Trust Me

Picture from Robert Karwowski's trip to Uganda

Katie Davis, a missionary in Uganda, posted this on her Facebook page yesterday: Jesus, bring me ANYTHING that brings you glory.  Katie is an amazing young woman, but I still winced at that sentence (musical though it may be).

Right now, I have strep throat.  I have been sick since Tuesday and am still not 80%.  Thanks to antibiotics and analgesia, like ibuprofen and tylenol, I will suffer as little as possible and will recover without complications.  But, it has also left me with the consideration that I am not strong enough to be in some country where cholera and malaria are common.

Even in my very comfortable American life, it is a dangerous prayer.

What if Jesus asks me to give up my comfortable SUV that lugs me thru the 5 snowstorms we have in a 365 day year so that I can save gas money to give that money to orphans or homeless?  What if Jesus brings me to a job that pays little but where I can make a large impact for Him?  What if Jesus nudges me to drop the tactful political correctness and live sold out for him?  What if living for him means less for my bank account, reputation, comfort but more ridicule, loneliness, disgrace?

I laugh at that.  One of my favorite prayers is: Teach me your will for me because I know you love me best.  How I need to remember this before I try to surrender!  I suppose, since God knows my heart, He would find this preferable as well.

If God loves me better than anyone I know loves me or even better than I could love myself, HOW could I expect His leading to leave me in a terribly place?  Sure, sometimes the land between is not so comfortable, but I am passing through only, on my way. 

Perhaps it comes from a posture of believing God to be so great, so powerful, so magnificent, that I assume He would ask great things from a yellow bellied whimp like me.  I forget about the quiet gentleness of His whisper.  I forget about the God-in-babe.

Perhaps, as it was for Mary and Moses and Abraham and so many others, that God doesn't ask them to do "great" things.  Instead He asks us to become co-conspirators as HE does great things.  He asks us to be His womb, His mouth, His blessings to the world, His hands and His feet.

So, yes, Jesus, bring me anything that brings you glory. 



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