Raw Courage

If we continue to follow Christ with more abandon, He will take us on faith walks that come in all shapes and sizes. For us, leaving church staff after 25 years was a leap of faith we would have never dreamed of taking...other people do risky things like that. We are just ordinary people, not super talented, not brave enough to do big things that are very risky. But God called us, and that changed everything. Yesterday I was reading in my devo, and God reminded me again that He started us on this path and He will complete it: "The most dramatic changes in your life will come from God's initiative, not yours. The people God used mightily in Scripture were all ordinary people to whom He gave divine assignments that they never could have initiated. The Lord often took them by surprise, for they were not seeking significant mandates from God." Henry Blackaby So here we are with a clear call - Create and distribute a fun, animated discipleship series for orphans, so that they get His truth connected to the painful issues they face. Long term goal? 52 weeks distributed worldwide. Short term goal? 12 weeks translated into Creole, and distributed to the 723 government recognized orphanages in Haiti. An enormous task (animation is not cheap) but desperately needed and powerfully effective! Truly a divine assignment, a significant mandate from the One who hears their cries, the Father to the fatherless. What's hard about this? Not working with orphans - what a joy! Not writing the curriculum - the experience God has been equipping me for my entire life! What's hard is having to trust God this much to provide - for the animation, the organization and our family. The shape and size of this faith walk is the biggest stretch of our lives...I was really not prepared for how much raw courage it would take to walk this path. The beautiful thing is that God keeps speaking even when funds and feelings are low.

d: Here is how He spoke today in my devo: There are three levels of faith in the Christian experience. The first is being able to believe only when we see some sign or have some strong emotion. Like Gideon, we feel the fleece and are willing to trust if it is wet. This may be genuine faith but it is imperfect. It is continually looking to feelings or some other sign instead of the Word of God. We have taken a great step toward maturity when we trust God without relying on our feelings. It is more of a blessing when we believe without experiencing any emotion. While the first level of faith believes when our emotions are favorable, the second believes when all feelings are absent. And the third level transcends the other two, for it is faith that believes God and His Word when circumstances, emotions, appearances, people and human reason all seem to urge something to the contrary. Paul exercised this level of faith when he said, "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved" (Acts 27:20), then nevertheless went on to say, "keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me" (Acts 27:25). May God grant us faith to completely trust His Word, even when every other sign points the other way. Streams in the Desert Faith Walks require RAW COURAGE. Choicest things must cost. But 6 days of being on the front lines, of seeing abandoned Haitian children sit and watch our Orbie video over and over made our call crystal clear once again. Onward and upward!