Saturday, February 11, 2017

Fifty Five

Today marks 55 days until we leave for Hawaii.

I (We) want to take this time to ask you all for prayer. If you could write us down in your prayer journals, post a little post-it on your prayer walls, or just mentally scribble our names on your brain, we would so appreciate your prayers for the next 55 days. Specifically for finances (insert me singing "Money makes the world go round, the world go round, the world go round), the finances and travel arrangements for the other families enrolled in Family DTS, and for vision.

I could go on and on in a stream-of-consciousness rabbit hole about vision. I realized a few days ago when talking to my very dear friend that for the past 2 years the Lord has been revealing pieces of the puzzle. And I, in my impatience and eagerness and Peter-ness, have taken each piece and tried to run full-speed ahead of God to figure out exactly what it means and what he will have us doing.

If you didn't know, running ahead of God is not a good plan. Attempting to lead God is NOT A GOOD PLAN. There's a reason he wants us to stay behind the pillar of cloud and FOLLOW.

As is always the case, God has used even my need to plan (and scheme and imagine and PUSH) for my own good--- to learn humility, to learn patience, to learn discernment, to learn to control my tongue.

But more than that, I realized TODAY, is that each piece, each direction I wanted to run headlong towards, revealed a little bit more of the heart of the father that I hadn't seen or grasped before.

Social Justice. Homelessness. Reconciliation. Poverty. Racial Justice. Community. Reconciliation. Mercy. Sanctuary. Sabbath. Families. Reconciliation. International Missions. Urban Missions. Downward Mobility. Community Policing. Prison Ministry. Reconciliation. Orphan care. Church restructuring. Teenagers. Radical Hospitality. Reconciliation reconciliation reconciliation...

So over the past 2 years I have been so blessed (I see now) to see all these little pieces, all these BIG issues, that touch God's heart. And as I'm typing this I can see the common thread is RECONCILIATION. But now, in what I am hoping is our final few months of puzzle piece gathering, what we are really praying for and believing God for is clarity in OUR part of this grand vision of reconciliation that is Jesus and disciple making and being the hands and feet of Christ.

So all of that is a LONG way of saying--- please, when you think of us, pray for clarity of vision. My heart is strained in multiple directions each time the Lord opens up a small new peep hole into his heart to show me the places where people are hurting and in need of not just the love of, but the body of, their savior. I know we cannot be everywhere at once, and I do believe the time is coming quickly when we will get those last few pieces that make us say "Aha! That is the picture! That is where WE are needed!" I pray that we can recognize it when it comes to us and be content in the waiting and in the receiving.

It seems fitting to share with you on the start of this 55 day countdown a chapter from that life-transforming, brain-scrambling, priority-shifting, upside-down Kingdom building book we call the Bible. I hope it speaks to you the way it has spoken to me the past few weeks.

With love from all the crazy tribe,
Beka

Isaiah 55:
"Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good. And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you-- the sure mercies of David.
Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your GOD. And the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you."

Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our GOD, for He will abundantly pardon.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void. But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break for into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."