India....the experience. final part.

Now that we've been airlifted to one side of the globe and back, what are we to make of all this?  Why do we do this? Why would we ever want to go back? Our roots have been established here in the Midwest, with no indication of moving overseas in the foreseeable future. Of course, that could change. Meanwhile, why even bother temporarily uprooting, spending the money, leaving our kiddos in the hands of others, taking vacation time from work, etc?

First, all I can say on God's behalf is:

Isaiah 55:

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

What it is He does in our hearts that compels us to go lest we disobey Him is not something I can fully articulate.  I do know that I have obeyed such prompts in the past, that His will has been confirmed and there have been no regrets.  I cannot in good conscience know that I will face Him one day and tell Him that I did not do what He was asking of me because of other people's pressure  or expectations or my own fears or my own sense of what is wise in my own eyes.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of disobedience to answer for in that regard anyway, right?!  But that cannot hinder me from doing what I know to be right at this time.  Both Jim and I have sensed a calling into an invitation from God to come alongside His work in southeastern Asia.  Not full time.  Not permanently.  But, on an ad hoc basis for now.  Those in our lives who know us best, who pray regularly, and those in leadership over us, all concur that our involvement in that region of the world is God-appointed.

Ok, so how does one reconcile God's current activity here and abroad, when living HERE but keenly aware of how He is active THERE?  It is the same God, but His activity appears different in the India part of the world.  

I think to answer this type of question would require some extra time of sitting over coffee (maybe wine) and just sort of thinking out loud to sort it out. While there are so many things that are the same about people in the US and people in different countries, there certainly are cultural differences, spiritual-experience differences, skin tone differences, food differences, etc.   What IS the same is God's heart and character, while having the perfect right as Creator to express and reveal Himself in a variety of ways.  Ways that never contradict His character or His Word, but can be as varied as the differences between trees and people - both of which He made!  If I understand His creativity correctly, nothing about what He brings into being is monochromatic.  Look at the varieties and color differences among same species - animate and inanimate alike!  And then just try to itemize everything He has made.  It seems everything has a shade of change from one thing to the next.  All that to say, I've come to realize that the only thing I need to know to "reconcile" my experience in India with the life I live here is that things ARE different.  And that helps expand my understanding of how wide, high and deep HE is, that the environments He is working in across the globe vary, and so then do some of the ways He brings people of any nation to Himself.  It is overwhelming, knowing my own unworthiness, that in welcoming Jim and I to witness Him at work in other places we get a more intimate glimpse into His heart.  Always we ask,  who are WE?  Nothing!  I think anyone obeying whatever God calls them to do feels this. Whether within their home, within a 1-mile radius of home, or farther and farther out from that, His invitation to trust and obey Him is always an invitation into knowing more of His heart.  And that is a privilege granted only by the finished work of forgiveness through Jesus, they tenderheartedness of our Father and the power of His Spirit.  

And so it goes.  In our lives today.  Whatever He asks me obey Him in - regarding my role as wife, mother, daughter, friend, neighbor, etc - it is a call to deepen intimacy with Him by trusting and obeying.  In my home, cul de sac, neighborhood, school communities, church, and beyond.  It is NOT more true in India than it is here.  He is not more powerful or active there.  The environments and hearts toward Him (or against Him)  fluctuate in each geographic location, so too will the appearance of His work in people's hearts.  HE does not change - He just has a wide breadth of options to choose from to express Himself from one place another.

To close then, though there are so many other thoughts swirling around in me, for now I will continue to tighten down what is loosey-goosey in my private and spiritual disciplines, make better quality space and quiet to continue to listen through His Word and Spirit, and seek to love, trust and obey Him.  Even if it seems crazy by my "safe-prone" standards.  Even if I need time to wrestle it out with God to allow Him to tame my wild selfishness.  Even if I'm rolling my eyes, shaking my head and huffing because what He's nudging me toward is inconvenient,  I will do it.  His Word is life.  LIFE.  I want life.  I wish on my own terms I could bring about lasting satisfaction.  But I can't.  Never really has.  And so, God help me, I'll try to listen, love, obey each day - here or wherever He invites me join Him to draw more to His heart and eternal family.  That's my main "take away" from our trip at present. 

Thanks for praying.  Seriously.  Powerful stuff happens in cosmic places that affect our daily movements when we pray.  Thanks for praying for my daughter who was struggling with illness before we left.  I sensed God telling me to trust that would extend healing to her within my obedience to go India.  Indeed, from the time we left til our return, she rarely coughed and her asthmatic lungs cleared up. I'm so grateful. 

Please pray for us, our church, our own nation, as well as God's movement in hearts in India.

Many thanks!