I am sitting in the Vancouver airport at 6:16am waiting to board my flight. I am 4 hours away from seeing my beautiful wife Amy and my two girls Emma and Abby. This is the second time that I have written this and both times I have been overcome with emotion and tears. It has been a very long summer without them, almost 5 weeks and in just a few hours it will be over.
The reason that we were apart was that we were helping to start the YWAM Mission Adventures program in Costa Rica and Amy had to leave half way through the summer. Amy’s brother was having a wedding reception in Saskatchewan and so Amy and the girls went back for it while I stayed in Costa Rica to see the program through. The result is that now we have a Mission Adventurers program running in Heredia, Costa Rica and hopefully in the next year we will see, for the first time Costa Rican students going through the program and being sent out to do Missions locally and abroad.
It is not often that I feel we make hard sacrifices for Jesus, but I feel that this was definitely one of them, not just for me, but also for my whole family. I pray that God never asks this of us as a family again, but regardless of how hard it was if He asked we would do it. Not to put this whole thing on God, we did schedule the summer knowing it would be long, but we do feel that it was the right thing for Amy to be home and for me to stay.
I wonder as followers of Jesus if we have or are willing to make the sacrifices for Christ that He has asked, or may ask of us. For me at least I feel that my walk with Jesus is just natural, it is who I am. It is not really hard, nor is there many sacrifices to make. Is that OK? Am I to comfy in my walk with Christ? Is there room for discomfort or will I just bitch and moan if it gets hard or uncomfortable in any way. Do we feel that if things do get hard in life that it is not Jesus, but the Devils doing? God would never ask me to do anything hard, or that would cause me pain.
I don’t believe this is right. I believe that God does and will ask us to do the hard things. I believe there has to be sacrifice in my walk with Him, it needs to stretch me and it needs to hurt. Jesus life was full of hardship and sacrifice, why should mine be any different? I just ask for strength and courage when the difficult times come.
4 comments:
I have been praying and thinking of you and your family a lot lately. I recognize your sacrifice, sometimes it doesn't seem right. I guess picking up a cross and following Jesus is pretty difficult. It also makes me wonder if I make my life too easy sometimes.
Wow Phil, thanks for that reminder. I can't relate to the family/kids aspect, but this weekend saying goodbye to some friends and their kids who were moving out of town, and more friends leaving town in the next little while has been hard and will continue to be hard. I will try to stop questioning why? to God and instead say, "why not?" to me.
Your family is beautiful Phil. I can't believe you would leave them behind for so long.
Do you think Abby and Emma will recognize you?
Stephen
This was good...I've been away 3 weeks this year and not in a row. This last one I was so done. Glad to know you're back together and you can rest and enjoy one another again. I'm home too and I'm not going anywhere for awhile.
On the "suffering" aspect I'm in the middle of reading "Not For Sale" by David Batstone about global slavery. It's a BIG wake up call to me to end my sleepiness. I know you write and are passionate about justice. We may be called to suffer a little to ease the suffering of those who suffer beyond what we can comprehend. I don't know much and cannot offer much but at least know I share your questions. : )
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