Tell Me To Come

It wasn’t that we woke up one day and decided to move to the other side of the world. Before we were married God  told us independently that we would be outside Canada.

We didn’t know the where, when, why, or how but knew God would reveal it in time and we were to simply do the best with what we had while we had it.

When we were considering me becoming the Senior Pastor of RCF, I asked God to tell me if I should be looking to leave the country then, or if He would give me a timeframe for how long we would be at the church.

Three times 2005 came into my mind. That was seven years away and I was too young and too much in the  immediate to consider that was really a time from God. I felt at peace at taking on the challenge at RCF, knowing God would reveal where He would lead us.

Over the years I contacted people from around the world and slowly our focus got narrowed to New Zealand. In short order we were asked to consider a position in Palmerston North. We went down to investigate telling God, “If it’s you command us to come, and we’ll step out of the boat. Long story short, no command came but I knew Palmerston North was the place and the when would be made clear.

The call became clear about a year later. Things at the church became less of a challenge and we had confirmations we may explain later that told us it was time to go. Dad had still not been diagnosed with A.L.S. when we told the family we were leaving in six months, but the symptoms were starting to show and the diagnosis would be soon coming. Challenge returned to the church before we left, but we were blessed with a wonderful send off from our church family.

My family spent Christmas in LA and we joined them soon after for a few days in Disneyland before continuing onto Auckland. It was tough to leave the family not knowing if we’d ever see Dad again this side of heaven. I asked God to let us gather as a family again not to mourn, but to celebrate.  But we knew God had confirmed he was on the waves and told us to come after him and step out of the boat. We had to keep our eyes on him, not the waves.

But everyone needs to do that, don’t we? The waves of our circumstance quickly grab our attention and it is so easy to start to sink.

Isn’t it incredible that Christ is always there to grab our hand when we get overwhelmed and lift us back to safety?

So why did Christ chastise Peter for his lack of faith and not the eleven still in the boat?

Don’t know, but I know I’d rather be chastised than ignored.

–Trevor Lund