I Weep in Awe

This morning I am being still and just reflecting on the week of learning, the personal encounters and God’s leading.  I am not a crier.  Tears rarely flow.  Yet this week the worship has been so moving that most service times I have just stood there and wept.  Then at least 5 or 6 conversations I have had….again I have cried.  And this morning the tears have flowed freely again.  These are not tears of bitterness or pain or frustration.  They are tears of awe, at who God is and how He knows and cares about my sitting down and my rising up.  They are tears of gratitude at the intimacy of God’s provision in mine and my families’ life.  Yes, we have “left it all”, but God has “given abundantly back”. 

In Papua God has placed amazing people and resources into our lives that have met different needs that have arisen in my family.  Even here in Thailand, God continues to bring different people into my life that are speaking volumes of wisdom to some very specific needs that we have.  Words of life and hope and resources.  These appointments are not coincidence.  They are divine!  I weep in awe at God’s provision.

As missionaries, it is so easy to think that we are leaving it all behind.  That we are going to have to stand alone.  Yet, my journey has been anything but that.  This has been life, and life more abundant.

I am not saying that missions is just a nice little package and that the work will be accomplished without sacrifice.  Our spiritual speaker this week has been sharing that often as Christians we are called to lay down our lives and how many of us, can’t grasp that or don’t want to except that mission work will not be accomplished without death.  Even yesterday, we gathered and prayed for a lady, who is at this conference, who yesterday her husband was detained by the police in the country where they work.  She does not know the outcome.  And last night, missionaries from another closed country stood up and shared how the x-pats and their national co-workers in their country are martyred.  This is their daily living reality.  I weep in awe of these dear people who feel so compelled that people need the hope of Jesus living in them.

I urge you to pray for missionaries and get to know missionaries.  Give to missions.  Sit and listen to their stories when they are home.  Seek different organizations where you can invest your time and money.  This is true “putting” treasures in heaven, where it will not rust or be destroyed.  The God of the universe desires to use humans to finish the task.  He desires that not one will perish.  Don’t let anything keep you from being involved with missions.  Whether it is going, giving, praying or listening.  As God has reached down and intimately met me right where I am.  He will do the same for you.  No geographic location is too difficult, no sacrifice to great for Him who knows how to give gifts with the wild abandon of spoiling His children.  I weep in awe.

Abundant LIVING!!!!