Being Sent Away

Spent a few hours on the phone this weekend getting caught up with family and friends. What a huge shot in the arm and joyful way to spend time.  One of the conversations included a very powerful and eye opening discussion about the Lord and what He calls us to.

You see, I had been sharing how this experience has brought our family to some very hard places.  How it has placed us in situations where we felt alone and unincluded.  Every single one of us has felt unwelcomed at one time or another and we've had to sort through the emotions and questions that accompany that awful feeling.  When you add the fact that we cannot rely on our support systems back home due to distance--namely our family, friends, neighbors, church, and previous positions of authority or our prior knowledge about things--it's made the heaviness that much more heavy.

Well, as I spoke with my friend Darleen, she reminded me of the fact that when the Lord called many throughout the Bible He called them out of their environment and into something very foreign.  Oftentimes He pulled them away completely from those they loved and upon whom they relied.  She named Abram (Abraham) and how the Lord told him to leave his community to move to an entire other land.  He did take a handful of relatives with him, but for the most part he began afresh with a whole new existence. She mentioned David, who before becoming king of Israel, was on the run for many years trying to escape the hand of King Saul.

When I saw what she meant, my mind then flew through the Bible and all the stories of those that had been sent away from what they knew to something completely foreign and hard.

Jacob fleeing from his home and living with a distant relative (who became father-in-law) for 14+ years
Joseph taken to Egypt
Moses taken in by the daughter of the pharaoh and raised in the palace
Samuel taken as a child to live in the temple
Ruth leaving her people to stay with her mother-in-law
Esther married off to the king and moved to the palace
The disciples leaving all careers and family to follow Jesus
Saul (Paul) moved away from the Pharisees and into the Christian community

Well, the list really does go on from there.  I thought of Nehemiah, the prophets, and Jesus who Himself had to leave heaven and His throne to come here.  Biblically speaking, there is a preponderance of evidence that God does ask people to leave who and what they love to do something else.  And even when we obey and go, it does not mean that it will all look good or fun at the start (think Joseph).  There might be much heartache, much isolation, much darkness in the journey.  Yet, as we know, God is there all along, in the midst, and building our character into something that He can use.

My prayer is that each of us will look to our circumstance and our times of loneliness as times when the Lord has pulled us out of comfort so that our lack of whatever we value (friends, prestige, money, family, power) will translate into more of Him.  What we give up will be replaced with what we get--His presence, His guidance, His wisdom, His joy, His strength.  We must remember that

me + Jesus = All I need for what He calls me to do

Have a blessed Sunday!
kim