Promise: good grounds for expecting
Or a declaration that something will happen.
Let me tell you a story:
From the moment we stepped foot on Egyptian soil I heard God say this.
“I want to show you something.”
Then, a month full of life followed.
We started in Cairo. There we saw the Pyramids and the Nile River, both symbols in their own way of God’s promise. God opened the door for us to be in Egypt, and now, staring at the golden stone pyramids we were realizing He was faithful to bring us here. In a historical sense, He delivered His people from these lands and led them across the desert to the promise land.
The next few days we visited schools, hospitals, and church groups. We spoke to students in classrooms. We prayed for the sick. We encouraged the workers and the believers in the region. Then we went on to the place we would stay the rest of the month. There I got to use a little of my building skills and engineering. We worked hard. We sweat. We slept. Maybe not as well as we could have… someone left some sugar cane under the bed and the mosquito’s showed up to the party (that was me, I left the sugar cane under the bed)
Egypt used so many different gifts God has given me over the course of the month. God showed me what life could be. What life in the future could look like. Serving impoverished areas. Caring for the sick. Teaching. Prophecy. Engineering. Music. Prayer. Life! I had two dogs for the month! There was land and space to garden and work. Fix a tiller. Watch the tiller break again. :/ Paint. Build. Sing. Pray. People. All of it a picture of what could be.
Then, God came, and He spoke of the future. He laid out dreams for missions and serving the world. He made promises of where He would take me and what He would do. In the Silence of prayer, He spoke many times. The next step in life? This He said.
“Engineering is the gateway to where you want to be”
When I left at the start of the race I left everything behind. I sold it all. I quit my job. I walked into the unknown. This year I have learned more about hearing God’s voice and walking with Him than any other year. I left telling God I was ready to go anywhere and do anything. Missions! The World! Let’s Go!
Now, after 6 months of learning to hear His voice, learning to walk step in step with Him, He calls me once more back to engineering. Before the race I didn’t necessarily think I would go back. Engineering represented being stuck in a middle-class job living the American dream. I told God I wouldn’t go back unless I knew there was something more. This year He has shown me something more: Himself.
At 4 AM I woke up to God’s voice telling me to go back to engineering. He brought Emerson back to mind and said to go back and work for them, that this was the first step in walking with Him. A week later, WITHOUT ME SAYING ANYTHING, my old supervisor from Emerson, who I haven’t worked for in 3 years, sent me an email saying they’ve been following my race and asking what my plans were after the race. Haha, well… God told me I should work for you last week.
Then, at the end of the month I had an interview. If I wanted the job, they would save a place. I was still in shell-shock. What’s keeping you from accepting the job? Well, I’ve had 4 days to think about all of this. I haven’t thought at all about what I will do when I get home. Now, in a few weeks. God speaks and immediately doors fall open exactly as He said. All I have to do is say YES. Wow! That’s crazy confirmation that God speaks. Even more, it shows He is faithful to His word.
We don’t have to fulfill His promise, He will be faithful. It doesn’t depend on us.
So now I have a job. I have a call from God. And guess what!? It’s not some crazy fulltime ministry job. It’s an ordinary job in a less than extraordinary city (sorry Marshalltown). It’s a 9-5 job just like so many people already live. But, I go back to engineering with Him. If He goes to Iowa, I’d rather be there, than living the dream in Alaska or the Alps. If God takes me to a 9-5 job, I’d rather be there knowing He has brought me there, than chasing a wild adventure in Missions when I know He hasn’t called me there. And you know what, last time I was in Marshalltown, I loved it. Life was full, abundant, in so many ways with so many people.
God’s great call isn’t for you to be extraordinary. It’s to know an extraordinary God.
I’ll live an ordinary life, with an extraordinary best friend. That’s all the promise we need. A great adventure awaiting. And it’s offered to each and everyone of us. You can work a normal job, live in a normal place, wake up every morning and go to work, and still live a life that is abundant and full. I left on the race expecting a great adventure. I return realizing the great adventure is already before us. Just live with Him, and He will fill you with life. God’s supernatural power and making coffee are all a part of LIFE. Miracles and Laundry are both normal parts of living. Don’t elevate the natural over the spiritual, but also don’t elevate the spiritual over the natural. Digging holes, cutting lumber, praying, teaching, prophecy, working 9-5, visiting hospitals, healing the sick, discipleship, making coffee in the morning, it’s all part of this life we live. Don’t overlook His promise in ordinary life.
Promise: good grounds for expecting
I’m headed back to an ordinary life, but somehow, knowing my extraordinary best friend, I have good grounds for expecting an extraordinary life to come.
In Egypt, we spent a lot of time in prayer. Every day, I woke up, went for a walk with the two dogs and watched the sun rise over the campus. It was calm, it was quiet. Then, we went to work. We worked every day doing a variety of manual labor to build a soccer field and put a roof on a new game room. The work was repetitive and mundane. But life was full. But the more important picture was the beauty of what Egypt represented in my life. It was a small sample of the heart God has given me for the world. In Egypt, God showed me the promises He has already made me and how He has fulfilled them. He spoke. Then, He gave me a new promise, a promise of a life with Him. And this statement is true:
He is Faithful to Fulfill His Promises
With Faith, Hope, and Love
Nathan
