The Process
Two words that have embedded themselves in my vocabulary, but a single concept that, ironically, has taken time for me to grasp.
It’s been a process to accept the process.
I reflect on the Process that God has taken me through in different stages of my life. I remember the process of learning to play percussion as a 5th grader. I was bursting with energy and excitement at the start. But when I realized that I was not innately gifted with the talent to be a rock star, my passion for practicing waned. Needless to say, I did not necessary embrace the process of learning my instrument.
Now I think of the process that has gotten me to this point in my life: preparation for cross-cultural ministry. I’ve been conscious of this process for about five years now, but I look back there have been hallmarks of it all along my life—watching my parents volunteer at church as a child, going to Appalachia in middle school to build a church, loving history all through out school, going to South Africa in high school—the full list includes many more instances besides these. But as I’ve reflected with the Lord, it’s obvious how these are all a part of the process.
Aspects of this process are easy to embrace—the call of adventure, the opportunity to learn be fluent in another language, new and exciting foods to try, etc.
Other aspects of these are not so easy to embrace—the fact that I’m going to have to leave my family and the fact that I know I am sacrificing all the creature comforts of home.
But where is God in this process?
He’s been along the whole way. He was there when I was born. He was there in Africa. He was there when I got my acceptance to go to Berlin.
He was even there when I thought it wasn’t! When I didn’t get to go to Africa a second and third time. When that internship didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. When I didn’t get a job after graduating from college.
He was there.
I just had to recognize it.
And ultimately, He is the reason for the process--so HIS love is shared not only to me, but with every individual I meet.
So where am I in this process?
And right now it’s the process of preparation and building a support network! Am I running from it? Am I trying to control it?
Or am I embracing it? Letting God have his way in me, through me, and in the heart of every person I come into contact with.
My prayer that the YES that I gave when I said yes to Jesus, when I dedicated my life to cross-cultural service, when I accepted this opportunity in Berlin—that the same YES will continually be on my lips.
Because I know that as I say YES to the process, I know that God’s love and glory and mercy will triumph. More than anything else, He is WORTHY of every thing I am.
“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:8
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9