waves
Mk 6:45-52 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side….
We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ contrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us. His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.
What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a partiuclar finish. His end is the process–that I SEE HIM walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I SEE HIM walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.
God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience. We get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.
God’s end is to enable me to see that He can work on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present: If we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.
Oswald Chambers
wow…
what do you think?
July 30, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Good stuff. Chambers has an amazing perspective. Hope things are well.
July 31, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Wow is right. There’s a lot to unpack here.
I’m going to come at it from the perspective of “outreach” — a topic we played around w/ last night during a weekly gathering of believers. We talked about service, evangelism, heart/love, living our lives, culture and running away (to name a few). In sum, we decided that there is no easy way to define the term. Regardless of how you define it, there is almost always a goal of “great success” attached to it. And then when we speak into someone’s life — be it for a minute or many years — and the person doesn’t believe (or change), we see failure.
Maybe if we recognized our obedience in the moment, we would also see a lot more of Him in that moment. And then in every other moment. And I have to think that spending more time w/ Him is a good thing — maybe even a “great success” if you will? I also have to think that this could change the way we live our own lives — moment by moment in His presence. In intimate life with Him. In step with Him. In union.
August 2, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Good thoughts, Oswald & Troy. God wants a relationship with us, our fellowship. What better way to have that than to go on a meaningful journey together?
August 2, 2009 at 8:38 pm
yes Troy,
and when you throw in Jesus’ saying, “my task is to lose none of those that have been given me… no one can come to me unless the Father draws them” then “outreach” becomes more like attending to God. what if mission work or outreach or evangelism or whatever is more about paying attention to what God is doing than making sure i make the right pitch in the right way at the right time to the right person? what if the goal isn’t that i make another disciple, but that i watch the Father and just lose none of those that he has given me?
great thoughts!