Imagine with me for a minute. It's less than twenty-four hours since you shaved your head. You're still thinking “what the heck did I just do?” but also so joyful that you stepped out into obedience. A call comes to your translator from your contact saying that you and another girl on your team must leave your ministry site for the rest of the month, simply because you both shaved your heads.
Sometimes our plans are different than God's.
When I was praying about when to shave my head, I had some personal thoughts on the issue. I wanted to do it in Ireland, to have the rest of my squad with me for support. I didn't want to do it while I was in Moldova because I knew it would not be seen in a positive light in the community where we were working. The church we were working with had very legalistic views of the Bible, and I knew that this act of obedience would “make waves” so to speak.
"Worse than non-believers."
God continuously showed me that He wanted me to not only do it in Moldova, He wanted me to do it immediately. I didn't really know why He wanted me to do it so soon, but I decided to step out in obedience. In less than 24 hours, me and my teammate were asked to leave. We were told that the community viewed us as “worse than non-believers” and that we would destroy the ministry in the town if we stayed. Ouch, straight to the heart. Our team had poured ourselves out the entire month serving and loving the kids in the community, and being asked to leave in that manner was disheartening, to say the least.
Even though they only asked Cindy and I to leave, my whole team showed us a huge act of love. They said that either we would all stay, or we would all leave. I never would have asked them to do that, but it was amazing having them show Christ's love to us in that way. After the team relayed the information to the contact, the contact made the decision that he would rather have the whole team leave than have Cindy and I stay.
Take a step back.
From the outside, this event seems to be full of hurt and grief. And yes, it did hurt to be rejected in that manner. But the amazing part of this whole story is God's infinite wisdom. As I mentioned in the video from my last blog, one of the things I want to be free from is people-pleasing. I have continuously looked to people for affirmation and approval, things that I can only truly receive from God. This act of obedience was a direct antithesis to people-pleasing. I knew before doing it that it would not be received well in the community or from our contact. But I also knew that this was what God was calling me to do, at a specific time, for a specific purpose. My question to you is this, are you willing to step out in faith, even when others don't seem to approve?
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” {Galatians 1:10}
