When Sermon, Story & Life Meet At the Beach

To the beach! We’ve been looking forward to this much needed rest! The last several months have been a long push-to-the-finish leg of an even longer ministry journey. But, praise the Lord, the Oroko New Testament (with Genesis) is typeset and off to the publishers! For almost the last twenty years, this has been our major tangible goal. We’re not entirely sure what’s next, but for now, it’s off to the beach.

 

But, even as we’ve anticipated vacation time, we’ve sensed a need to rejuvenate, not just zone out in front of movies and games the whole vacation. Yes, let’s play at the beach and enjoy family time (which has unfortunately had its share of neglect the last few months), but let’s also take time to listen to God, reflect on life, and think.

 

So Sunday was our first full day here, and we decided to start the day with a video sermon (Thanks Grace Pointe!). The topic? Don’t serve the god of comfort. Don’t settle into that sought-after comfortable life. Now you’d think there isn’t much fear of that here on the mission field in Cameroon. Even at the beach, “comfort” is mostly of our own making. But, the sermon pushed on and we were challenged that sometimes we become “comfortable” in hardship, because it is a hardship we chose and want to do - it has already become our comfort zone. Are we willing and ready to go wherever God wants and do what he wants, giving up our chosen parameters of hardship?

 

After the sermon, since the tide was still a little high, we decided to continue the book we started reading together in the car on our drive here to the beach. The book? Fellowship of the Ring (book 1 of Lord of the Rings). For a while now, we’ve been promising our son Joshua that we would read Lord of the Rings together. He’s highly motivated to listen, because we’ve also told him that we’re not going to show him the movie (or any parts of it) until he’s read the book.

 

So, in the story today...guess what? “Don’t get comfortable!” was a major theme. Frodo is just beginning to learn that he has been called to be part of a big adventure - a big, difficult, overwhelming kind of adventure WAY outside of his comfort zone! Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:

 

“I wish it (the growing of evil) need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

...

“Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.” (“It is not,” said Frodo.)

 

So, sermon and story have met. Here at the beach in a break from regular life. A regular life that is transitioning and about to become unregular. Now matter which direction our ministry takes next, it is going to be different. The primary focus of our work for several years has been translating the New Testament. It’s done. What does God want us to do next? Are we willing to step outside of our comfort zone and do whatever he asks? Or are we just going to pick ministry that seems comfortable to us, the best logical use of our skills? May God grant us the courage of Frodo to follow whatever path is laid before us!