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The Purpose of Movement

 


I’ve been contemplating my decision to move out of Cedar for almost a year. Is this the right timing, and am I going to the right place? A previous negative experience kept gnawing at me every now and then, and I wasn’t completely at peace. It didn’t help that the last half a year at Cedar was absolutely wonderful, leaving me wondering if I should have stayed longer. 

God finally spoke to me during church camp. Much as I have been doing well and have been effective where I am, things are becoming “automatic”. Where I used to pray instinctively because I wasn’t entirely sure how to get through to a student, I have been more prone to rely on my experience as a first response, before going to God, if at all. When we are doing well, when we are in our comfort zone, it is easy for God to drop out of the picture, and we risk spiritual stagnation. 

In the comfort of the garden of Eden, lacking nothing, Adam and Even fell. In the safety of Pharoah’s court, Moses committed murder. In the glory of his victories, David gave in to adultery. In the wealth of Sodom, Lot was corrupted. 

On the other hand, it’s in the wilderness, on the move, in their moments of need, that great men and women of the Bible met God. At the age of 75, Abraham was called to move out of the comfort of his home, before he received the blessing to be the father of many nations. Joseph was displaced from his home, and it was in the desperation of his slavery and imprisonment, that the foundations were laid for him to later rise to be Pharoah’s No. 2. Paul, with the power of the Sanhedrin, persecuted Christians. But it was in his many missionary journeys that he truly received the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. 

As I move out of my own comfort zone, I become keenly aware of my own inadequacies. I rediscover the need for renewed grace from God, and experience new mercies, because I am again vulnerable. For His strength is made perfect in my weakness. God in Christ became like us, so that we in Christ might become like God. However, our journey to become like God takes more than beholding the image of Christ. It requires continuous training, and spiritual blindness can return if we are not careful. This church camp, God is saying to me, “It's time to go”, and He will go before me. It's time for me to move, so that I may continue in the journey of transfiguration. 

Jesus's call to "Come follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men" (Matt 4:19) is an invitation to leave our place of comfort to follow Him and go where He may lead. Jesus’s own ministry started when he moved out of Nazareth. In fact, he also said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matt 8:20). My master is on a permanent road trip. So perhaps I should be too.


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