3, 2, 1

Good Day, Friends.

Today’s Reflection

I’m writing from somewhere over South Dakota as I fly from Minneapolis to Portland. Today is Day #1 of “Interim #3” as I begin my role as the pinch hit District Superintendent for the Alliance Northwest. (I’ve had two interim pastoral positions since re-entering ministry in 2010.) I’m very curious what the next months will look like. I’m quite convinced that I’m following God’s lead on this matter. But conviction that I’m doing the right thing has no correlation to whether it will be an easy or difficult thing.

But then, “easy” is over-rated anyway, right?

Earlier this morning I read a poem from Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India for fifty-five years. In part, she wrote,

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified,
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Oh, my! Prayers that I be sheltered rather than strong, love of things that soften rather than strengthen, choices that look nothing like Calvary . . . Amy knows me well.

Don’t misunderstand: I don’t think that it is more spiritual to pray for hardship than to pray for ease. Every once in a while contemporary Christian music comes up with another bring-on-the-hard-stuff, give-me-joy-or-pain, let-the-storms-come song. Maybe I’m missing some lyrics that nuance the songs with a more balanced message, but those songs aren’t on my play list. I find no need to sing or pray for a storm.

Rather than praying for soft or hard, easy or difficult, I believe that the better prayer is that we would experience God in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. I’m wondering today if I spend too much energy praying to God about my circumstances, and too little seeking to hear from Him in the midst of my circumstances. My surface “God change this situation and change it NOW” kind of prayers don’t lead me to the deeper places available to me.

Perhaps for a few days, rather than praying that God would change anything, we’d be wise to pray something along the lines of:
• What lessons are You uniquely teaching me at this time that I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) learn otherwise?
• What courage are You calling out of me in this difficult situation?
• What glory might You be receiving that I’m not seeing from my current perspective?
• What is the broader story that You are writing? The current chapter is confusing me, but this is part of a much bigger story. Would You help me see it? Could I get your perspective on this?
• What comfort will You bring me, character will You develop in me or commission will You grant me in this crisis?

We get lulled to sleep by good times or in such a hurry to get out of hard times that we fail to look for Him at all times. I’m calling us—myself included—to give heed to hearing the voice of God in the midst of the storm or calm.

We can always go back to our “God change this” petitions, but for a few days perhaps we’d be better to spend less time telling Him what He should do and more time asking Him what He is already doing.

Today’s News

The first printing of our book, An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey, has almost sold out. This is good news for many reasons, one of them being that it gave me the opportunity to have the book re-edited. I was never pleased with the first edit. It wasn’t horrible, but it did contain some glaring and (for me) embarrassing errors. If you didn’t find the errors, good. If you overlooked them, good. If they frustrated you, good . . . they frustrated me as well. But, the second edition meets my standards.

I waited for the newly edited version to be complete before I released it as an e-book. But today, I’m happy to announce that An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey is now on Kindle at Amazon.com. Please spread the word to any of your Kindle using friends.

And, the second happy announcement that arises from the reprinting is that An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey will have a small price reduction. Booksnbibles.com continues to be the cheapest online source for the book, but even on Amazon the price has dropped a little.

And, the final happy announcement about my little publishing world is that Book #2 is complete and in the final design/layout stage. I’ll be excited to tell you about it and show you some cover options on the next blog. Ready for another vote?

Interim #3. Book #2. Day #1. Thanks for joining me through all of it. Through the highs and lows, easy and hard, calm and storm . . . may I say it again, “God is in this journey and God can only be good.”

Trusting Him with you today,
John Stumbo