Christianity – Ashworths Abroad

Have you found yourself reevaluating things this week? If there’s one thing our current world crisis has done for us all, it has certainly stripped away any false sense of reality. What seemed urgent and important just a few months ago feels almost insignificant now. The stress of “achievement at all costs”, future growth, long-range projections and the like have quickly taken a back seat to “give us this day our daily bread” survival. Probably not since the World Wars has the whole planet come to this type of overnight change in cultural landscape.

While large portions of the world know this daily survival-mode as a way of life, most North Americans and Europeans are not accustomed to it. We make our plans, build our portfolios, and count our monetary achievements, always aiming to build bigger, grow more and be better. But what do we do when none of those things are available to us anymore? What do you do when you lose a job—and sense of purpose? What am I supposed to do when I don’t know where my next paycheck will come from? What can anyone do in the midst of so much uncertainty?

The irony of it all is, we have just been given a gift: the gift of having everything stripped away.

As horrible as that sounds at first reading, it truly is a gift. Because of this crisis, we have the chance to evaluate what is real and lasting in life. We have the opportunity to critically consider where we put our hope and what we really believe. We can take inventory of our hearts and find out where the emotional and spiritual holes are that need some mending. It is almost like everyone gets a giant, red, RESET button and a few weeks to actually work up the courage to press it.

Our family left the USA six years ago to serve as missionaries in Berlin, Germany, and the past decade has been an extended exercise in stripping away. We have been astonished at how often we peel back another layer with the help of the Holy Spirit and discover, “Wow! I used to think that element of my life was so important, or was so core to my identity, but it was really just a layer of nonsense that stands between my heart and really real reality.” The experience of peeling back all the layers—comfort, context, convenience, culture and more—and standing bare before the God of the universe is about as real as it gets. As professed Jesus followers, this process is the goal, isn’t it? The process of the sanctification of our souls, purifying us from the inside out? We’re all just getting a particularly accelerated course in it at the moment!

Before we became full-time missionaries, Tim was a freelance photographer working in the online retail industry—keyword being freelance. We had to learn back then to trust God day by day because some years he only had a few solid months’ work strung together. We got up close and personal with the “give us this day our daily bread” prayer! In those years, we saw the Lord provide for our needs in amazing ways—two different cars were gifted to us when ours died, we received cash in the mail anonymously on multiple occasions, friends brought meals to our home many times, a friend donated their used washing machine to us when ours unexpectedly went out. Those years strengthened our depend-on-God muscles, and we look back and see how His goodness and mercy followed us through every single shadowy valley.

In this crisis time, He is leading you, too. The Holy Spirit is calling to you—stop and listen. He can comfort your heart as you grieve. He can heal the deep hurts in your soul. He can heal your body. He can heal your mind. He can provide food and clothing. He can provide shelter. He can be your friend. He can give you heavenly wisdom for your decisions. He can give you God-sized ideas about how to handle next steps. He can deposit courage and faith in your heart.

Everything in this life will shake, but Jesus alone is the Solid Rock. He is a firm foundation, and nothing else ever could be. No job, no amount of money, no possession or asset, no status, no achievement, no culturally accepted method of doing business, life or church—none of these temporary things are what life is really about. If you feel like the foundation has crumbled beneath you in recent days, take heart, and take a step over to the Solid Rock—to Jesus. If you thought you were building your life on Him already but you’re feeling lost and tossed around, just take a step. No shame in correcting your position! And if you have not yet given your heart to Him, now’s a great time. (*See the end for more on giving your heart to Jesus.)

Tough times are upon us, for sure—but put your hope in God. He will take care of you.

Don’t be afraid of the stripping away.

*God loves you so much and knows the intimate thoughts in your heart. He does not want to be separated from you. But every person has a sin problem. We are born into this world with sin in our nature (a bent toward wrong things—as big as murder, and as small as a little lie), and because of it we cannot connect with God on our own merits. That is why He sent Jesus to us—to live the perfect life that no other person could live, and then die in our place—the death we deserve for sin. Jesus took all our sin and gave us all His right-standing before God the Father. When we admit that we are sinners and open our hearts to receive Jesus’ gift of new life (salvation), He promises to come into our hearts and cleanse us. He makes us good from the inside out.

He is calling your name—will you respond? Just open your heart to Him and tell Him you know you have a sin problem. Tell Him you want to receive His gift of life through Jesus. And then invite Him into your life. Offer Him your heart, soul, mind and strength. Ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit and give you power to live a supernatural life from today on. He promises that if you seek Him with your whole heart, you will find Him. And if you invite Him, He will come in.

Hearts pounding, lungs burning, we inch backward toward the precipice. Senses are on high alert with our mounting awareness of the enemy closing in. Playing the long game, he has methodically driven us out toward the edge. We can hear the stones tripping and tumbling down the cliff as we try to hold our ground. With sweat rolling down our foreheads, we thrust our swords toward the source of the snarls advancing on us, over and over again. Why can’t we cut the head off this thing? Then we hear it—the voice of our Commander, clear as if He were in the battle: “Get down.”

Immediately we lie down flat on our faces, swords gripped tightly, wondering what was about to happen. Enter slow motion. Before we even hit the ground, the enemy lunges for us with outstretched claws, teeth bared. He misses us by a sheer millisecond. We turn to see his dark form hurl over the cliff with a haunting screech. Back to real time. We exhale, but momentary relief skitters away as we realize the ground beneath us is shifting and rumbling. We’re not out of danger yet! We catch each other’s wide eyes again, realizing we are about to fall. With a top-up of adrenaline, we grab hands and shut our eyes as the cliff crumbles.

We are falling.

What do we do? What do we do? Surely this is the end. There is no way we can survive this. All of our training was in different terrain. We have no experience here.

Again, we hear the Commander’s voice: “Fly.”

Fly? You must be joking. How can we fly, Sir?

Instantly, the wind stops and the scenery stands still around us. Has someone caught us? Is this some sort of rescue?

Again we hear the command, “Fly.”

And I realize that we are being suspended in the air by giant, pulsing wings—on our own backs! Where had they come from? Had they been there all along and we didn’t know? Whatever their genesis, we were now in possession of wings. Talk about a game changer. The more we began to move them, the more we instinctively understood how to make them work. So we set our sights back on our target.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Imagination and allegory give a poignant glimpse into the hiddenness of the spiritual reality of daily life. Our past several months serving on the mission field have been intense, to say the least. Although the opening story is allegorical, it describes our experiences perfectly. We have been backed out on a precipice, fallen off a cliff as the ground gave way under us, and flailed in a freefall. We have stood our ground against the enemy with sweat rolling down our brows and we have eaten dirt as we hit the ground to avoid his full takedown. But we have also experienced our wings.

We have never been in this exact situation before, and we have no training to tell us what to do, other than listen for the voice of the Lord. When He speaks, we live.

This past week, we were blindsided by some trouble with our daughter’s school. The administration let us know that because she spent a semester in Texas in a ballet program the first semester, she could receive no credit for her ninth grade year—even for the semester she completed (with flying colors) here at the high school. Their only solution was for her to repeat ninth grade. She was devastated. She came back to Berlin in January and worked so hard to catch up in classes—she finished the second semester with A’s and B’s on her report card, too! Telling her that all her work was for nothing just about sent her over the edge. To make matters even worse, the school demanded we make a decision in less than 24 hours.

We cried, we prayed, we talked. We cried some more. We stayed awake through the night asking the Lord what we should do. I had the fleeting thought to look up the graduation requirements for a Christian boarding school for missionary kids in southwestern Germany, so I started some research. Suffice it to say, this other school will accept all her credit from last semester, plus online credit recovery for the one class she would still be missing to meet their requirements! And they would be willing to enter her as a junior in the following school year (2020/2021)!

This was not on our radar, nor would we have sought out a move like this during the remainder of her high school years—especially living as missionaries and dealing with a huge daily load of spiritual and cultural opposition to our mission. But the more we step into this, the more we see the Lord’s leading in it. He is moving her. She fell off a cliff, but she has (and so have we) discovered wings.

What the enemy means for evil, the Lord means for good. Every time. (Genesis 50:20)

When you are in a freefall, realize that the Lord empowers you to fly. (Isaiah 40:30-31)

Even when it feels like you are alone, you most certainly are not. (Exodus 33:14)

And the Lord is so good—especially in the middle of your battles. He is there. He is fighting for you. And He gives you everything you need at precisely the right moment.

“I hear the Lord saying, ‘I will stay close to you,

instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life.

I will advise you along the way

And lead you forth with my eyes as your guide.

So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn

When I take you where you’ve not been before.

Don’t make me tug you and pull you along.

Just come with me!’”

Psalm 32:8-9 TPT

Tag: Christianity

Stripping It All Away

Fly!