Life as a pastor/church planter has incredible highs and lows, and I am beginning to think that a strong sense of oneself should be required for such a task. For example you get so excited about the peoples lives that are transforming and then they move; or you are stoked about how someone is seeking God in the person of Jesus and then they leave to try another religion. This is not a self pity blog post, in fact when i took the clifton strength finder last May one of my top five strengths was Self Assurance. Self Assurance is the ability to pick yourself up after many discouragements and keep going forward. However I don’t think it’s me that is so self assured, I think it’s my God in His mission. Let me explain… Today I had a great chat with Lacey, who is coming to join us for a year at the open house as a resident missionary. She is really excited with what God is doing in her life and how she can learn and play a significant role in the church and I am always pumped up after convo’s like that. Then right after the call, I find out that one of the people who has been checking us out is going to try out another couple religions in order to find the one that best fits with their worldview. Wow what an up and down moment of my day. One minute excited about someone who is willing to invest their life in Christ, and then discouraged by someone who thinks that Jesus is not for them. I have to say the hard news is always a struggle, so I decided to open my bible to my next reading (i’m pushing to read the bible in a year so i’m only on Genesis 10-12) and read the following verse:

1 God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. 2-3 I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.” 4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.

Abram was asked to go to a land where he knew no one, and had no idea why other than that he would be blessed and be a blessing to others…and in fact i’m not sure if he even knew God’s voice or who that was that told him to go there (many people were polythestic in those days). But perhaps there was something innate, inside him, inside all of us that leads us in a direction toward God and a purpose that we can’t totally explain…so we just follow. What if God did create each of us with the ability to know His voice, to know when He is calling, and to know how to follow. With so many other voices in this world competing for attention or tempting us to leave the voice we hear from God behind I wonder if one sure sign of maturity is knowing God’s voice and knowing how to follow? When I read my bible today I heard God’s voice crying out, “I want to make My name great and known in Vancouver, I want to use my creation to bring it about, and I will bless you in this world, in your journey if you plan to bless the world with My love, My hope, My justice, through the church that you are starting for My glory.” I will go forward…