To Possess or Be Possessed
[After a brief, inspiring dialogue with a ministry partner…]
Many of us have felt prompted to do something benevolent, from a simple act to a life-changing decision, at some point in our lives. Sometimes we’ve taken the opportunity to move, and other times we haven’t. (I can’t stand the feeling of missing something I should have done!) But how about getting involved with something that you have a genuine conviction or passion for, something that takes time and effort on a periodic or regular basis…have you experienced decrease in energy, motivation, perhaps even to the point of burnout?
When you took up that opportunity, that task, that effort, did you take it with your own hands and try to hold onto it as long as you could, or did you allow yourself to sit aside quietly, personally with it, and let it soak in until it began to take hold of you?
From apprehension to apprehended…
When I talk to people in and outside the efforts that I’m involved with, they often tell me how overwhelming it seems to be, both emotionally and with the vast need (and so few laborers). And for a moment, I understand what they’re saying. However, something else within, perhaps the Lion, immediately grips me and says No. First of all, there is a difference between having this work in our hands and it having us in its hands. I must operate in the place where the vision, the mission possesses me far more than I possess it. I have to stay in the place, that secret place, where His strength is functioning, where I can truly operate in a state of rest in my labor of love.
Secondly, I have to believe that more is being done than what we are actually doing. I have to believe that more are actually being reached than we are reaching. I have to…first of all, faith pleases Him, and He’s worthy to be pleased. So I will exercise my faith for that reason. Also, I can only do so much with my hands and feet, and there are so many in need well beyond my natural reach…little kids being forced and trafficked into perverse relations with old goats (men) with no backbone ten to fifteen times a day, seven days a week…runaway teens or lonely women being coerced or deceived into selling their bodies to weak excuses for men, likewise ten to fifteen times a day, seven days a week…or young boys being conditioned from preadolescence into sacrificing their lives for a militant group or lifelong debt labor of their parents….
Or just as important, the young one who’s heart was just broken by their significant, or cheated on by their spouse, or lost a family member, or experiences recurring themes of hurt and rejection in their lives…
…ALL of which happen in your nice, comfortable city, not just somewhere in some distant land.
I have to believe that, in addition to my direct prayer, my actions are a prayer, an intercession for these, and now, not sometime later. I can’t even sit and enjoy a good meal unless I know that somehow, someone is being fed in a way they otherwise would not have been if it weren’t for me believing for them and somehow, some way, sharing my meal with them from my comfortable dining room table.
Incidentally, I’m the type that would go crazy if I didn’t have a way to see solutions to the problems around me. But may my faith never be a simple pacifier to the conscious! I’ll push my plate back and not even eat, if that’s the case.
So, from the onset, the task before us is great, far greater than we are…but my faith says that I will partner with the One who is able to get greater things out of me than I can do myself. Call me an idealist, but this is a reality. May the vision have a permanent vice-grip on my heart. May my heart be touched in the places where His are shattered.
Don’t ever let go of me. Ever.
Many of us have felt prompted to do something benevolent, from a simple act to a life-changing decision, at some point in our lives. Sometimes we’ve taken the opportunity to move, and other times we haven’t. (I can’t stand the feeling of missing something I should have done!) But how about getting involved with something that you have a genuine conviction or passion for, something that takes time and effort on a periodic or regular basis…have you experienced decrease in energy, motivation, perhaps even to the point of burnout?
When you took up that opportunity, that task, that effort, did you take it with your own hands and try to hold onto it as long as you could, or did you allow yourself to sit aside quietly, personally with it, and let it soak in until it began to take hold of you?
From apprehension to apprehended…
When I talk to people in and outside the efforts that I’m involved with, they often tell me how overwhelming it seems to be, both emotionally and with the vast need (and so few laborers). And for a moment, I understand what they’re saying. However, something else within, perhaps the Lion, immediately grips me and says No. First of all, there is a difference between having this work in our hands and it having us in its hands. I must operate in the place where the vision, the mission possesses me far more than I possess it. I have to stay in the place, that secret place, where His strength is functioning, where I can truly operate in a state of rest in my labor of love.
Secondly, I have to believe that more is being done than what we are actually doing. I have to believe that more are actually being reached than we are reaching. I have to…first of all, faith pleases Him, and He’s worthy to be pleased. So I will exercise my faith for that reason. Also, I can only do so much with my hands and feet, and there are so many in need well beyond my natural reach…little kids being forced and trafficked into perverse relations with old goats (men) with no backbone ten to fifteen times a day, seven days a week…runaway teens or lonely women being coerced or deceived into selling their bodies to weak excuses for men, likewise ten to fifteen times a day, seven days a week…or young boys being conditioned from preadolescence into sacrificing their lives for a militant group or lifelong debt labor of their parents….
Or just as important, the young one who’s heart was just broken by their significant, or cheated on by their spouse, or lost a family member, or experiences recurring themes of hurt and rejection in their lives…
…ALL of which happen in your nice, comfortable city, not just somewhere in some distant land.
I have to believe that, in addition to my direct prayer, my actions are a prayer, an intercession for these, and now, not sometime later. I can’t even sit and enjoy a good meal unless I know that somehow, someone is being fed in a way they otherwise would not have been if it weren’t for me believing for them and somehow, some way, sharing my meal with them from my comfortable dining room table.
Incidentally, I’m the type that would go crazy if I didn’t have a way to see solutions to the problems around me. But may my faith never be a simple pacifier to the conscious! I’ll push my plate back and not even eat, if that’s the case.
So, from the onset, the task before us is great, far greater than we are…but my faith says that I will partner with the One who is able to get greater things out of me than I can do myself. Call me an idealist, but this is a reality. May the vision have a permanent vice-grip on my heart. May my heart be touched in the places where His are shattered.
Don’t ever let go of me. Ever.
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