Visions and Destinations

Praying for God to give us all a strong vision of his will for our lives, and for this moment, this year, this month. Don't know about you guys but I am in a bit of a doldrums now feeling a bit directionless...but on good days I remember God's leading hand and that He is always leading us to the next step. On bad days all I can think about is the never-ending marking that would take a miracle for me to complete. I think I am in what Oswald Chambers call the mundane, and he shares a lot about the importance of faithfulness and tenacity in times of mundane ordinary-ness, where there is seemingly no glamour or glory, when we're not on a spiritual high or involved in some high-powered, exciting ministry.

What really drags us down is not the earth-shaking defeat, the dramatic collapse of a ministry or a church, but the ordinary everyday, the mundane, where we go from day to day fighting fires, living our lives, trying to run from one task to another,in the hopes that we can work our way through the rubble so that one day we would have settled everything so we can finally have our peace. We lose our vision, we forget that we are the favoured people of God, once-not-a-people-now-we-are-a-people people, privileged, special, ridiculously beloved as though we are the one and only in this world, light of the world and salt of the earth. With God backing us up (if God is for us, who can be against us?) , Jesus paving the way before us, and the Holy Spirit beside us at our right hand, we are a victorious people who often forget that we have won the war. We REALLY have nothing to lose. Seriously, what's the worse you can do to me, Satan--kill me? We fight on Satan's terms, we go on chionging as if the battle has not been won and we are losing.

We need a vision for our lives, dear friends. What is your role in His kingdom, in the home you have been born in, in the workplace He has brought you to, in the church and sg you have landed in? If we don't keep chasing this vision, if we don't spend time wrestling with God like Jacob looking for it, we are a lost people indeed. We would be wandering in the wilderness looking for our next meal, but not knowing whether to go east, west, north or south, just walking, sometimes in circles. What have God ordained you to do? Is it to pray for the salvation of your family? Is it to help this colleague see the love of God through your life? Is it to educate your child in the ways of Christ? Basically, is there more to life than this?

Some of us are lucky enough to say "Yes i'm in exactly the right place that God has called me to go/made me to do." That's fantastic! I wish I was there. Or at least, know where I am heading. Or at least, remember that I am actually heading somewhere. Sometimes I feel like I have been on the road so long that I forget that I have a destination. I just take one bus to someplace, change bus when I reach the interchange, take the first bus I see, and travel on.

I feel discouraged so easily that I feel so feeble. No wonder the bible is full of "put-on-the-full-armour-of-God", "we-battle-not- against-flesh-and-blood" -kind of battle language. I read this book recently that quoted Francois Fenelon: Discouragement is the despair of wounded self-love." Why me, God? Haven't I worked so hard, prayed so hard, read the bible so much? Why do I meet with obstacles left right centre? Why am I not blessed with a smooth ride, esp when I have been so good, or at least, tried so hard to be good? When I read that, I knew that to be true about myself. I whine too much, haha. people in battle for God's glory hardly have time to whine about themselves. I'm so into myself, what I have done, or tried to do, what I deserve, that I keep taking more buses to nowhere so that I can feel productive, or to numb the pain, or so as to not have to think about it. I have long lost the map, I become used to the idea that there isn't a promise land, only the continuous drone of traveling and more traveling.

Dear friends, I pray for you that we will all know our destination. Not only the destination that is with our Lord in heaven, but the destination that our ordinary everyday is supposed to lead to. Don't say it is not for you, it's for him, for her, for them. Without a destination, you'll just be taking buses forever to nowhere, tired, worn-out, and despairing. And may we have the faith to HOLD ON and CLING ON, with faithfulness and perseverance, with thanksgiving rather than grumbling, for it is God who works in you to act according to his good purpose (2 Phil 3:12-13). God has called poor old me to a greater work, how about you?