After announcing our decision not to go to Haiti and to remain serving ARC in Luverne, I have truly appreciated the outpouring of love and support from you, our church family. A common comment was, “I’m sorry you didn’t get to go to the mission field, but selfishly I’m glad you are staying!” I totally understand and appreciate the sentiment behind that type of comment, and it parallels what we have been experiencing. It is as if God took something away from us, and yet gave me and my family so much more in return.
The last couple of months have been a sort of roller coaster of emotions as I wrestled with that decision, and I learned many lessons about God and myself. One lesson I learned is that God will stop at nothing to get us to a place of complete dependency on Him. II Cor. 1:8b-9 has been speaking to me:
“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves but on God…”
Paul was able to attribute all of the persecution and other sufferings in his life to the simple purpose of being forced to rely completely on God. If that was the case for Paul, should it not also be happening to us? What if we looked at every difficulty, hardship, suffering, disappointment, conflict, or trial as a blessing from God designed to draw us closer to Him? (See James 1:3-4, Rom. 5:3-5)
The result of these types of thoughts has been a renewal in my heart and mind of understanding the jealous nature of our God. Ex. 34:14 – “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Not only is God a jealous God, but HIS NAME IS JEALOUS! Again, He will stop at nothing to get us thinking about Him, whether through trials or blessings. This reminds me of the Nirvana lyric, “I don’t care what you think, as long as it is about me…” and the modern maxim often applied to public figures like Donald Trump, “All press is good press.” Don’t forget Revelation 3: “I wish you were either hot or cold. Because you are lukewarm, I am about to spit you out of my mouth!”
As someone with the spiritual gift of evangelism, I’ve noticed that people who are angry at God, and even will curse God or Christians, are usually closer to accepting Christ than people who just don’t care. Similarly, people going through hard times tend to be more interested in Jesus than those whose lives are progressing nicely. Any pastor will tell you that hearts are much more receptive to the Word at a funeral than at a wedding.
There is something we all must be reminded of…this life, this world, this existence we have been graciously given…it’s not about us. It’s about God and His magnificent glory! He is the main character of this story and the hero. He is the King, the Queen, the Bishop, the Knight, and the Rook. We are all just pawns, and we should consider ourselves fortunate to even be that! God will receive all the glory. The only question that remains is whether or not we will be the ones to give the glory. The great news is that when we aren’t generating much glory, God in His mercy will send any diversion necessary to get us back on track. He commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son! After that is any object lesson out of bounds? So I’m glad He allowed us to accept and later give up the call to Haiti, because the result has been a renewed passion for His glory and for service to His people. Our Jealous God is Mysterious and Amazing!
Cory Grimm