A life overseas

It's a very human thing to desire tangible results - a job description that fits into the car insurance application form, a career progression, some aim or role that other people can understand. Just "being" for God instead of "doing" can be difficult. The world sets a value on people by what they have - money, position, title: God values us for ourselves. Of course he knows our potential and wants us to fulfil it but that neither includes accumulating possessions at the cost of all else nor losing ourselves in the process. It's often hard to accept that God just wants a relationship with us, a growing closer to himself which enables us to grow into the person we were designed to be.

A blog that I've found which expresses the challenges and joys of being an overseas worker for God is www.alifeoverseas.com . There are many authors and many posts which give a great flavour of many aspects of living overseas. One of the more recent posts is entitled "What does God want from me?" It's worth reading.

Carol Service

Message from the carol service I went to last week: how could the awesome, all-powerful God possibly descend to earth to live among humans in order to carry out his rescue plan without terrifying us all to death?
His beautifully simple solution: be born as a baby in humble surroundings, grow up in an ordinary family and die to be Saviour of the world.

Message from the Guidelines Bible study notes I'm reading at the moment: John 1:1-18 - God enters into our lives. The Light didn't just shine down on us from above but moved into our darkness. Jesus didn't come to earth to stand on the sidelines and observe, he moves alongside us and gets his feet dirty.

Living in a place bordered by magnificent mountains, where the handiwork of God can be appreciated in so many awesome ways, is a privilege. It's easier to appreciate his power here perhaps than when insulated by bricks and mortar, concrete and skyscrapers. We hide behind human constructions and drown out God whether he's communicating in the still small voice or in the roar of his majesty, but the tallest skyscraper pales in comparison with the smallest creature God has made.  Humans are creative beings but that's only because we're made in the image of the Supreme Creator. Take time to go outside, whether you're huddled up to face the snow or coolly dressed for the heat. Look up. Look down. Consider the heavens. Consider the earth in wonder and ask "What is man that you are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8). Then look at the stable in Bethlehem and be amazed.

InReach

Though I now live in South Africa, I still receive updates on the effect InReach is having in Nigeria. (For anyone who doesn't know, InReach was devised by myself and a colleague, inspired by our work with different communities in Nigeria. It's a series of conversations focussing on relationships and the love between Jesus, the individual and those close by.  InReach tries to encourage all who call themselves followers of Jesus to truly and actively live his love to their neighbours and so transform the world.) God is using the InReach conversations to bring amazing changes to the lives of believers and those who were born into another faith.

I recently came across the following which I wrote some time ago, thinking of InReach. I thought it wouldn't do any harm to post it.

The world can be a lonely place.  Sometimes as you look around it seems as if everyone except yourself has deep and fulfilling relationships, lots of friends, groups to belong to and a sense of security.  What do you do?

Shyly you join an existing group or programme, hovering at the edges, longing for someone to invite you to come closer, to welcome you in.  Gradually you start to learn the rules of your new group and you keep them religiously, afraid that any transgression will see you cast back into the wilderness.  Eventually you can look around and feel that you belong.

You belong but you never feel truly secure.  What would happen if you missed a meeting or ignored a tradition?  Would you still be loved and accepted or shunned and reviled?  You don’t know for sure and you’re afraid to find out.  You keep the customs through fear, not conviction that they represent the best way to live.

One day someone new wants to join your group but he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about keeping the rules.  You feel threatened.  You insist on the sanctity of doing things the way they’ve always been done.  People know who you are and expect you to uphold the traditions of the group, you can’t let your image be damaged.  You complain about the new person and try to get him to conform or leave.  Eventually he does; not accepted for who he is, just judged for how well he kept to your conventions.

This group could be a church denomination or programme, a social society or sports club, anywhere that people gather and devise traditions and rules specific to themselves to distinguish between “us” and “them”.  Often upholding the rules becomes more important than family, friends or people’s feelings.

Jesus had no time for divisive rules, laws which became more important than the heart of his gospel message of love.  No one knows better than him how humans need a sense of community.  We’re made in the image of God: God whose very being is always in loving relationship - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  No one was more ready than Jesus to smash through rules of convention to reach the heart of the person.

We all need love.  We all need relationships.  It’s the way humans are made, but we’ll never find true satisfaction in manmade rules that fence us in to keep others out.

Surrender to Jesus’ love.  Accept the freedom he gives to surpass convention and reflect God’s love to all you meet.  As John Stott wrote, be a “radical conservative” like Jesus.  Conservative in regard to the clear teachings of Scripture but totally radical in refusing to be bound by unnecessary social conventions.  Live the Love.

Beauty

                                               

Sometimes it's tempting not to mention the good things about being overseas. There's a feeling (quite rightly) that supporters who give sacrificially to keep the worker in the field will start to wonder what's happening if updates are filled with the lovely weather, trips out and amazing experiences instead of the struggles and challenges every overseas worker faces.

Of course there are a lot of challenges involved in leaving your family, friends and home culture to serve overseas and many people are working in dangerous and undeveloped areas of the world.  It's also very true that when you rely on God you experience him work in a way that is perhaps more striking than when you're comfortable and confident enough to rely on yourself.  He does do amazing things to change lives and situations.

However, he also does not want us to live miserably (that's Satan's desire). Jesus came so we "may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Part of that is being able to honour God by appreciating and sharing the wonders he's provided.

The part of the world where he's put us at the moment is amazing. It costs nothing to appreciate the marvels of creation. Let me share a few with you.

                                                 

 

                                                  

 

Spiders are God's creation too, even if the discovery of this "rain spider" on the fridge this morning was quite a surprise. They come inside when it rains, as it did this morning, and are huge. There were some pretty large spiders in Nigeria but they were strange and flat and didn't look threatening (excepting the scorpion spider which also appeared before the rains). This one was a properly scary spider and made scary movie tappings in the plastic tub Fraser used to put it outside.