I love sharing what God is teaching me and I love hearing what God is teaching others! Ever since I started following Jesus, I’ve been filled with a longing to know more of Him and God’s story of redemption. But following Jesus isn’t just a journey of “knowing” and “seeing”, but also one of “experiencing” and “tasting”. In one of his letters, Paul implores the Romans to not only “live by the Spirit” but to “walk by the Spirit” as well.
Over the past seven months, I have “tasted” and “experienced” so much, which has led to more understanding and a greater love for Jesus, my Father, and the Spirit. Next Wednesday, we leave Uganda and head to Kenya; our time here has flown by! So I wanted to take a moment a catch you up on the things God has taught me while in Masaka. I hope you are encouraged!
I mentioned in my first blog here that God has taught me a lot about entitlement. I have 3-4 pages typed on my computer about the things I have learned! But don’t worry; I will just give a summary. Entitlement robs us of life and joy. Entitlement is deceiving because it makes you believe you are getting everything you “earned” or “deserve” when in reality, you are really limiting the joy, blessing, and love you can give AND receive.
We see the greatest example of love having victory over entitlement in Jesus (Philippians 2:5-11). Everything He was entitled to, He laid down in order to show love and say “yes” to the Father’s mission. Everyday this month, the Spirit has given me opportunities to say “no” to what I think I deserve or feel entitled to and say “yes” to radical, selfless love. Thank you Jesus for your example and Spirit for your power to transform! I am finding more joy in life thanks to Love’s victory over entitlement!
One thing that sets Uganda apart from any other culture I’ve experienced is the spirit of thanksgiving. The people here are continuously thankful…for everything. Before and after every meal with Pastor John and Grace, we pray, talk about, and sing thanksgiving to God! At other churches we have visited this month, they have the same spirit as well! They are continuously thankful to God for His provision, even when it’s less than they need. They are thankful for the land their church is built on, for the individual bricks that make up the building, for the opportunity to go and share about Jesus with the community, and for us, Muzungu (white) brothers and sisters, who have come to visit them. God has really used their spirit of thanksgiving to reveal and displace the entitlement in my own life. You can’t be thankful when you feel you are entitled to something. But when you realize that you deserve nothing, everything is a blessing and God gets glory for it all!
Coming onto the Race, I knew this would be a time to learn more and more about my identity as a daughter of God. So far there have been times when I learned a lot about my identity as well as other times when I don’t feel like I’m learning anything. This month, I read the book, Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship, and God really used that book to really explore my heart and mind and speak much needed truth. As I processed, I typed another 8 pages. so I will just pick my favorite lesson to share. A lot of what I learned came from the example of Jesus’ as a Son and His subjection to the Father’s mission. All throughout His life we see Jesus letting go of His rights and saying, “yes” to His Father’s plan. We see His subjection to His earthly parents and others such as John the Baptist, and we see the order of “identity, wilderness, and inheritance” in His life on Earth.
At times this month, it has been difficult and I’ve really wanted to be home, sometimes questioning why I’m here if my heart is with my friends and family in NC. But then I remember that Jesus “learned obedience through suffering”. I can trust my Father as He leads me and can say, “yes” to His mission, knowing His character and the mind-blowing love He has for me. I remember that before I walk into the wilderness or even begin ministry, my Father FIRST affirms my identity as His daughter and His love for me. And I can endure, looking at the example of Jesus, and knowing “the sufferings of this time cannot be worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed” (Romans 8:17-18). Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book:
These final two have been the most recent lessons and also some of the sweetest. These simple truths have led me into moments of deep rest and peace this past week.
A continuous theme during my Race has been “walking into the unknown”. Whether that is physically or spiritually, I have been to a lot of “new” places while on the Race. For the past seven months, characteristics of God I didn’t even know existed, I have discovered and explored relentlessly. I often compare my physical and spiritual journey with that of the Israelites as they left everything they knew and walked into places of unknown with God. Through the wilderness and into the Promise Land, the Father guided them. This past week as I thought about the “unknown” and once again restated my commitment to God to follow Him in the unknown, a simple truth brought so much comfort: places that are unknown to me are completely known to God. I can be confident and step confidently into these new places because God is already there and He knows it all. He knows what everyday on the Race will hold and is ready to walk with me into those new places! Praise God for the rest and peace that brings!
Finally, my security has been limited to people and places most of my life. I feel the most comfortable and at peace when I am in Raleigh, Charlotte, or at Camp Oak Hill, around the people that know and love me well. While on the Race, I catch myself putting my hope in home; my hope in the life and love that awaits me there. I think, “Once I am home, everything will be okay” or “Once I am home, that will fix everything and I will finally be at peace again”. I was talking to another friend on the Race and he brought up the irony that for many of us, we saw the Race as a solution to our lives with the thought “Once I’m on the Race, I will find what I am looking for”. We are constantly placing our hope in what is to come or the things that have brought us peace before. These thoughts take us back to tagline “The grass is always greener on the other side”.
But Jesus changes that. The gospel says that with Jesus, the grass is greener right where you are, because Jesus is always with you and always enough! So God is not only expanding my security and hope, He is displacing it with something much larger: ultimate hope and security in Him! God has placed eternity in my heart and these man-made hopes and securities will no longer due. With such a larger security and hope, God is preparing His daughter for her inheritance, wherever and whatever that may be!
I hope you enjoyed and were encouraged reading through these lessons from the past month! I can’t wait to sit down with some of you once I am home and go into more detail because there is so much more to each of these! I would love to hear what God is teaching you, so feel free to contact me or comment below!
Much love from Masaka!
