I love this illustration...and I think it is a powerful descriptor of the lives of many Christians. Friends, I don't want a "safe" life. I don't want to live my life straddling the beam, performing the easiest and most comfortable routine.
In a little over a year, Lord willing, I will graduate from nursing school. I don't know where I will go or what I will do. I DO know that God will carry me where He wants me to go, and it's not going to be someplace safe. I'm not speaking in terms of physical safety, although He very well could place me in an area of "danger." I'm talking about the life many people, including Christians, fall into and can't seem to escape: A life of complacency, the "perfect" life with a white picket fence and 1.5 children. I don't want that life. I want the crazy life, the life lived in complete and radical obedience to the God of the universe. I want the life that does not settle for less, or for the "more" that the world offers. I want the life that lives simply to love extravagantly.
I stand before you with arms wide open...ready to go WHEREVER the Lord wants me to go. That could be a hospital job in suburbia, a job that would allow me to support other ministries in huge way, or to maybe get involved with something like foster care. That could be to the African bush, nursing wounds and loving orphans. That could be a job advocating for HIV+ children, or doing home visits to at-risk families. And I do believe that any work CAN BE ministry...God very well could place me on the post-surgical unit of a hospital, and I pray I would serve Him just as well there as I would if He called me to China. The point is, I don't know where God will call me, but I want to be willing and ready for ANYTHING. Am I scared? Absolutely. But I serve a faithful God, the same God who transformed ordinary men like Moses and Saul into Sea-parters and Heart-fishers...the same God who longs to do a similar transformation in you and me. Am I excited? More than anything. Because I know what God can do with a willing heart and open hands.
I have 2 requests:
1) Please pray for me. More than anything, I want to go where God leads me. He has been so faithful to lead me up until this point in my life, and I am confident He will continue to do so. Pray that He would give me strength to finish what He and I have started together, here in nursing school. Pray that I have the ears to hear "the voice behind me saying, 'This is the way; walk in it'" (Isaiah 30:21). I should insert here that there are some major obstacles God would have to overcome, should He call me into full-time ministry IMMEDIATELY. However, no obstacle is too great for Him! So please also be praying that He would take care of those details if He would like me in a place of full-time ministry.
2) Please keep an eye and an ear out for me. What do I mean by that? Well, I am really trying to search out and explore many, many different options. I have been keeping a growing list of ministries and job ideas to check out. You may think I am jumping the gun on this a little bit, and maybe I am. I just really, really do not want to miss what God has for me. So please let me know at bloomingloudly@gmail.com if you hear of ministry opportunities for nurses, or something of the like.
Friends, I want to leave you with a scripture passage I read the other day. I love that God's people just picked up and moved WHENEVER God moved! I want to live that way...with a heart so entwined to God's that I KNOW when He is moving and when He is staying.
From Numbers 9:
17 Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. 18 At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19 When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the LORD’s order and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the LORD’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. 21 Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. 22 Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. 23 At the LORD’s command they encamped, and at the LORD’s command they set out. They obeyed the LORD’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses. (NIV)
I don't want to "get in a groove," where I love my life so much that I am unwilling to make a change if God should ask me to. I want to be ready--"whether by day or by night"--to move, to make a change, should God lead me to do so. What about you? Have you gotten too comfortable in your own daily living to be able to hear God's voice leading you in a new direction? I pray that you join me in truly seeking out His heart! I would hate for any of us to "ta-da!" before the Judge after spending an entire lifetime straddling the beam.
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