My Daddy's King

I desire to GO, to flee, to proclaim to the nations most radically different than my own,

“Christ is the Treasure above all treasures. Delight yourself in God, and He will dance around you and make the glory of His Name be your highest joy.”

But, why?

My first thought is, because they need to hear it. The simple, seemingly barren lives of the precious faces in Haiti, Mexico, Africa, etc. are plains from which fruit will gloriously spring forth; darkness into which a beautiful and unmistakable Light will shine and be simply praiseworthy.

Yet, isn’t that the same of folks in America? In Washington state? In seeing the daily routine of a classmate, is not her life a similar barren plain, supporting only a cheap house of cards? Is not the man sitting alone in the student union building likewise chained to the same torturous vacancy, frightening darkness? They need a Savior to call them out and make them new, also!!

Yes. And yes. And yet, even as I write this, the screen before me fades to images of skinny children bounding along dusty roads, of missionaries giggling as we splash across streams while toting projection equipment through the jungle, of nights spent silently cursing the howling dogs with my mind scheming of what creature might be perched on my mosquito net to greet me in the morning. Why do the deepest fibers of my soul long, gasp, cry out for this?

I feel almost guilty sometimes when people around me say, “well, people in America need Jesus too; there’s so many people right here at home that need to be reached.” I wholeheartedly agree! I have been experiencing the Lord freeze off dead corners of my heart and implant new ventricles to sense an atrocious vacancy, demand to be filled from beyond myself, and energetically explode with life-giving blood to meet and nourish every starving tissue. He is faithfully, graciously giving me compassion for those around me, in my hometown, to first recognize that they are equally valuable and equally worthy of Christ’s sacrifice and offer of new life as those living on pennies in foreign lands. And I praise Him for it, and hunger for more of it, for I have no guarantee of a “next year” or “next quarter” or “tomorrow” to start living the call to make disciples before I’m taken home to Heaven. Still, those wonderful jungle lands concealed deep within my soul protest the squelching of their fiery beauty. I believe that God has created this in me—though I no longer say that He has created me for this. Rather, He has created me for Himself.

So then, the balance in my mind and heart is shifting. Though these romantic notions of distant lands do motivate me to work harder to earn my degree and to battle the suffocating culture of consumerism (which is good—shouldn’t all followers of Jesus live with an ever-emptying addiction to comfort and excess and self-preference, and an ever-increasing zeal for Heaven and for loosening the grip which we and the world have on each other and sharing in Christ’s afflictions…for this is the example which our Rabbi set!), the possibility that I might be tempted to pursue them at the expense of missing Christ pushes them to their rightful place. Though I rejoice with them, they are not worth more to me than having Christ and living to proclaim Him, regardless of the environment. He now speaks in me that He desires me—(well, actually it’s worthy of stopping there: He desires me. Even before considering His design of my work, the foundational, wonderful mystery is that He craves intimate joy in sharing life with me each moment! And it’s true for you too, ‘cause He values you and your love-flooded soul more than any product or works.)—to be willing to go wherever He sends me, but to trust that His good wisdom is far better than even my most precious desires. Whether He calls me to leave America for a distant land to serve and love and proclaim His Name there, or to stay right where I’m at and never touch foreign soil again (which would be far more difficult and require far more faith for me, I believe!), what truly matters is that Christ be my Treasure…neither to exalt the zealous dreams to live in third world communities, nor to lapse in lustful comfort in this familiar land of excess.

Oh yeah, what I learned today. With my church, we were celebrating at the end of our time together, singing “You fill my soul with Your Living Water and I am Your child.” As I considered those words in my joy-saturated mind, it hit me: I want to go to the nations because my Daddy is King over the whole earth. Every dusty pebble in Ethiopia is His just as every snowcapped mountain peak in Argentina or tri-colored crevasse of the Grand Canyon is His, ‘cause He made it! And, He truly reigns in Heaven and is gathering a people for Himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelations 7, 19—what grace, to have the end written for us before we were born!).

This hope drives me to pursue all of His Kingdom on earth, which is materialized in my mind as cross-cultural missions in destitute places. Certainly, it must have more to do with a child’s heart than their physical context, so what threatens the pursuit of full satisfaction in Him? Lack of awareness (or admittance) of needing Him to fill my heart. What things fuel ignorance and quench thirst for Living Water? The dead weight of the world, the dulling delusion of autonomy (which stealthily lurks in many familiar places), preference for created comforts over the Creator, lack of perceived purpose and mission. May I, and we, realize that we’re living in a battle, seriously take on our armor, stab these things and run from them!

My soul cries to know Christ more fully, to be emptied of all that dilutes my vivacity, to taste and see more of His created beauty and embrace suffering for His Name, and through it all, become more simply, ridiculously in love with my Savior. So I will run in the path He calls me down, whether I’m running with Peruvians or Washingtonians. What matters most is that our eyes are fixed on Christ, Who pioneered the narrow trail of faith and empowers us for every stride.

May all of us seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, knowing that all these little worries and details will be given to us as well (Matthew 6:33). May we echo Paul in admitting that “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me” (Acts 20:24), for “nothing compares to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whose sake I have lost all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-10). May we “resolve to know nothing but Christ Jesus and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2), live as ones who are “more than conquerors”, over all things, through Christ Who loves us with an untouchable love (Romans 8:31-39). May we live lives worthy of the calling we’ve received, to forsake habits that disgracefully disguise us as anxious creatures of this earth and be dressed in His righteousness as children of God, heirs with Christ of ETERNITY (1 Peter 1)—what have we to fear or hide from?! We’ve been liberated, we’re scandalously beloved and free! Let’s do this thing, by the power and love of Christ in us, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).