You don’t know which way the wind blows

The other night I had a dream.  I usually have dreams at night, often quite vivid ones, but I seldom remember them.  But this one I did, at least the general gist of it.

I was going to do that crazy thing people have tried in recent years—using helium filled balloons to take myself on a flight.  But unlike some—who have done things like attach them to a lawn chair—I just made two large bunches and then looped them under each armpit to lift me off the ground.

The next bit was a bit weird as well.  Rather than take off into open space, I used the balloons to assist me in a form of modified rock climbing—I sort of crawled up the face of some very tall cliff using the balloons to help me up.  But then I came up on a problem.

When I got to the top I realized I had not checked to weather report, so I did not know what either the low altitude or high altitude wind directions were.  As a consequence, when I got to the top I did not want to let go of the cliff because I had no idea where I would end up when I got caught up in the wind.

I woke up at that point and the dream stayed with me.  It seemed to have real implications for my life.

Sometimes we don’t want to make a particular decision because we’re not sure what the consequences of a decision will be.  It may be that we feel God wants us to make a decision, but it feels risky because we will be giving up a lot personal control in our lives and end up having to trust God more.  (Granted, we are not omniscient and we never really know where any of our decisions will end up taking us.)

One of our key values at MB Mission is “Risk-taking Obedience”.  It seemed like we were holding to that value quite strongly a few years ago when we quit our jobs in Fresno and joined MB Mission.  “Is that really God calling us?” we asked ourselves.  And we certainly did not know either where we thought that decision might take us or where it actually would take us!

As we look back over our first term in Thailand we can see positive things like:

• God has been faithful to provide for us financially as we have followed in obedience to the call we felt we heard.
• We’ve been able to touch the lives of a lot of people with the love of Jesus who would not otherwise have had an opportunity to experience it.

But the first term has with been filled with difficulties as well

• The Thai language is really hard to learn!
• We’ve been on three teams in three locations in our first term, and have arrived at neither where our first plan was to go nor where our second plan was to go.

And now as we look to the future and what our next term will look like we see a couple of possible options, both of which have us saying to ourselves: “I’m not sure I’m up to that”,

And that’s where another core value of MB Mission comes in: Dependency on Jesus.  As we look to the future and all that might be required of us we need to decide whether we will approach it with dread or rather approach it with excitement—because it is an opportunity for the power of God to shine through our weakness.  By the grace of God we will do the latter.

²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
²⁵ Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
²⁶ If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

John 12:24-26 (ESV)

So, God, help us to let go of the cliff and let our balloons get caught up in the wind of your spirit.  We choose to let You pick the direction by breath of Your Spirit.