Wow, the day is finally here. I'm mostly packed, looking forward to a good night's rest and a new day when I'll hop on the plane to Cape Town. Things have been a bit hectic in the last day, and so I don't have my email list put together (thus I'm writing here first). But it has been a blessing and I would like to share it with you.
Graduation and times since have been a blast: wonderful times with family, from going from this to that graduation activity with my parents and brother to spending time at the house that my dad's cousin built in the northern California redwoods. After that I spent some time hanging around the Stanford area while house-sitting, seeing friends that I might not have otherwise seen because of the rush of the end of the year. Now it's the end of two weeks back home in Wisconsin, where I've enjoyed the 4th of July festivities on our block, caught up with high school friends in Madison, and rested in the comfort of home.
That's all quite a mouthful, right? Lots of fun stuff - but the danger is that it can just be stuff, and the light of how God is active in it can become dim to my eyes.
Jesus was speaking about money when he told us that "No servant can serve two masters," but I've found in those words a lesson that includes a warning about becoming a slave to the pursuit of wealth, but goes a good deal farther. These words point to the continuous danger of neglecting our duty of singular dedication to God. Many masters in this world demand our dedication, and even those unambiguously good creations of God, human friendship, for example, can descend under the weight of sin to becoming masters to us, usurping the place of God. Then how much more can human creations become our masters!
This morning, I was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. Enduring the symptoms was a concerning event, but it was certainly not painful or dramatic. However, it put these plans to do work in South Africa into question. For a while, it seemed that I should change my ticket; then not. Finally a rosy prognosis appeared, and I started packing for tomorrow's flight.
In the time when I thought that I would leave this Wednesday instead of tomorrow, I was thinking about what to do. "Wow, I won't be rushed to send out a first prayer email... I'll sit back and get some reading done... I can pray more deeply in preparation for my travels." Later, after reaching the conclusion that I should leave tomorrow, I was packing relatively hurriedly because of the lost time from the doctors appointments and extra tests. Back to the normal, faster pace. And then I realized that I have fallen into serving a poor master, the desire to fill my life with activities and live in terms of the interesting instead of the sacred. Don't get me wrong: my times relaxing in northern California or enjoying meals with friends weren't unworthy things to do with the life God has given me. But I saw a bit more clearly that the busyness of the last few months became in some ways a cruel master, and partially took the place of the joy that God gave me in doing all of those things.
And so I am ready - because I trust that God will make me ready - to step into what I have described to some, lately, as a bit of a void. I don't know what things will look like, except that some things aren't like here, and I don't know what precisely I will be doing day to day. But I trust that it is worthy. I recognize the need for God to grow me in his ways, and am blessed to have this time to directly serve the one master. I hope to gain eyes to see in South Africa the ways that God has blessed me in the past few weeks and in my time in South Africa, and to carry these things into the future.
Sounds a lot like it's all about me, eh? Well, there are two things that I ask God's blessing upon in this journey: me, and the world as I encounter it in South Africa. But now, one half of this is a void to me. I look forward to describing it to you! Because the Kingdom of God emerges out of the encounter between the gospel and the world.
Here's a quick list of stuff that you can pray for in light of all this:
- For consistent healing of my ailment;
- For the blessings in experiences of yet unknown culture to overcome the challenges in these experiences;
- For my heart to serve God and His Kingdom during this time;
- And for the Kingdom to remain within me after I return.
For the Kingdom,
Carl
1 comment:
Food was a master in my life, the preparing and organizing, the shopping, the eating & the comfort or procrastination it would provide, rather than going to the Lord for comfort or whatever. Food still has to play a role in my life but it is no longer the focus/master of mine like it once was. I want the Lord to be the main master. Jean Erickson
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