Outside

I have been listening to and reading suggestions from Steve Sjogren for the last several weeks. His thinking has confirmed what I have sensed God saying to me for the last few months. Here’s one of his latest blog posts titled “Learning to See Outside,” from his blog “Growing Edge Buzz.”

We are encouraged by the current state of things in the Church to think inside, to look at things as they are and to work within those ways of doing things. In other words, to always be an echo and never a real voice.

Yet I find that a difficult parameter to stay within. I believe God has something greater for all of us. There are many scriptures that make it clear that God desires that we hear from him and not be so many repetitious voices.

Of course, we always stay within the boundaries of what the scriptures teach, but the scriptures are not that difficult to understand. If you have attended a basically good bible-teaching church for the past 3 years say, you have gotten plenty of Bible teaching on the basics of the Christian life. In my mind, you are ready to step out and begin to make a mark on the kingdom on your own.

Granted, I can assure you, you will be marked in most cases as being “rebellious” for stepping out to hear from the Lord on your own. You will not be encouraged to do something on your own, to hear from the Lord on your own.

This business of hearing or being directed by God’s Spirit is absolutely natural and biblical. But THIS generation has a horrible case of the fear of criticism --- the fear of failure, so it will go down in the annuls of Church history in 100 or 200 years as being the generation that took very few risks.

One last thought: Everyone who has done anything that has been noteworthy faced the fear of stepping out and doing something grand, the fear of failure.

Consider Mother Teresa. She was around 40 when she stepped out to obey the call of God upon her life to go to Calcutta and begin a home that would serve the dying in that huge city where approximately 1,000 died every day on the streets of curable diseases. She contacted the local Catholic church in Calcutta with her God-given vision. Guess what they said? Probably what they’ll say to you. “We’re doing a wonderful job with that issue already. We don’t need your help. Keep on doing what you have been doing...” That is, teach French at a cushy private girl's school in Europe. Yet she had a great audience she lived to satisfy, not the local church, who sometimes misses the boat out of their fear, shortsightedness or jealousy, but the God of heaven. That attitude persisted until...she made it onto the cover of LIFE magazine. It’s amazing how the Church’s attitude tends to change when one’s ministry makes it to the cover of a worldwide magazine a couple of times."

One of my friends asks God for a word every year that will guide him. It’s an interesting idea. If I have a word for 2006, it is “outside.” Now I’m trying to figure out what that means for me on a day to day basis. But, a beginning point is to spend more time out of the office and with people.

Jerry