Hey all!
So I now have a new blog on Peterborough This Week's website (a local Peterborough newspaper)! I will be updating that one from now instead of this one, so check it out at this link: HyndSight in Panama
Please check back there regularly as I will be continually updating you all there so as not to bombard peoples' email inboxes, and also for photo and video content to get the full interactive Panama experience.
God bless you all, and thank you so much for your interest and for your support of what God is doing in and through me and Panama!
-Wes
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
"I will bless you and you will be a blessing..." (Drowning Chipmunks Pt. 2)
I would be lying if I told you that this summer has been easy. I would also be lying if I tried to convince you that I have at all times had a perfectly steadfast, unwavering faith in God's chosen and ordained methods for providing the $38,000 in financial support He has tasked me with raising in order to serve Him in Panama this year. That's a lot of money to leave to the last second. In fact, if I had my way, I would have been done and ready to go a month ago! Instead, I find myself at 91% of the way there now, and praying for my teammate and I to be ready to leave this week! Sound crazy? Well, humanly speaking, I'm pretty sure it is. But then that's the fun part. :D ..And now you all think I'm the one who's crazy...But seriously, let me explain...
In my last post, I shared a bit about my experiences this summer learning from God to wake up to the "drowning chipmunks" in our lives; the things and/or people He is placing in our paths everywhere we go every waking moment of every day that we so often completely miss because we don't look for them and instead are consumed with ourselves! As I mentioned then, this is something that comes into play hugely in how we see and love other people as God does, but also in how we learn from the experiences God gives to us. And have I ever been learning from this support-raising process!
I will bless you and you will be a blessing...
Yes. Yes You have, God. Yes you have, team. And Yes I will.
God bless you all!
-Wes
In my last post, I shared a bit about my experiences this summer learning from God to wake up to the "drowning chipmunks" in our lives; the things and/or people He is placing in our paths everywhere we go every waking moment of every day that we so often completely miss because we don't look for them and instead are consumed with ourselves! As I mentioned then, this is something that comes into play hugely in how we see and love other people as God does, but also in how we learn from the experiences God gives to us. And have I ever been learning from this support-raising process!
You think you know, or at least can guess, how it's all going to play out. Those who don't have much will give what they can, but it won't be much. Those who have more will give more. And the vast majority of your biggest supporters and your monthly supporters are going to probably be all the members of your home Church and family...
When am I ever going to learn?
There are two very loosely defined categories of people who have unexpectedly teamed up to comprise a great deal of my support this summer (with of course numerous exceptions). The first are those who do not have much but have given unexpectedly sacrificially. The second are those who I did not know existed four months ago. Literally. Enter God of Wonders, stage left.
"I will bless you...and so you shall be a blessing..." I wonder if Abraham could ever have imagined the full implications of these words the first time he heard them from God. I'm guessing he probably wasn't totally aware that God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ would enter into His lineage thousands of years later to sacrifice Himself in our place, thereby redeeming all those of humankind willing to accept His grace, and starting an explosive movement that would take salvation through Christ to the ends of the earth for thousands of years to come! (Sidenote: It's interesting that by sending Jesus to the cross God put Himself in very much the same place that He once put Abraham when he asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac). But these words were not just meant for Abraham alone. They were meant for us too. And I believe they have both a spiritual and a physical meaning; one of the drowning chipmunks that God has opened my eyes to see and learn this summer.
Anyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord of their life has been spiritually blessed beyond any other conceivable blessing! And we have been blessed so that we can bless others--we have been saved so that we can allow God to save others through us by sharing the joy of Christ's forgiveness and salvation with them! Physically speaking, we are also to bless others as we have been blessed, opening our homes to those less fortunate, serving as selflessly as Christ served, and giving of our finances to both those in need and those doing God's work. That's why we have been blessed in the first place--not merely to feed our own comfort and worldly stimulation, but so that we can in turn be a blessing to others! (Sidenote: 5% of the world's population possesses 90% of the world's wealth--chances are if you're reading this, you're part of that top 5%. As a result, it's extremely doubtful that God wants those 5% to just keep their money and use it for themselves; in fact it seems that God's plan to bless us and for us to in turn be a blessing extends so far that His worldwide distribution of goods and funds forces us to have to do something for those without).
"I don't know where the money's going to come from, but..." I have been blown away by the faith of those who are far from rich but have given so sacrificially this summer in their support of the Lord's work through me and Panama! These are people who recognize that they have been blessed so that they can in turn be a blessing. These are people who have embodied God's design for His people to trust Him to provide for them as He uses them to provide for others. These are people who remind me so much of Jesus' words to His disciples when He saw a poor widow put two small copper coins into the temple treasury: "I tell you the truth; this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on" (Luke 21:1-4). What amazing faith! To hear people say that they are stepping out in faith for God to provide their funds as they support me in my leap of faith for God to provide my funds brings me a sense of being a part of a team, not just a bunch of individual supporters. We are all working together on this; we are all reaching these students in Panama and around the world together. These are people who encourage me to remember that I am also going out to be a blessing to the people I am going to serve in Panama as I am being blessed by those who are supporting the Lord's work through me here in Canada."I can't outgive God, so..." I have been just as amazed by the generousity and willingness to give of those who had never met me before this summer and those who I hardly knew! Some of my biggest supporters and some of the people I almost did not call fall into this category! If you took away their support, I would be very significantly lower in percentage right now. These are people who also recognize that they have been blessed so that they can in turn be a blessing. These are people who, far from keeping to themselves, have also stepped out in faith, trusting that the resources God has blessed them with are being put to Divinely powerful use in supporting somebody they hardly know with a ministry they may not have been previously familiar with. These are people who embody to me Paul's words to the Christians in Corinth: "You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God...Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you." (2 Corinthians 9:11,13-14). I don't know why these people have chosen me to bless so abundantly, but I am so incredibly grateful that they have, and their generousity has resulted in joyous prayers of thanksgiving and praise to God on my behalf! These are people who also remind me that I am not alone in this, that God is literally raising people up to be a part of this team who I have never met before, and that I can be sure of my calling to Panama because of His miraculous and generous provision through the body of Christ as a whole, not just those who know and like me already. These are people who are giving to the vision, to the Great Commission, and most importantly to God, not just to me.
I do think it's important to note that there are several exceptions to both of these categories because I have many incredibly faithful and encouraging supporters from my home Church, my family, and a variety of other places who do not necessarily fit into either one of them. But I have been absolutely blown away by through who and how God has chosen to provide this summer. And this is one of the "drowning chipmunks" or lessons God has been trying to show me that I could have completely missed had I not been looking for it. The truth is, I could never have guessed who my team would consist of this year. I am guilty both of judging and therefore almost not calling some of my most faithful and generous supporters, as well as assuming the support of others who were not necessarily that interested in this particular arm of God's work at all! The point, I have come to realize, is not who gave and who did not. It has nothing to do with finding "the right people." It's all about Him. Once again, God has thundered that "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways...As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). The team He is raising up to be a part of His work in Panama this year looks nothing at all like what I had expected it to. But I also feel incredibly more blessed, encouraged, and in awe of the team that I now have than I ever could have expected to. And I have learned that it doesn't matter, ultimately, who they are. Because every single dollar and cent that I have seen this summer has ultimately come from God. Not from men and women. Not from rich and poor. But from God. These are His resources. This is His money. If He wanted to provide it all in May, He could have. If He wanted to provide it through one person, or through 10 million people, He could. His storehouses are unlimited. His treasuries are endless. And it doesn't matter if somebody I thought would give didn't because God's the one giving the whole amount, just in different ways and at different times. This is the God who turned five loaves and two fish into enough for 5,000 men (plus families?) and still had plenty left over. This is the God who provided a way for me to share the Gospel with my whole journalism graduating class the morning after I specifically prayed for that exact opportunity. This is the God who has provided nearly $35,000 for me this summer (not including my pre-Panama personal expenses), and thousands more for my teammate! This is the God I worship. This is the God I serve. This is my God.I will bless you and you will be a blessing...
Yes. Yes You have, God. Yes you have, team. And Yes I will.
God bless you all!
-Wes
*****Please see the sidebar on the right (near the top of the page) for information on how to support me financially*****
http://wesinpanama.blogspot.com/
http://wesinpanama.blogspot.com/
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Don't Miss the Drowning Chipmunks In Your Life!
A few weeks ago, as I was sitting outside in our backyard by the pool thinking and praying, I suddenly became consciously aware of a small gasping, almost coughing sound coming from somewhere nearby. I realized I had been hearing the sound for a while now, but because I was so focused on whatever I was thinking about, I hadn't really been processing it. So I looked up. And what I saw was a chipmunk drowning in our swimming pool, desperately pedaling its legs, struggling to keep its head above water. I immediately jumped out of my chair and ran to grab the pool net from the other side of our yard to rescue the chipmunk from his (or her) watery grave! As I pushed the net underneath the chipmunk's flailing legs, it gripped on for dear life, recognizing this was its only means of escape. I gently placed it down on the lawn, where it lay shivering for a few moments until it was able to regain enough strength to move again.
This dramatic rescue, and how close I was to letting this creature die without even noticing it, caused me to reflect on how often we unknowingly overlook the opportunities that God gives us and the lessons that He's trying to teach us every day while we go around our daily lives focusing on ourselves. After all, this chipmunk was literally 10 feet away from where I was sitting, gasping for air, flailing about in the water, and I heard its cries for help for who knows how long without actually paying enough attention to realize it! How often do we similarly struggle through the valleys or climb over the mountaintops of our lives, or even just walk down the street, while completely missing the point of it all because we're so focused on our worries and our comfort and ourselves all of the time? How often is God trying to show us or teach us something that's literally right in front of us, but we fail to pay enough attention to realize it?! As Christian author Gary Thomas writes in his book The Beautiful Fight (apparently now named Holy Available),
This dramatic rescue, and how close I was to letting this creature die without even noticing it, caused me to reflect on how often we unknowingly overlook the opportunities that God gives us and the lessons that He's trying to teach us every day while we go around our daily lives focusing on ourselves. After all, this chipmunk was literally 10 feet away from where I was sitting, gasping for air, flailing about in the water, and I heard its cries for help for who knows how long without actually paying enough attention to realize it! How often do we similarly struggle through the valleys or climb over the mountaintops of our lives, or even just walk down the street, while completely missing the point of it all because we're so focused on our worries and our comfort and ourselves all of the time? How often is God trying to show us or teach us something that's literally right in front of us, but we fail to pay enough attention to realize it?! As Christian author Gary Thomas writes in his book The Beautiful Fight (apparently now named Holy Available),
"Sometimes, in answer to prayer, God does change our situation. He heals us, restores us, provides for us, and protects us. But just as often, instead of changing our situation, He chooses to change our perception: "You're looking at this entirely the wrong way." Have you ever offered your eyes to God? Have you ever asked Him to pour His wisdom into your perception, His perspective into each gaze? Have you ever stepped back and prayed, "God, how does this look to You?" If you do, you'll never look at others the same way again...God wants to transform my eyes from being selfish possessors and consumers to being His servants of selfless love." You'd be surprised how much of Scripture deals with how we use (or misuse) our eyes! This comes into play in what we learn from the experiences we go through in our lives as well as in how we see and love others like God does!
Not long after the chipmunk airlift and reading this passage, I was walking downtown on my way to deliver a card to somebody when I came across a man asking for money on the sidewalk. Typically in such a situation, I would give the man some change, possibly a booklet explaining the Gospel, and then be on my way. This time, I had the desire (see last blog post) to see and treat this man as Jesus would (Show me the Bible passage where Jesus gives money to a beggar and then keeps walking to wherever He was going). I told him I didn't have any money on me, but I would come back with some. On my way back, I stopped and sat down with the man and asked him his story. He shared a bit of his experiences, how he'd ended up in Peterborough, etc. Then I shared a bit of my story with him, about how my relationship with God through Jesus Christ is what brings me hope every day, and he shared some of his past experiences in the Church and his understanding of the Gospel with me. It was probably only a 10 minute conversation all in all, but it meant something. We exchanged names and stories, not just a few quarters, and I was able to really show the love of God to this man as well as share the love of God with this man, although I'm sure I could have done more still.
This man could have been just another "dead chipmunk" that I passed by or overlooked in my life while I carried on focusing on my own selfish interests. But God opened my eyes on this particular occasion and gave me the grace to stop and notice what (or who) He had perfectly orchestrated to be in my path that day. As I preached at Edmison Heights Baptist Church last Sunday, there is no Plan B with God. Everything that happens in our lives is God's Plan A. There are no coincidences. There are no accidents. There is only God. Will we notice what He wants us to notice? Will we reach out to those He has placed in our paths? Let's stop missing the drowning chipmunks in our lives!
I have more to share, but I'm realizing it may be better broken into two blog posts than one.
God bless you all!
-Wes
*****Please see the sidebar on the right (near the top of the page) for information on how to support me financially*****
Monday, July 13, 2009
Our Goal is not to Live a Desire-less Life...It's to Live a Desire-FILLED Life!
Yesterday, I had the awesome opportunity to preach at my home Church (Murray Street Baptist in Peterborough) about living a life directed and empowered, in other words filled, with God's Holy Spirit. This meant that all of last week, when I wasn't calling people, sending emails, or meeting with people about possibly joining my Panama support team, I was immersing myself in reading, studying, praying, and writing about living a Spirit-filled life...And man, what a week!
It was actually kind of unreal. I mean, it's not like I didn't intellectually know what the basics of living the Spirit-filled life were already...I've heard that talk plenty of times through Campus for Christ weekly meetings, discipleship groups, and the like. But the sharp contrast between my life last week and the several weeks leading up to it came as kind of a wake-up call to the fact that I'd only really been living a Spirit-indwelt, not filled, life prior to this. And what started it all was my day last Sunday. I basically spent almost the entire day reveling in the teaching of God's Word through books and sermons, and one book and one sermon in particular struck me so much that they changed my entire week, if not my life.
The book was The Beautiful Fight by Christian author Gary Thomas. The sermon was Faith in your New Birth by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle (http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/faith-in-your-new-birth), taken from 2 Peter 1:1-4. Driscoll's sermon is about two major foundational doctrines of the Christian faith: Justification and Regeneration. Nothing new. Justification is the doctrine that we are perfectly justified before God if we have faith in Christ because of the amazing sacrifice that He made for us. Regeneration is the amazing doctrine that those who believe in Christ have God's Spirit come to live inside of them and enable them to become partakers of the divine nature, as Peter puts it. In other words, God in all of His power resides in us and makes that power available to us to be radically changed people and live radically changed lives!
But what gripped me about what Driscoll said in the second half of his sermon was essentially this: We are not to live a desire-less life. So often in Christian circles, desires are looked down upon. We think of desire as an evil thing. All desires are bad. We should suppress our desires. But that's not true! We are to live a desire-filled life! Paul writes that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not carry out the desire of the flesh, "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law" (Galatians 5:16-18). The key to living a Spirit-filled life is not trying to suppress all of your desires! How often does that actually work? That's our own strength! And we will fail if we try to live in our own strength! The key is having the RIGHT desires! The key is actually to desire the desires of the Spirit more than we desire the desires of the flesh. And we need to remember exactly the magnitude of what it is Christ has done for us, that He died in our place so that we wouldn't have to, that He suffered all of our guilt and all of our shame and all of our punishment just so that we could be forgiven! So that we could be, and we are, completely free if we have Christ! And we need to let the joy and sheer gratitude that comes from that remembrance fuel our desires! The right desires!
As Gary Thomas records in The Beautiful Fight, when Sir Francis of Assisi first encountered the living Christ, he heard God telling him "Francis, all those things that you have loved in the flesh you must now despise, and from those things that you formerly loathed you will drink great sweetness and immeasurable delight." Wow! That's powerful! I love that! From those things that you formerly loathed you will drink great sweetness and immeasurable delight! When we give in to those kinds of desires, that's when God's power and the desires of the Spirit not only exist inside of us, but take us over! They fill us! And that's exactly what I've been experiencing for the last 8 days and counting! Unspeakable joy in giving into to the desires of God's Spirit! :) Do you know what Sir Francis of Assisi did immediately after hearing this message from God? He saw a leper on the side of the road while he was riding, one of the things he most despised before in his life, but instead of passing him by, he stopped, gave him money, and then kissed his hand. He kissed his leprous hand! But Francis didn't stop there. He then proceeded to ride straight to a leper colony, apologized profusely for how he had previously treated them, gave them money, and would not leave until he had kissed each and every single one of them on their leprous lips! That is drinking great sweetness and immeasurable delight from the desires of the Spirit, the things (or people) we once despised!
Surrendering our will to God's, I think, can be something we ironically try to do in our own strength sometimes. But I don't think sharing the Spirit-filled life with other Christians will ever be quite the same for me. It's no longer just an intellectual truth from God's Word that I'm showing people. It's not even a once in a while experience that eventually fades anymore. It's something I want with all of my heart for everyone to experience on a level with what I've experienced this past week. I spent time in God's Word and in prayer every day last week--not because I had to or felt like it was my duty, but because I want to. Revolutionary, I know. I spent time reading Godly books every day last week--because I want to! I wasn't afraid to make phone calls to potential supporters last week, nor did I hate doing it (and subsequently made triple as many as usual). In fact, I even wanted to once I got into it! I shared my faith with my hairdresser last week. Why? Because I wanted her to know the Gospel and I wanted to share it with her. I finished writing my sermon by Friday night and subsequently had all of Saturday to prepare and practice it (which is a groundbreaking record for me). And I loved doing it! And I was filled with unspeakable joy all week long last week! The desires of the Spirit flooded me every moment of every day, and as a result, I experienced not just victory, but joyous victory over sin, over the desires of the flesh. I only pray that I can continue to live every day in that kind of joy and power of God's Spirit for the rest of my life, and that all of you will be able to as well!
Our goal is not to live a desire-less life...it's to live a desire-filled life.
God bless you all!
-Wes
It was actually kind of unreal. I mean, it's not like I didn't intellectually know what the basics of living the Spirit-filled life were already...I've heard that talk plenty of times through Campus for Christ weekly meetings, discipleship groups, and the like. But the sharp contrast between my life last week and the several weeks leading up to it came as kind of a wake-up call to the fact that I'd only really been living a Spirit-indwelt, not filled, life prior to this. And what started it all was my day last Sunday. I basically spent almost the entire day reveling in the teaching of God's Word through books and sermons, and one book and one sermon in particular struck me so much that they changed my entire week, if not my life.
The book was The Beautiful Fight by Christian author Gary Thomas. The sermon was Faith in your New Birth by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle (http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/faith-in-your-new-birth), taken from 2 Peter 1:1-4. Driscoll's sermon is about two major foundational doctrines of the Christian faith: Justification and Regeneration. Nothing new. Justification is the doctrine that we are perfectly justified before God if we have faith in Christ because of the amazing sacrifice that He made for us. Regeneration is the amazing doctrine that those who believe in Christ have God's Spirit come to live inside of them and enable them to become partakers of the divine nature, as Peter puts it. In other words, God in all of His power resides in us and makes that power available to us to be radically changed people and live radically changed lives!
But what gripped me about what Driscoll said in the second half of his sermon was essentially this: We are not to live a desire-less life. So often in Christian circles, desires are looked down upon. We think of desire as an evil thing. All desires are bad. We should suppress our desires. But that's not true! We are to live a desire-filled life! Paul writes that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not carry out the desire of the flesh, "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law" (Galatians 5:16-18). The key to living a Spirit-filled life is not trying to suppress all of your desires! How often does that actually work? That's our own strength! And we will fail if we try to live in our own strength! The key is having the RIGHT desires! The key is actually to desire the desires of the Spirit more than we desire the desires of the flesh. And we need to remember exactly the magnitude of what it is Christ has done for us, that He died in our place so that we wouldn't have to, that He suffered all of our guilt and all of our shame and all of our punishment just so that we could be forgiven! So that we could be, and we are, completely free if we have Christ! And we need to let the joy and sheer gratitude that comes from that remembrance fuel our desires! The right desires!
As Gary Thomas records in The Beautiful Fight, when Sir Francis of Assisi first encountered the living Christ, he heard God telling him "Francis, all those things that you have loved in the flesh you must now despise, and from those things that you formerly loathed you will drink great sweetness and immeasurable delight." Wow! That's powerful! I love that! From those things that you formerly loathed you will drink great sweetness and immeasurable delight! When we give in to those kinds of desires, that's when God's power and the desires of the Spirit not only exist inside of us, but take us over! They fill us! And that's exactly what I've been experiencing for the last 8 days and counting! Unspeakable joy in giving into to the desires of God's Spirit! :) Do you know what Sir Francis of Assisi did immediately after hearing this message from God? He saw a leper on the side of the road while he was riding, one of the things he most despised before in his life, but instead of passing him by, he stopped, gave him money, and then kissed his hand. He kissed his leprous hand! But Francis didn't stop there. He then proceeded to ride straight to a leper colony, apologized profusely for how he had previously treated them, gave them money, and would not leave until he had kissed each and every single one of them on their leprous lips! That is drinking great sweetness and immeasurable delight from the desires of the Spirit, the things (or people) we once despised!
Surrendering our will to God's, I think, can be something we ironically try to do in our own strength sometimes. But I don't think sharing the Spirit-filled life with other Christians will ever be quite the same for me. It's no longer just an intellectual truth from God's Word that I'm showing people. It's not even a once in a while experience that eventually fades anymore. It's something I want with all of my heart for everyone to experience on a level with what I've experienced this past week. I spent time in God's Word and in prayer every day last week--not because I had to or felt like it was my duty, but because I want to. Revolutionary, I know. I spent time reading Godly books every day last week--because I want to! I wasn't afraid to make phone calls to potential supporters last week, nor did I hate doing it (and subsequently made triple as many as usual). In fact, I even wanted to once I got into it! I shared my faith with my hairdresser last week. Why? Because I wanted her to know the Gospel and I wanted to share it with her. I finished writing my sermon by Friday night and subsequently had all of Saturday to prepare and practice it (which is a groundbreaking record for me). And I loved doing it! And I was filled with unspeakable joy all week long last week! The desires of the Spirit flooded me every moment of every day, and as a result, I experienced not just victory, but joyous victory over sin, over the desires of the flesh. I only pray that I can continue to live every day in that kind of joy and power of God's Spirit for the rest of my life, and that all of you will be able to as well!
Our goal is not to live a desire-less life...it's to live a desire-filled life.
God bless you all!
-Wes
*****Please see the sidebar on the right (near the top of the page) for information on how to support me financially*****
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The End of a God-inspired Vision is God...
"God's vision for you and me is maturity. Spiritual maturity is measured by how readily we respond to the person of God rather than the promises of God. It involves coming to the place where who is asking is more important than what we are being asked to do. Your vision is an avenue God will more than likely use to bring you to that place...The end of a God-inspired vision is God."
It has now been nearly two months since I began to build my team of financial and prayerful ministry partners in order to go and serve God for a term of 11 months in Panama in August. And it has not been nearly as simple of a task as I think I was originally envisioning it to be. In fact, truth be told, it has been very trying for me. I think I thought that my lifetime involvement with my home Church in Peterborough, my Christian family, and my involvement with Campus for Christ over the last four years would combine to make the fundraising fairly painless. At the same time though, in the back of my mind I knew that it was for that very reason that God wouldn't allow it to be quite that simple. And it hasn't been. I have struggled with making phone calls to potential supporters, balancing another part-time job, realizing my priorities were in the wrong order way too late and having to make significant changes, not being allowed to actually meet in person with many potential supporters, being rejected by potential supporters, and in at least one case, actually feeling insulted and appalled by potential supporters.
That's not to say that there haven't been any encouragements at all. In fact, most of the people who have allowed me to get together with them in person have been hugely encouraging, even if they were not able to give as much as they would have liked to! And there has been a great deal of growth in my financial support over the last couple of weeks, especially! But still, being more than halfway to the ideal date for reaching 100% (Aug. 1st) and having reached 21.8% of the total financial goal so far, there's a long way to go, and not as many people left in my current network to contact as I would like.
However, I was recently brought back down to earth, or maybe more appropriately lifted above it, by a book I've been reading called Visioneering by Andy Stanley (highly recommend!). He discusses toward the end of the book the reality that the end of every God-inspired vision is God Himself! In essence, God desires to call attention to the fact that all of the impossible tasks we face in our lives can only be accomplished with His help! That's why He so rarely allows things to happen easily and quickly. He uses the impossibility of our visions and our circumstances to show us that it's all about Him, and to bring us to a place of authentic worship and complete surrender!
"If you are pursuing a vision God has birthed in your heart, there will be moments along the way when you will find yourself standing in awe of what He has done on your behalf. In those moments your attention will be drawn away from the work of your hands to the faithfulness of your Heavenly Father."
What this means is that we shouldn't be motivated by whether we think the task before us is assailable or even by the promise of God's faithfulness, but by who God is Himself. After all, God's character is the reason we can trust in His promises in the first place.
I cannot even count the number of times and the variety of incredible ways that God has shown up in my life in indescribable and awesome displays of His power and presence! From Divine appointments with non-believers to erasing certain thunderstorms so the Jesus film can be shown outdoors in a Panamanian village to striking down thousands of small flies amidst a spiritual attack to providing a way to share the Gospel with my entire journalism graduating class. Unfortunately, we tend to forget about these things all too quickly, which just goes to show how important writing them down in a journal can be (as Stanley urges us to do)! The point is that in every single one of those situations, the odds of arriving at these outcomes seemed impossible, or actually were, and yet God came through on every single one. Why? Because they were visions from Himself--they were of His will and for His glory. God has called me to Panama. Why shouldn't I believe He'll come through on this one? God has called you. Why shouldn't you believe He'll come through with yours?
God bless you all!
-Wes
It has now been nearly two months since I began to build my team of financial and prayerful ministry partners in order to go and serve God for a term of 11 months in Panama in August. And it has not been nearly as simple of a task as I think I was originally envisioning it to be. In fact, truth be told, it has been very trying for me. I think I thought that my lifetime involvement with my home Church in Peterborough, my Christian family, and my involvement with Campus for Christ over the last four years would combine to make the fundraising fairly painless. At the same time though, in the back of my mind I knew that it was for that very reason that God wouldn't allow it to be quite that simple. And it hasn't been. I have struggled with making phone calls to potential supporters, balancing another part-time job, realizing my priorities were in the wrong order way too late and having to make significant changes, not being allowed to actually meet in person with many potential supporters, being rejected by potential supporters, and in at least one case, actually feeling insulted and appalled by potential supporters.
That's not to say that there haven't been any encouragements at all. In fact, most of the people who have allowed me to get together with them in person have been hugely encouraging, even if they were not able to give as much as they would have liked to! And there has been a great deal of growth in my financial support over the last couple of weeks, especially! But still, being more than halfway to the ideal date for reaching 100% (Aug. 1st) and having reached 21.8% of the total financial goal so far, there's a long way to go, and not as many people left in my current network to contact as I would like.
However, I was recently brought back down to earth, or maybe more appropriately lifted above it, by a book I've been reading called Visioneering by Andy Stanley (highly recommend!). He discusses toward the end of the book the reality that the end of every God-inspired vision is God Himself! In essence, God desires to call attention to the fact that all of the impossible tasks we face in our lives can only be accomplished with His help! That's why He so rarely allows things to happen easily and quickly. He uses the impossibility of our visions and our circumstances to show us that it's all about Him, and to bring us to a place of authentic worship and complete surrender!
"If you are pursuing a vision God has birthed in your heart, there will be moments along the way when you will find yourself standing in awe of what He has done on your behalf. In those moments your attention will be drawn away from the work of your hands to the faithfulness of your Heavenly Father."
What this means is that we shouldn't be motivated by whether we think the task before us is assailable or even by the promise of God's faithfulness, but by who God is Himself. After all, God's character is the reason we can trust in His promises in the first place.
I cannot even count the number of times and the variety of incredible ways that God has shown up in my life in indescribable and awesome displays of His power and presence! From Divine appointments with non-believers to erasing certain thunderstorms so the Jesus film can be shown outdoors in a Panamanian village to striking down thousands of small flies amidst a spiritual attack to providing a way to share the Gospel with my entire journalism graduating class. Unfortunately, we tend to forget about these things all too quickly, which just goes to show how important writing them down in a journal can be (as Stanley urges us to do)! The point is that in every single one of those situations, the odds of arriving at these outcomes seemed impossible, or actually were, and yet God came through on every single one. Why? Because they were visions from Himself--they were of His will and for His glory. God has called me to Panama. Why shouldn't I believe He'll come through on this one? God has called you. Why shouldn't you believe He'll come through with yours?
God bless you all!
-Wes
*****Please see the sidebar on the right (near the top of the page) for information on how to support me financially*****
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