An Unbearable Wait

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

This December, I will be finished with my undergraduate career. I will turn in my last final, pack up my apartment into my little rusty car, and say far too many bittersweet goodbyes. Then I'll drive my little rusty car to the east side of the state and...

I'll wait. 

I'll wait to hear back from potential employers in hopes of an interview. I'll wait to see if I got into any of the graduate programs that I applied for. I'll wait for the next chapter of my life to begin, and I can guarantee that I won't be waiting patiently.

We've all experienced those bizarre transitionary periods that seem pointless and unproductive. Sometimes we're lucky enough to be waiting for some tangible, distant hope that we can see and touch. Other times, however, we're just waiting for a sign—any sign—of clarity about what our next move should be. Regardless, we tend to assume that all of this waiting time is just wasted time. We pace back and forth with impatience as the clock seems to tick incessantly on the wall.   

Photo credit: Tristan Colangelo.

The waiting is taxing, and we are so preoccupied with our future that we neglect our present. Our impatience is a broken record: “When X happens, I will finally be Y.” When I am admitted into that graduate program, I will be intelligent. When I get that job promotion, I will be successful at last. When I meet the perfect man or woman, I will finally be happy. This dichotomous mindset blinds us to how God is transforming us right now, in this very moment.  

In the first book of Samuel, God instructs Samuel to go to Bethlehem and seek out a man named Jesse. One of Jesse's sons was to be the new king of Israel, and Samuel was to find him and anoint him. God cautions Samuel not to be biased towards the stronger and more charismatic of Jesse's sons (1 Samuel 16:7).

God's focus is on the potential of our hearts instead of how we outwardly appear. Perhaps Jesse's bigger and stronger sons seemed to be better candidates for the role of king, but God doesn't simply choose us for tasks—God grows us.  

Jesse presented seven of his sons before Samuel, but Samuel said that God had not chosen any of them, asking if Jesse had any more sons.

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives.”

1 Samuel 16:11

     

At this point, Jesse and his seven other sons knew what was happening. David, the smallest and youngest, was to be the new king of Israel. After all, it was cultural custom to remain standing until royalty arrived.

It probably took some time for David to be located out in the fields, and still some time more for him to go to Samuel and his family. We can safely assume that Jesse and his sons were waiting around for a decent amount of time, but why is this so important? God knew that they needed time for their hearts to be prepared. Undoubtedly, the brothers were shocked, possibly hurt, and probably very jealous. By the time David arrived, their hearts would be humbled and receptive to the will of God.  

In the time-crunch grind of our daily lives, being receptive to God is exceedingly difficult. We have been conditioned to cringe from pausing and to grow restless while waiting. We just want to plunge into the next task at hand; we want to cannonball straight to grad school, or start at that new job, or just hurry up and be the new king of Israel already.

David was approximately ten years old when God chose him, and David did not become Israel's king until he was around thirty. Twenty years was a long time to wait, certainly, but it also was a long time to learn, to mature, and to grow.

Photo credit: annamae22

Hopefully, I won't have to wait around two decades to begin this new and exciting stage of my life, but even so, I will strive to leave the timing up to God so I can be shaped accordingly.

On the surface, the waiting is tedious and uneventful.

Meanwhile, there are subtle shifts in the crevices of our hearts: Seeds blossom. Roots take hold.The wider they spread, the taller we grow.

[Abby Hocking is a senior at Calvin College, where she studies psychology and writing. She is employed at Pine Rest Christian Mental Services and plans to become a therapist. Abby is a proud literature nerd, running addict, and puppy enthusiast. She thanks God daily for her wonderful family, her loving friends, and for Twenty One Pilots.]

My Not-So-Radical Redemption Story

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

As I reflected on the message this week, Unqualified: Not Important Enough, I struggled to think of an engaging anecdote to share in the Midweek Encounter. My faith journey has been relatively uneventful, and this lack of radical life-changing testimony often makes me feel unqualified to share my story. I began to wonder, could God really redeem my “boring” faith journey and use it for His glory? And that’s when it hit me—even though I might not have the credibility of a radical transformation like Paul or Mary Magdalene, God still sent His Son to die for me. Even though my faith has been steady, I am still broken, lost, and in need of redemption. And rather than fearing that my story isn’t exciting enough, I want to share how God has been redeeming my story for His glory in the midst of a rather normal life.

I grew up knowing about Jesus’s death and resurrection, and I knew that I was a Christian at a young age. It didn’t take long for me to confess my faith in 8^th grade and publicly commit my life to Christ. I attended a Christian high school and surrounded myself with Bible stories, encouraging teachers, and constant reminders of my faith. I fell in love (or so I thought at the time) with a young man who was raised with the same commitment to faith as I was, and that’s when temptation kicked in.

In spite of our commitments to Christ, we fell into sexual sin. And that sin grabbed hold of my heart, convincing me that I was only whole and complete when I was with this young man. We dated off and on for a few years, constantly struggling to justify our sins by the love that we shared; eventually our relationship fell apart, and I was left broken. My identity had been torn to shreds, and I found myself a freshman in college, desperately searching for something that could make me whole again.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that God had been walking alongside me every step of the way. He had bigger plans for me than I ever could have imagined: I spent the summer working at a Christian camp in Colorado. If you know me, you know that hiking, living in a cabin, and showering with giant moths is definitely not my thing. But that’s where God called me for a summer and truly captured my heart again; He made me realize that I was only complete when I surrendered my heart to Him. He even gave me the strength to climb a mountain—literally!

When I returned home, I was renewed, but still had no idea quite what God had in store for me. That next spring, I began to date the man who is now my husband; we had been friends in high school and reconnected by chance (although things are never quite by chance with God). Ben showed me the kind of love that Christ had intended for a man and a woman to share; I couldn’t even believe that God had chosen such a generous, selfless, genuine, humble, hardworking, and loving man to be my husband.

August's baptism at Encounter on September 18, 2016

Fast-forward about three years, and God blessed us with our baby boy, August James. This part of the journey is just beginning, but I now know that God redeemed my heart to him so that I could love my husband and my son through the eyes of Christ. He truly is the Author of my story, one that might be fairly typical, but also one that ultimately drew me closer to Him. That’s the power of redemption—God can use anyone and anything for His purpose and His glory. Just as he used Mary Magdalene to share the news of Jesus’s resurrection, He also takes unqualified people and redeems them to shine love and light into the world—all for His glory!

How is God redeeming your story so that you might be a witness for the Gospel? Is he using your "ordinary" life to bring others into His kingdom? Pray that you might see how God is making you qualified to share the ultimate redemption story of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

Colossians 1:13-14, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

[Megan Stephenson is a proud new mom to her almost four-month-old son August and spends her days trying to figure out how to take care of her tiny human. She also works for a private education group in Grand Rapids as an Assistant Registrar. Megan loves spending time with her husband, Ben, trying out new breweries, restaurants, and local attractions. She also self-identifies as a crazy cat lady, despite owning no cats of her own, thanks to her loving and allergic husband.]

Why God is Better Than Oprah

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like to win a massive giveaway, like the kind TV shows do. One of the most iconic giveaways is when Oprah Winfrey gave everyone in the audience their own brand new car, shouting “You get a car, you get a car, you get a car, everybody gets a car!” Recently, John Oliver bought and then forgave almost $15 million of medical debt on his show Last Week Tonight, breaking the formerly Oprah-owned record of World’s Largest On-Air Giveaway. While I don’t know the details of how the attendees for Oprah’s show were picked, I’d guess it wasn’t through a carefully vetted process to make sure each person there had a perfect driving record and could be trusted to take excellent care of the car they were given. From what I can tell, John Oliver and his team didn’t know anything about the people whose medical debt they forgave, whether they were kind and trustworthy people who would appreciate the gift. 

Photo Credit: Hans M

When Jesus picked his disciples, his process was rather unorthodox as well. Instead of scholars or students of religion, he picked ordinary people like a tax collector and fishermen like Peter. These disciples followed Jesus for his three years of ministry on earth.  Traveling together that long, it only seems natural that it became more than just students learning from their Lord and teacher, but friends. Peter, one of those ordinary fishermen, was committed to Jesus, dedicated to sticking with him no matter what happened, and Peter told Jesus as much. It can’t have been completely easy being a disciple though. Many people, especially the religious leaders, didn’t like Jesus much. As his arrest, trial, and eventual crucifixion drew nearer, Peter’s dedication was going to be put to the test.

When Jesus was taken away for trial, Peter began separating himself from the crowd by following at a distance. Had something changed so quickly, and Peter now doubted the true identity of this man he had been following for years? Unlikely. But all of a sudden, associating closely with Jesus would come with a higher cost attached to it than anything Peter had experienced before. To know Jesus was to be consorting with a suspected criminal. When the first person recognized Peter, he backed away from Jesus again, closer to the exit for a quick escape. Yet two more people questioned him, and finally, Peter couldn't handle it anymore, swearing adamantly that he did not know Jesus. Almost immediately, he recognized the severity of what he had done. What kind of sinking, gnawing, pain must that have been, to realize he had denounced his Lord and friend? 

Maybe we don't go so far as to completely renounce knowing Jesus, at least through our words, but if we were to examine our thoughts and actions for the past weeks and months, I suspect we'd find times when we might as well have renounced him. Often following Jesus looks like knowing what we’re supposed to do, but consciously choosing to ignore it or actively making another decision when we find ourselves in the heat of the moment. Realization of our wrongness may strike instantly, or may settle in over time as we think more about what we’ve done. As that happens, it can feel like we’ve disqualified ourselves from loving and serving God. Would he even want us after we’ve messed up so badly? 

God doesn’t work like humans do though. When we hurt our human friends, they may not be so quick to forgive us, but Jesus, fully human and fully God, gave Peter a gift greater than any TV show offering could ever be. Earlier on in his ministry, Jesus tells Peter, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18). Even after Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus knew Peter was so much more than his mistake. God never wants to leave us in our mess, but to redeem it. After the resurrection, Jesus asks Peter three times to feed his sheep, and the rest of Peter’s life became an outworking of that as Peter went on to become one of the most instrumental figures in the early church. It was the grace of a second chance, and it completely changed Peter’s life. 

The gift God has given us is worth more than a brand new car or the forgiveness of all our financial debts. He endlessly says to us, “You get a second chance, you get a second chance, you get a second chance!” His second chances never run out, he never gets tired of us and casts us away from him, he never holds our past against us. God still offers the same kind of second chances to us. We are never “so far gone” that God can’t break in and redeem our choices and our circumstances to turn them into something much more beautiful than we could have imagined. 

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

Nothing Left to Give

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford-she gave her all. -  Mark 12:44 (The Message)

What a scene it must have been that day in the temple! The air would have been thick with the scent of all of the people gathered in the Court of the Women and the loud clangs of coins being dumped into the treasury chests. Add to that the buzz around Jesus’ recent arrival in Jerusalem, the excitement and anxiety over the scene he caused turning over tables in the Court of Gentiles, and the whispers of assassination attempts and you’ve got one heck of a set-up for the arrival of the poor widow and her two small copper coins.

As I read the text and studied my notes in preparation for writing this, I couldn’t help but be drawn into details like these and wonder about the background of the story. What happened in this woman’s life that left her with next to nothing to give? Why did she even bother to show up on this scene? What was her story?

Interestingly enough, in the verses directly before we encounter this particular widow, Mark shares with us another story about widows. In verses 38-40 he recalls a time when Jesus warned, “Watch out for the experts in the law. They like walking around in long robes and elaborate greetings in the marketplaces, and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ property, and as a show make long prayers. These men will receive a more severe punishment.” Mark then launches into our story about Jesus seeing the significance of widow’s sacrifice in comparison to the offerings made by others, including by those we can assume were experts of the law.

It strikes me that here we have two stories of widows: one that tells us the religious leaders were “devouring” the property of widows and one that tells of a widow giving away all she had left. In the original Greek, this word for “devour” in the first story gets at the all-consuming nature of the removal and ruin inflicted upon these widows. Was the women with the coins one of these widows who had her property devoured by religious leaders? If so, what must it have been like for her to walk into the presence and onto the turf of the religious institution that left her in ruin? Did she recognize some of the faces and robes and elaborate greetings of the leaders who were there? Did they recognize her?

It also strikes me that this thing we call the church is still far from a perfect place. It's well known that the people of God have a history of devouring more than just property. There are countless people who, like the widows Mark tells us about, carry stories about the actions of a church leader, a family member, or entire institutions who, in the name of God, “devoured” them emotionally, monetarily, spiritually, psychologically, and physically. And, like the widows Mark mentions, many of us are left to live with the wreckage left behind.

Yet somehow this particular widow in Mark’s story will not allow herself to merely live in the wreckage. She brings everything she has left and gives it to the very cause of the people who left her in ruins. She refuses to allow their actions to deem her “unqualified” to continue to be a part of the community. She doesn’t allow them to define how and if she gets to contribute to the on-going work of the people of God.

I don’t know what this means for those who have fallen prey to those who devour in the name of God. I don’t know what this means for all of the people who have been faithful for years yet feel abandoned or left hopeless by tragedy or unfulfilled promises. I squirm when I think about what the call to “sacrifice” means to those to who have already lost everything. Didn’t Jesus say somewhere that he came so that we could have life to the fullest? And if so, why do we have to sacrifice anything at all? How can God allow us to suffer ruin at all, let alone at the hands of those who profess his name, and then have the nerve to call us to give up all that we have left? “The greatest gifts are given when you have the least”? That’s a hard sell when you've been left with nothing!  

Photo credit: Flickr user Lilmonster Michi

All I know is that we are all part of a long line of widows who face different kinds of devouring in our lives. And at some point we all find ourselves feeling like we have nothing left to give. In those moments, stories like the one of the widow giving to God everything she had left seem absurd. But maybe the hope is that in this story we get this: a picture of Jesus sitting with his disciplines during one of the most intense and agitated weeks of his ministry, peering out over hundreds of people in that smelly, noisy, and crowded courtyard, and picking out the lonely widow walking through the crowd. He knows what has happened when she, in the presence of those who have brought her pain, offers up everything she has left. He sees her and knows the value and depth of her loss and her sacrifice. And he sees and knows the value and depth of our loss and our sacrifice today.

Just as Jesus saw the widow through the crowd and recognized the depth of her loss and sacrifice, know that God will see, know, and be there for you, especially when you feel you have nothing left to give. 

[Derek Atkins is a project coordinator at the denominational office of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. He and his wife Keri live in Alger Heights and spend most of their time trying to keep up with their two little girls, Alida and Cassidy.]

Not Experienced Enough // Movement of the Gospel

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

I’ve always had good intentions about sharing the Gospel—after all, I’ve been a Christian my entire life and it is simply a task that comes with the territory. However, unlike Kendall’s Grace Encounter shared this week, I haven’t really owned my identity in Christ. It’s something that I put on the back-burner and continually think someday I will be qualified to share the love of Jesus with someone, but not today. Today I’m a mess and can’t possibly imagine adding one more thing to my to-do list, to my agenda for the week. Nope, it’s just going to have to wait.

I continue to see myself as too broken, too busy, too hypocritical to share the Gospel and love of God. If I can’t even manage to regularly connect with a Bible study, have my own daily devotions, or be a godly wife and mom, then who am I to tell somebody else about Jesus? It’s easy to shrug off God’s calling on our lives when we feel that we don’t have the experience necessary to be a credible witness. However, as we learned from Paul and Timothy this week, God can use us despite our perceived inexperience.

Paul, who was previously called Saul, had been involved in the persecution of Christians. Acts 8:3 says, “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” But Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus, and Saul was changed; after spending time with the disciples, he began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God (Acts 9). Saul did not have any experience preaching the Gospel—in fact, his experience was persecuting those who followed after Jesus. In spite of this, God used Paul to become one of the most well known missionaries in history, and led him to disciple Timothy—another man who lacked experience in sharing the Good News.

While Paul was in Lystra, he asked the disciple Timothy to join his journey (Acts 16). After ten years of discipleship together, Timothy was left to lead the church in Ephesus, and Paul wrote to him, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy4:12). Although Timothy was considered to be young in age and in wisdom, Paul still urged him to set an example—to disciple others—just as Paul had done for him. Timothy did not have the experience to lead the churches in Ephesus, but he did not let that stop him from answering God’s call.

Both Paul and Timothy were not experienced enough to disciple other Christians, but God still called them to spread the Good News. In the same way, we are called to connect with others and participate in the movement of the Gospel from person to person. This act of obedience to God and leading others in discipleship is not just for those who have years of ministry experience. Even new Christians, changed by the Holy Spirit, are credible witnesses to the amazing testimony of Jesus Christ.

Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons user John Loo

So when you feel unqualified to share your faith or walk in obedience to God’s call, remember that lack of experience or credibility is not an excuse. God will use you, but only if you let Him. Instead of feeling too broken, too busy, or too hypocritical to share my faith, I can hear God calling me to trust in His will and allowing His power to be made perfect through my weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). Are you unwilling to share your faith because you feel inexperienced? Are you ignoring God’s call in your life out of fear that your credibility will be questioned? Let the power of the Holy Spirit be made perfect in your weakness, your inexperience, and your fear this week. Don’t put off your response to God’s call any longer—the Gospel needs to continue to move through personal connection and discipleship. Don’t let the Good News stop with you!

[Megan Stephenson is a proud new mom to her two-month-old son August and spends her days trying to figure out how to take care of her tiny human. She also works for a private education group in Grand Rapids as an Assistant Registrar. Megan loves spending time with her husband, Ben, trying out new breweries, restaurants, and local attractions. She also self-identifies as a crazy cat lady, despite owning no cats of her own, thanks to her loving and allergic husband.]

Your Past is Not Your Future

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

There are many reasons we may think we’re unqualified for God to use us. Sometimes it’s a matter of perception, like when I originally went to college with the intention of studying youth ministry, but ended up changing my major partly due to starting to believe the lie that what I had to offer students wasn't good enough. My own life had been so seemingly boring, my path to faith so unfraught with any kind of devastating events, that I felt like I couldn't relate to what the students would be experiencing. Or we might think we’re not educated enough talk about God to other people if we didn’t grow up in church or don’t have a seminary degree. Or we might think we’ve done way too much bad stuff for God to still love us and invite us to be a part of the work he’s doing in the world. 

Photo Credit: Darius Sankowski

In the book of Acts, we see one of the most dramatic conversion stories in the Bible. From the outside, if anyone would have been a candidate for not being good enough to be used by God, it would be Saul. He had literally been in charge of seeking out Christians and killing them because of their faith, and then, on what was supposed to be an ordinary journey to another town so he could kill more Christians, God showed up and showed him the error of his ways. From then on, instead of terrorizing Christians, Saul sought to spread the word about God so that more people would become Christians. 

While his conversion was immediate, it took a while for others to believe it was real and was going to “stick.” Over time though, the existing Christians recognized the work God was doing in Saul’s life and began to work alongside him. Saul never fully forgot about his past, and it’s unlikely that everyone he worked with was able to see beyond it either. In the letters he wrote to churches later in life, he refers to himself as “the worst of sinners.” But even though Saul recognized the importance of owning his sin, he also refused to let his past disqualify him from doing things differently in the future.

Our sins may not be the same as Saul’s. For us, it may be gossiping and judging others, refusing to admit an addiction, cheating on our schoolwork, failing to see the image of God in people who annoy us, ignoring our spouse in favor of someone who seems more interesting, cutting corners at work to make our coworkers look bad and ourselves look better, or any number of other sins that continue to plague us. Whatever they are, whatever “level of wrongness” we may view them as, God is able and willing to forgive them. We don't need to keep looking at our past when God is looking at our future. Despite Saul’s mistakes, he came to understand that who he was wasn’t defined by the man he saw in the mirror, but by the work that Jesus did for him. When we believe this too, our identity suddenly becomes not about what we have or haven’t done, but about who Jesus is and how he transforms us to be more like him.


The other ways we try to disqualify ourselves from God’s service fall flat too. We don’t need special training to tell others about what we’ve seen God do in our own lives, of the experiences of his love and grace and mercy that have transformed the way we work and play and live. Over time I realized that even my story of faith, while very different from someone like Saul’s, had value of its own, and it in no way meant I wouldn’t be able to relate to students or be used by God to speak into their lives. That’s the beauty of the kingdom of God--he can, does, and wants to use all people to accomplish his purpose. He sees the potential in everything, even when we can’t. With God, no sin is too great and no story is too small to be used.

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

Delayed Obedience is Disobedience

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

If you tend to procrastinate, you’re not alone. The word procrastinate has only been in the English language since the mid-16th century, but its Latin roots stretch back to the 1300s, and other iterations date all the way to antiquity. Around 800 B.C., the Greek poet Hesiod urged people not to “put your work off till tomorrow.” But of course we do this all the time. People tend to procrastinate in two ways: either they will make a to-do list and put the most important tasks at the end, right after “run 11 miles” and “scrub grout with a toothbrush,” or they will find other productive things to do and then focus on those tasks until they run out of time. I’m sure that some of you have taken on monumental endeavors, such as organizing the basement storage room or cleaning out the garage, in an effort to delay a major decision or overwhelming task. I know some college students who decided to test several quiche and cheesecake recipes during exam week. This, of course necessitated several trips to Meijer and a party for taste-testing. Recently, as I was studying for a foreign language exam, I found it necessary to paint the spare bedroom. The one in the basement that no one uses. And to replace window treatments, and rearrange all of my childrens’ toys and clean out their closets. You get the idea.

You don’t need a scientific study to tell you that procrastination is bad for you, but I’ll cite one anyway. Eric Jaffe (2013), a researcher for the Association for Psychological Science, writes that “people who procrastinate have higher levels of stress and lower well-being.” Delaying a task that we know we have to do is harmful in two important ways: it weakens resolve and it increases tension, making it more difficult to tackle the task we are putting of in the first place.

We put off all sorts of small tasks on a regular basis, such as exercise or responding to an email, but what about the big tasks? Some of you may be familiar with the story of “Daniel in the Lion’s Den,” in which King Darius is tricked into tossing Daniel into a pit where he is left to be eaten by ferocious lions. In the morning, after a sleepless night, King Darius rushes back to the den to see if Daniel’s God has protected him, and indeed Daniel’s life had been spared. Daniel reports back that an angel of God shut the mouths of the lions, and thus he had passed the night unharmed.

This may be a familiar story for some of us, but familiar or not, it’s easy to overlook the important details of obedience to God’s big ask on Daniel’s life, and his ask on our lives, too. Long before the Lion’s Den story, Daniel arrived in Babylon as a result of King Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over Jerusalem. Daniel was an Israelite living in a foreign country, and his life was spared because he showed promise as one who might be useful to the king. Immediately when Daniel arrives in Babylon he is told to follow the customs of the Babylonians, including the worship of false gods.

But Daniel refused.

The language used in the Bible is this: Daniel resolved.

He resolved to be faithful. He resolved to be honest. He resolved to be holy.

And then God acted. God gave Daniel wisdom, courage, hope, and life.

Perhaps God is asking you to do something today. Perhaps he laid a task on your heart long ago, or maybe there’s a recent idea that you can’t seem to shake. A job change, a new hobby, a new habit, a conversation, the beginning or ending of a relationship. Perhaps you’ve been delaying obedience to this call because you’re afraid. Afraid that you don’t have what it takes, afraid of what others might think, afraid to trade the comfortable for the unknown. Daniel, as a newcomer to a foreign land, as a religious and cultural outsider, had no political capital to burn by denying the king’s request. And yet, he resolved.

Daniel knew that delayed obedience was disobedience, but he also knew that if he obeyed God’s call, that God would equip him for the task at hand. God worked miracles in Daniel’s life, and God bestowed wisdom and courage to Daniel. And we are armed with the knowledge that God has already defeated our worry and fear through the death of his son, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus we can accomplish the impossible. If we resolve to complete the work that God has laid on our hearts, then we can trust God to act. It’s one of his many promises to us.

[Kristin vanEyk loves Encounter Church and hopes that you have found a community at Encounter as well. You can find out more about what Kristin is up to here.]