Now We See Through A Glass Darkly.....

-
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." 
1 Corinthians 13:12

     Tomorrow I will work my last day at the job I've had for the last two years. It truly has been one of the best jobs I've ever had and I'm sad to leave it. However, I am excited in another way because its yet another tangible step on the path toward God's calling on my life. Everyday I'm getting one step closer to leaving for Papua New Guinea in January. 

        As I was sitting down to write this post and considering all of the changes going on in preparation to leave long-term to the mission field I thought of the verse above. The verse right before it is one that's been rumbling around in my brain through this whole process, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me." In many ways, making the decision to seriously walk towards long-term missions work has been a steady process of becoming more and more mature in new areas of my life and of putting away childish ways. However, when I set about sharing my thoughts with you and thought back to 1 Corinthians 13:12 I finally put the pieces together of verse 11 and 12. As I put the ways of childhood behind me I begin to see, even if it's a dim reflection, of who God is and what He is doing and it's the glimmer of the promised hope that God gives us. I'm beginning to know God more deeply in this process, but He promises that then I will know Him fully even as He knows me fully now. 

     So, even though I'm going through a myriad of emotions and the stripping away process of surrendering everything I've clung to (friends, family, job, identity, finances, etc...) God is comforting me with the hope of knowing Him more and seeing the things that He will do. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brokenness, Hope, and the Now and Not Yet

-
Image
Moonrise near my home       I stood in the shower, in the first truly hot shower I’ve had in over a week, the seeping cold slowly melting from my body. Words kept forming on my lips and in my heart in prayer for the twin baby who was rushed to the hospital today. The other twin died the day before yesterday and now the second was in unstable condition at a hospital about 30 minutes away. The babies are relatives of a dear friend and my heart broke in unintelligible words in the shower. It had been a rough day. One woman was brought in without a pulse and it became evident shortly into the resuscitation that she was too far gone. At the same time another baby was fighting for its life hooked to tubes and fluid bags, its fearful mother watching with wide silent eyes as staff worked on her little one.      Less than a month back to my Pacific island home and the black wall of suffering has already slapped me full in the face. The haunting reality of our broken world and the faintly glimme
Read more

A Creepy Crawly Welcome

-
Image
  Asiatic rhinoceros beetle  Flicking on the light I walked down the stairs to my basement. I had only been home for a few minutes but wanted to check the house and see what I’d need to do to get it into shape after my long absence. The upstairs was clean and tidy and ready for me to start unpacking and the whole house had been cleaned a couple of weeks before. I went down the stairs and turned the corner. I pulled up short. There if front of me was the huge inverted corpse of a spider, curled legs frozen and dangling in the web of another spider. The dead spider was at least an inch across and had to have been quite big when it was alive. Taking a broom from the wall, I poked at the dead spider, just reassuring myself that it was indeed dead. I shuddered and stepped around the web, making a mental note to clear away the cobwebs downstairs as one of my first chores. I’d only gone a step or two when I stumbled on a rhinoceros beetle that was struggling on its back. It angrily flailed it
Read more

Seasons

-
Image
 Note: I wrote this back in August and forgot to publish it, but it was too good not to share. So, you guys get two blog posts this week. :) Ukarumpa with a lovely double rainbow over it  The smell of freshly roasting coffee and rain glide through my window into my office. The weather is turning cooler and more foggy but the rain has slacked off as we creep into the dry season. And so we make another determined march through the seasons, ticking off the months in their turn. In the northern hemisphere Summer is tantalizingly close. Schools are finishing up their year and kids are counting down the days until break and endless hours without homework or classes. Right now some friends and I are studying the way God’s story starts in Genesis and wraps through the whole Bible, weaving in and out of what feel like unrelated stories and poetry and pronouncements of doom should the people not repent. But as we look for the common thread of God’s story I can see God’s rhythms of creation and g
Read more