Monday, January 29, 2007

Promised Lands, Our Rightful Places?

When we take our rightful places we step into our promised lands. I was looking for mine for quite a long time. I didn't know for sure what I wanted to do after high school. I thought I wanted to be a teacher, Dad said no, it wouldn't pay enough. Then I thought how about a psychologist? Mom said, no, you'd get too involved with the patients' lives. Okay, how about a nurse? Mom said no again, you'd be crushed whenver a patient died. I couldn't win for losing, know what I mean? I already knew how to type fast so I entered secreterial school to support myself. My plan was to go to work to pay for my tuition and attend university at night. So off I went to Boston thinking I would study drama and become an actor. Well, I needed tuition money first so I had to get a job. It all seemed so grown up to me at the time! Going to employment agencies with my resume, all dressed up, made me feel important.

I started off at Harvard School of Public Health working as the gopher in the Executive MBA programs. It didn't take long to realize this job was going to keep me right there, working my fingers to the bone, running around fetching for everyone but never getting ahead myself! I actually worked all day and then helped with functions at night. How would I ever get where I was supposed to go? Moving on to the employment agencies I thought I'd secure a better position. And so it went for the longest time. Every once in a while I'd work for a company that offered paid tuition. I took business courses, computer courses and did expand my knowledge; but I never felt like I was settling into a career. I once thought I wanted a degree in Public Administration. Again working as an AA for a university MBA program dean I found working days was only further putting off a degree for me. So I went off to work for venture capitalists. That was a very interesting job, but still not getting me where I wanted to go. I had a couple more jobs that were fun and interesting, inspiring even, but it wasn't until my husband was transferred to Atlanta that I finally found what I'd been searching for all my life. We were now parents of two children and my husband's career was taking off wonderfully. We didn't need me to work, so I stayed home with the children. Eventually home schooling them and getting to know the folks with whom we attended church. The church started a part-time outreach to the poor on Saturdays. Our family joined. We were available during the day to purchase the food to give away on the weekend so we got even more involved, even inviting our home school community where the students helped us bag all the food and praying for the folks who would receive it on Saturday. My husband and I were building relationships with the folks we were visiting along with the ones with which we served. A temporary, part-time outreach quickly began to demand full-time hours. My husband and I sensed God calling us to full-time mission work where the part-time outreach became a full-time discipleship school, ministry and church. That's when I knew I'd finally found what I'd been looking for all those years. And you know, it felt right, too! All those other jobs always felt temporary. That day of small beginnings led us to the poor in Africa where our base is Cape Town, South Africa. And really what looked like a part-time outreach has become a lifestyle ministry. We meet people from all over Africa and the world but we aren't so interested in getting them to come to our church per se. Only that they would get to know God as a personal, loving, heavenly Father who will lead them to find their rightful places.

There are promised lands in relationships. We need hearts and minds that are willingly open to see the promised land part, looking beyond first appearances and/or first impressions. And that works both ways, doesn't it? Even in marital relationships, we as spouses are allowed to look further down the road than the surface stuff we can see in the natural. And shouldn't we be doing that with all our relationships? Jesus said the greatest commandment was to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and that the second one was like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two!" Hmmm.
Can we get to the promised land without it? I don't think so! :)

But how wonderful is this journey to our promised land! We can choose to value the manna from heaven as the wonderfully, miraculous gift from heaven or we can complain and moan because the grass looks greener somewhere else!

As I look out the window of the beautiful home the Lord has provided I note how surrounded we are by His Garden and I wonder, 'How can I show you this garden?' 'How can I get you to see what has always been surrounding you supernaturally?' Can we see the rightful places God has prepared for us? Will we step into them or love our lives too much to risk believing? He's there! He's there!

Deuteronomy 6:5 Moses is telling us the commandments and how they should be upon our hearts. He says, 'Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up... Finish the chapter, it gave me a sense that God meant this to be a lifestyle, this relationship we have with Him, the way we live the life He's given us. It's not a duty, performance or set of rules with which life is measured. And when we follow Him as He lived it out for us in His Son Jesus, we will find we are in our rightful places. It's when we are not that we go astray. And if you are reading this and realize you have gone astray, then turn back! Quickly! You can do it! His grace is there! Think of the prodigal father who everyday looked up the road expecting his son's return! Imagine the day he saw him? God is looking up that road expectantly right now, are you in His sights?

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