“What needs doing in the world is less than what’s already been done”

P.T. Forsyth’s words ring like a strange song from an imaginary land. Everything in and around us screams out for us to do more, give more, accomplish more.  Inadequacy, insufficiency and incompleteness seem to dominate our lives and world. Amidst this tumultuous noise, the  Spirit speaks to us the news that “God is good at God’s job, and God isn’t worried about the future of our lives, our families, our ministries or our world.”

“Without confidence in a completely trustworthy God, we are likely to approach our life in the world as an impossible, precarious human enterprise. We’ll feel as though we have tasks and needs that are absurdly unrealistic, and equally absurdly, all up to us…People who are committed to mission and who long to see changes occur in our world are especially prone to being addicted to our own efforts. We live on the brink of breakdown. We relentlessly try to fill the black hole of needs, disasters and emptiness with the limited resources of our over busy lives. We take on more than we can possibly manage and then feel sucked into the holes we were trying to fill. We know this doesn’t work. When we’re honest, we sometimes feel like God isn’t even succeeding at meeting our own needs. There doesn’t feel like there is much left over to give away to the world.”

As we move into Lent, I will offer reflections over the coming week on the utter reliability and resolute sufficiency of God’s power at work in us and in our world.

Quotation from Dearborn, Beyond Duty: A Passion for Christ, A Heart for Mission (2013: 36-37). Available on Amazon US, UK, India, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain.