resting. Now in this last phase, however, you are starting to prepare to re-enter ministry life. Learning and listening get you ready for that.
Prepare well and your sabbatical will be a memorable and wonderful season of rest! Do you have questions about sabbaticals? Feel free to comment below or join our Facebook group for Missionary Life and ask your question there.
Just the word “immigration” can put knots in our stomachs. For weeks before traveling in or out of the country, we prepare ourselves. “This is what I will say if asked.” We face the inner tension of not wanting to be deceitful, but also wanting …