If you're faced with a critical decision about what to do with your life, this blog post is for you

You already know I didn’t have a good attitude about the thought of moving to Africa. I wanted to keep a tight grip on the life I had.

Especially I hated the thought of leaving my young adult kids.

And I didn’t want to let go of my material possessions.

And I didn’t want to leave the lovely town I lived in, Port Angeles, Washington. (If you missed that post, click on But I don’t WANT to leave Port Angeles.)

But for some reason I can’t fully explain—who can find adequate words to tell how God works in our hearts?—eventually I was open to being persuaded by Him to change my mind and go.

You know how that happens—it has happened to you: God often uses other people and their stories to grab hold of our hearts and make us want to turn and go another direction.

I wish I’d had Elisa Morgan’s book and Kay Warren’s book back then but, alas, they hadn’t written those books yet.

But if you are currently faced with a radical, life-changing decision about what to do with your life, those two books and this blog post are for you.

If you read Elisa Morgan’s She Did What She Could: Five Words of Jesus That Will Change Your Life, as well as Kay Warren’s Dangerous Surrender: What Happens When You Say Yes to God, they could inspire you like they did me:

Those two books got me all fired up. All that info went “boin-n-n-ng!” inside my heart, all crashing together, clanging inside my mind and spirit.

To begin with, Kay Warren admits that she sometimes held her fingers over her eyes when she didn’t want to see what was in front of her.

Me, too. How about you?

How many times do I look for a split-second—

• at the dying child on my TV screen,
• at the huddled masses at our border, yearning to be free,
• at the homeless person asking for a job,
• at the dying refugee propped against a downtown Nairobi building,

and then quickly turn away, as if trying to hold my fingers over my eyes, as if the person’s plight would not really exist if I didn’t look.

But you and I both know that turning away or covering our eyes doesn’t work.

I saw. From that moment on, I knew.

Ever since I moved to Africa and saw what I saw there, I’ve been talking to myself:

Now that I know about 

• rape as a weapon of war in Democratic Republic of Congo,
• children sold into slavery and prostitution,
• the crippling effects of illiteracy,
• the hopelessness of widespread corruption,
• AIDS orphans,
• the incomprehensible suffering of hundreds of thousands around the world,

Now that I know. . .

. . . am I not responsible to do something?

Maybe you are asking the same question Joan Anderson asks:

“What am I meant to do now?

What really matters?

Who am I?”

Joan Anderson,

The Road Back to Yourself: The Second Journey

Elisa Morgan points out Jesus’ words in Mark 14:3,

“She did what she could.”

And then Elisa asks, because God asks,

“What is my ‘what’?” And, “What is your ‘what’?”

Doing great things for God only in the right way and for the right reasons

Last week I shared “Dare to be great” ideas from my former pastor’s sermon.

Much of it spoke to me—even grabbed me—but a little part of it made me uncomfortable. It’s this part in which Sid said:

“Do great things for God. . . .

What could God do if every person

who has a relationship with Him

dared to be great?”

The thought wasn’t quite developed enough. And what was missing is so important!

Perhaps Sid did explain it but I didn’t remember. In any case, in last week’s blog, I overlooked a crucial ingredient. And this week I discovered what it was, and when I did, it zinged me.

If you and I are to dare to do great things for God, as Sid challenged us to do, we must do it in the right way and for the right reasons.

It’s not about how great you and I are, but how great God is. The greatness comes from Him.

In his devotional, Silent Strength for My Life, Lloyd Ogilvie pointed out that critical missing ingredient I was searching for.

He asks, “What is true greatness and how is it achieved? In the Beatitudes, Jesus gave us the eight-way test of true greatness. He listed the eight character traits He wanted His disciples to possess.

“Jesus called those who have these qualities of greatness ‘blessed.’”

To be blessed “. . . means belonging to God, being his beloved, and knowing you are chosen, called, cherished, and cared for by Him. Blessedness is experiencing unqualified grace. . . .”

Ogilvie says God planned for you and me to “experience the blessedness of the qualities of authentic greatness. . . . We have been designed for greatness according to Christ’s measurements and by His power! Each Beatitude gives us a dimension of that greatness. . . aspects of Christ’s character.” (Lloyd John Ogilvie, Silent Strength for my Life)

So doing great things for God is linked to being blessed by Him—“chosen, called, cherished, and cared for by Him.” You and I can do great things for God only in that context.

Ogilvie writes many pages about living according to the Beatitudes—no simple task—emphasizing that true greatness is based on sincere, authentic human humility.

It’s based on knowing we humans, on our own, don’t have what it takes to do great things for God—those things He wants us to do. That was what I failed to point out last week.

If we want to do great things for God, we must, in all humility, admit our human weaknesses and ask God to help us—and then trust Him to prepare and equip us and then carry out those divine assignments.

Playing life safe for fear God won’t live up to His end of the bargain

Pastor Sid didn’t beat around the bush. He just spoke plainly: “How daring are you?”

His words made me squirm. I don’t like taking risks. I avoid going out on a limb.

Sid was talking about The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 in which a master entrusted his wealth to his servants. “To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability” (verse 15, NIV). And then the master left them.

Sid was referring to stewardship. We hear that word “stewardship” a lot, but what does it mean?

Stewardship is something we manage or take care of that is not our own.

Like the guys in The Parable of the Talents, God has entrusted you and me with “talents,” things like money, time, skills, and experience. In the parable, the talents were of great value. Treasures. Blessings. Gifts.

Sid told us those “talents,” those blessings, those gifts, are not only for our own use and worldly advancement. The gifts He gave each of us are not just for our own enjoyment and material gain.

No, God’s best for us is this: That we manage our “talents” so they impact God’s work locally and around the world. That’s why He has given us all of those “talents.”

Furthermore, Sid said, the God we know in the Bible doesn’t want us to be conservative in our use of our money, time, skills, and experience.

Whoa. Read that again. God doesn't want us to be conservative in our use of money, time, skills, and experience.

Let’s get back to The Parable of the Talents. When the master returned, the five-talent and the two-talent servants had doubled their holdings.

“What did the two of them do,” Sid asked, “to double their five and two talents? They didn’t play it safe.” 

I don’t know about you but that statement, “they didn’t play it safe,” makes my stomach knot. I always want to play it safe.

Let’s look at the man with only one talent. Instead of investing it, buried it—because, he said, he was afraid.

Today we don’t dare to do great things for God, Sid said, “. . . because we fear God won’t live up to His end of the bargain.”

“. . . because we fear God won’t. . . .”

Won’t what?

Won’t give us strength and tenacity

to do hard things?

Won’t stick with us through the difficult times?

Won’t supply us with what we need along the way?

Sid said:  

The degree of safety that we invest in our lives

 indicates a lack of faith.

Gulp. Lack of faith. Being unwilling to trust God to keep the promises He’s given us in the Bible: His promises to enable us to do what He calls us to do with our talents, His promises to stick with us, to meet our needs (not necessarily wants, but needs) along the way.

It felt like Sid was pointing right at me.

He left us with questions and challenges:

Are you playing it safe with what God has given you of time, money, skills, and past experience?

How much do you trust God? Let go. Invest your “talents” in what God’s doing around the world.

Do you have God-sized dreams and investments?

Or are they too risky? Too scary?

It’s tempting, Sid said, to play it safe and take it easy. He compared life to a ship in the harbor—it’s safe there, but that’s not what ships are for. Staying in the harbor is not what its creator planned for it. What has your Creator planned for you?

And here’s Sid’s final challenge:

Do great things for God.

Trust Him. Don’t settle for playing it safe.

What could God do if every person

who has a relationship with Him

dared to be great?

“Giraffe, gentle ambler of the plains”

What a busy week! We celebrated the 4^th of July with a 6.4 earthquake, but we live far enough from the epicenter that we had no damage—just an interesting ride.

The next day we experienced a 7.1 earthquake but, again, because of our distance from the epicenter, we only felt the jolts and jerks. My heart goes out to those living in the disaster zone. May God hold them close and help them recover in so many ways.

Now we’re staying with our grandsons and our new baby grandpuppy for a few days and, as you might imagine, writing a blog post just hasn’t worked out.

Instead, I’ll share a couple of photos with you. What rich experiences I had in Africa! My favorite of the continent’s breathtaking animals is the giraffe, and I never dreamed I’d get so close to one. They are so graceful and gentle, and their eyes are so soft and beautiful.

The second is a photo I took and a Karen Blixen quote. If you haven’t seen the movie about her, Out of Africa, I encourage you to do so.

I still have to pinch myself when I think of all of Africa’s splendid animals I got to see up close and personal—sometimes in good ways, sometimes not. (More on that in future blog posts.)

So, enjoy these photos and come back next week. I have stories to tell you.

But I don’t WANT to leave Port Angeles

Sometimes people give me a funny look when they learn I worked in Africa with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

I sense they have questions but are too polite to ask. Questions like, 

“Why would you do such a thing?”

and “Weren’t you scared to go to Africa?”

Many, I suspect, think to themselves,

“There’s no way I’D move to Africa.”

My sentiments exactly!

But both God and my husband had grinned and hollered, “Africa!”

I tried so hard to avoid moving there.

Perhaps you remember the song, “Please Don’t Send Me To Africa.” (If not, don't miss it. It's hilarious. Just click on that link.)

The lyrics include: 

“Please don’t make me do something weird,” 

and 

“Please don’t make me do what I fear.… I was thinking of retiring here.”

Back then I didn’t know about that song, but I could have written those words myself.

Below is an excerpt from Grandma’s Letters from Africa that shows you a part—only a teeny-tiny part—of my struggle:

… For some reason … I couldn’t fill out the application. I tried several times. I placed my pen on the application, but I couldn’t fill in the blanks.

Finally, I figured out my problem. I didn’t want to apply to Wycliffe. I didn’t want to get rid of our furniture, our treasures, or our possessions. I didn’t want to dismantle our home.… I didn’t want to say goodbye to friends. I didn’t want to leave Port Angeles, with its forests, mountains, and sea.… 

Arriving in Port Angeles from the east

Every time I howled at God, “I don’t want…” I stomped my foot. I was carrying out a “belligerent balk.” (I think that is Chuck Swindoll’s term.)

“I don’t WANT to apply…!” Stomp!

“I don’t WANT to get rid of our furniture…!” Stomp!

“I don’t WANT to dismantle our home…!” Stomp!

“I don’t WANT to say goodbye to friends!” Stomp!

“I don’t WANT to leave Port Angeles, with its forests, mountains, and sea…!” Stomp!

When you look at these photos of Port Angeles, you’ll no doubt agree: God’s handiwork is breathtaking.

Now you can better understand why I didn’t want to leave that lovely scenery.

But I did leave. God seemed to whisper, “You don’t want to leave the beauty of Port Angeles--but wait until I show you Africa’s splendor!”

And He did. Oh, yes, He did!

How about you? Maybe you recall a time when you stomped your foot and howled at God, “I don’t WANT to…!”

Did you do it anyway? How did it turn out?

Let us know. You can leave a comment below, on Facebook, or in a private message.