Chosen (WIL 17)

I spent the first twenty years of my life trying to become something I'm not - normal, ordinary. In effort to assimilate myself, I dressed a particular way, educated myself on language and topics that are Hip, listened to trendy music, worked to make my Faith Safe for others and for myself.

I spend the next ten years resigning myself to my differences, then learning (slowly) to glory in them, to Value my honesty, my transparency, my Beliefs. I've grown to see myself more as God does and to love who He is remaking me into - the woman He intended all along.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised form the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" (Rom 6:4).

Last year, God confirmed a call He's been placing on my heart. (A calling is something I: do for God, receive; it generally promises difficulty and even some suffering, but is an opportunity to be used by God. A Calling generally leads to downward mobility. (If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat, Ortberg.)) After gaining much ground in Relishing my qualities and character, He is calling me to look, in one exterior aspect, like most other people my age. He has called us to Parenthood - not only Biologically, but through Adoption as well.

One comfort I've had through this journey of valuing who I am, and am becoming, is my similarity to my family. They are supportive and understanding exactly when I need them to be. We have complementary personalities and giftings. We perceive and approach the world the same ways. We struggle with many similar issues.

Yet, this week, I heard the questions: What if they don't understand this Calling? Would you still follow?

Jesus lamented: "No prophet is accepted in his hometown" (Luke 4:24). He was a Prophet, but the people who knew Him best could not accept His Calling from God, to be humanity's Perfect Lamb, our Savior.

God's work and calling is always easy to put off, always easy to assign to someone else's plate. Being a Christ-follower is a Good Thing, as long as it's not dangerous, doesn't cost anything unreasonable, doesn't require Me to Go.

In his book, The Hole in Our Gospel, Richard Stearns compares Christians to sleeper cells, waiting for directions from Christ for action. "We were confronted with a choice, which required us to reorder our priorities and our lives to become completely available to God, without conditions. We had become radioactive, post-resurrection Christians. We had joined the social revolution envisioned by Jesus for His coming kingdom in a deeper way than ever before" (p. 247). When they chose to move to Seattle, they said Yes to God in ways they hadn't before.

God has done a marvelous work in me, but He is now calling me to sacrifice my Desire to be Different from others. In learning to value my uniqueness, I am enabled to see more through His eyes. Now, like Abraham - called to sacrifice his beloved son Issac, I am called to lay down that which I've worked long and hard for. In return, God promises "to do immeasurably more than all [I] ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within [me]. 21To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Eph. 3:20-21).

The Few Sacrifice for the Many (WIL 2)

This year, our kitchen faucet has been serviced 4 times (as of tonight at 5pm). The culprits are many - 50 year old pipes, newer faucets that don't filter the water coming from the street, and the newest: underground drilling shaking loose deposits into the water mains.

The Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant is a 10 year old sore spot. This new plant residing in Snohomish County (barely) will serve King County's burgeoning population. But, the digging that rattles my house was not in the project plan. Three-hundred feet below our Bothell house is a tunnel from the plant in Woodinville traveling straight west to Edmonds and into Puget Sound. New delays, due to broken boring machines and the presence of unexpected groundwater, put the tunnel 2 years behind schedule...and counting.

Thus, our entire neighborhood - perhaps city - is clogging with the extra gunk of agitation. The few - City of Bothell, population 33,240 (2009, 17,260 in King County) is sacrificing: water pressure, everyday conveniences, extra time spent at the sink waiting for enough water to rinse dishes, to fill a bottle, to wash hands. The water dribbles into my filter pitcher and makes so little noise that I forget it's on - until it's run over and I notice it the next time I'm in the kitchen. All these little sacrifices for the many - King County population 1,826,732 (2009).

My sacrifices are minute compared to most examples. I am required to make these sacrifices because I have no power to change the circumstances - I cannot make groundwater evaporate, finish the digging, fix complicated machines. Like it or not, our freedom and autonomy is imposed upon all the time. I have to swallow hard and modify my life and habits to accommodate the needs of strangers moving into the area.

I could resent it, but that is a waste of energy. Life is full of sacrifices, big and small, personal and collective. The Greater Good is an altruistic ideal we all hold closely. Our innate sense of justice, flawed as it can be, aches for Good to prevail. 

Jesus sacrificed: his time (Luke 4:40), rest (Luke 4:42, 9:10-11), his freedom and right to life (Matthew 26:39, 42). He recognized that his life was not his own (John 6:57) and he relinquished his grip on his own will, living with open hands, culminating in his sacrificial death on the cross.

The few sacrifice for the many - Jesus sacrificed for All. He calls each of us to follow him, to live our lives with open hands, to receive his patience, to sacrifice big and small things, to see his glory increase. Suddenly, my plumbing problems seem so insignificant.