Resurrection

It has been a couple of years since my last post so I thought I would resurrect my blog. I'm unsure why but over the last couple of years, I have written/journaled significant moments in my life - I seem driven to the written word - to documenting life's lessons. Just as unclear to me is why I haven't posted them or why I am chosing to begin again at this particular moment.

I won't psychoanalyze this moment too deeply but will simply "blog on". I don't think it's as important whether anyone actually reads this as it is for me to go through the process of processing. I find this is best done through writing.

Perhaps the resurrection of my blogging interest has to do as well with standing once again on the cusp of a mission trip (certainly that was the catalyst for the creation of this blog). Marguerite and I with our two youngest kids are going to the Tijuana area to do a one week mission trip at an orphanage with an organization called Jugo ministries. For me, mission trips seem to be one of the crucibles that God uses to refine me. Mission trips tend to burn away some of the "stuff" of life and help me to look beyond the immediate to see the important.

In this particular instance, because we have inundated with multiple news reports of the dangers of going to border towns in Mexico, it has caused me to question the wisdom of such a trip. The values of service, caring for orphans, going where God calls are all stacked head-to-head against the value of personal safety and protection of the ones that are in my care.

The fundamental issue for me could perhaps be framed in the question "is God really calling me to this mission?" Because if the answer to that question is "yes" then we truly have nothing to fear. God is in control and is a loving God who will not allow anything to come my way except that it will work together for good for me! The ultimate goal being the conforming of myself more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus.

The reality is that there is nowhere that is completely safe (even my home in Langley). While we do not go seeking dangerous situations, we do step boldly into areas where God leads trusting that we are in his loving hands. The reality is that we are completely victorious as Christians. Nothing can separate us from his love - "neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation". Even the worst-case scenario (imagine random bullets, injury or death - believe me I have!) is not a defeat. Even in death we win! As Paul states, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Death no longer has any sting - it is "swallowed up in victory".

This is the fundamental reality that we move forward in. He is sovereign. He loves me (Jesus loves me this I know). He takes care of me.