I'm listening to the song by that title performed by Selah (gotta love the creativity of MK musical groups influenced by other cultures!), and pondering how time flies here. We've been here almost 3 months and are still on a huge learning curve about, well, everything here.
A pastor friend visited us recently, and preached from Jonah, and the main point the Holy Spirit drove home to me through the Word was that my attachments should be to the things God is concerned about: people v. things. Jonah loved and treasured his gourd plant that gave shade. Granted, in the hot sun, shade is crucial. You might even die without it. What I was getting for life-application from that sermon was not about shade but about fans and lights and electricity. I realized, by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, that a lot of my love and attachment is wrapped up in my comforts and trying to secure them here. We've been without power most days for 14-16 hours a day. Not so terrible in the daytime. However, when it's night, and the generator is on the fritz at the same time the power is off and you're pregnant and there is no fan to move air or mosquitoes from feeding on your body, electricity becomes a very important, nearly beloved commodity. When his plant died, Jonah wanted to die. Sometimes at 3 a.m. with no fan and ample mosquitoes, I've felt Jonah's melodramatic pain.
As I sat listening to our friend preach, God was working in my heart with the final question He addresses to Jonah: "You pity the plant. . .and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons? (Jonah 4:10,11). Jonah cared about small things in comparison to the great things which were God's concern. Jonah's small things which he attached himself to were related to his comfort. God gave him a ministry, yet his priority was not the people to whom God had sent him but his own comfort.
Ouch.
God has put a specific ministry to some local college girls living in a hostel/dorm about 2 minutes walk from here on my heart, but I have been very laid back about pursuing it, about figuring out the how and when and where and who of it. I've given a lot of time and effort to my physical comforts, but little time and effort to those girls' spiritual needs thus far. Remedy? First this sinner saved by grace must be singing the sweet, sweet song of salvation to myself, drinking deeply daily from the well of salvation which alone has power to free me of my love of comfort. Only then will I be ready and willing to "let goods and kindred go"--and electricity also--and have an authentic witness of the goodness of my God's salvation, a sweet, sweet song indeed!, to share with those girls and others God puts in my path. Pray for us, for hearts which are soft toward the people around us and sensitive to their spiritual needs above our physical comfort. Thanks!
A pastor friend visited us recently, and preached from Jonah, and the main point the Holy Spirit drove home to me through the Word was that my attachments should be to the things God is concerned about: people v. things. Jonah loved and treasured his gourd plant that gave shade. Granted, in the hot sun, shade is crucial. You might even die without it. What I was getting for life-application from that sermon was not about shade but about fans and lights and electricity. I realized, by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, that a lot of my love and attachment is wrapped up in my comforts and trying to secure them here. We've been without power most days for 14-16 hours a day. Not so terrible in the daytime. However, when it's night, and the generator is on the fritz at the same time the power is off and you're pregnant and there is no fan to move air or mosquitoes from feeding on your body, electricity becomes a very important, nearly beloved commodity. When his plant died, Jonah wanted to die. Sometimes at 3 a.m. with no fan and ample mosquitoes, I've felt Jonah's melodramatic pain.
As I sat listening to our friend preach, God was working in my heart with the final question He addresses to Jonah: "You pity the plant. . .and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons? (Jonah 4:10,11). Jonah cared about small things in comparison to the great things which were God's concern. Jonah's small things which he attached himself to were related to his comfort. God gave him a ministry, yet his priority was not the people to whom God had sent him but his own comfort.
Ouch.
God has put a specific ministry to some local college girls living in a hostel/dorm about 2 minutes walk from here on my heart, but I have been very laid back about pursuing it, about figuring out the how and when and where and who of it. I've given a lot of time and effort to my physical comforts, but little time and effort to those girls' spiritual needs thus far. Remedy? First this sinner saved by grace must be singing the sweet, sweet song of salvation to myself, drinking deeply daily from the well of salvation which alone has power to free me of my love of comfort. Only then will I be ready and willing to "let goods and kindred go"--and electricity also--and have an authentic witness of the goodness of my God's salvation, a sweet, sweet song indeed!, to share with those girls and others God puts in my path. Pray for us, for hearts which are soft toward the people around us and sensitive to their spiritual needs above our physical comfort. Thanks!
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