My word going into 2019 was 'expectation'. We had thrown off a lot of things that were familiar and gave us security. We had made a really big leap.
And I believed, with wholehearted expectation, that the game plan....our big picture would reveal itself relatively quickly once we obeyed the call to set those things aside.
Instead, our expectation is being drawn out in a process much longer than I anticipated.
It's been a couple months since I wrote the first part of this story - But the Cannibals, Part 1. So much has happened, and yet not a lot has changed. For some reason I couldn't quite bring myself to write the second part of that blog post. The words were escaping me to explain what the title I chose meant to us.
But, I need to finish that thought because it helps to explain how we got to where we are.
In the book 'Radical' by David Platt he challenges the reader to examine the Christian status quo and ask ourselves if that's really what Jesus meant by taking up our cross and following him. He reminded us that Jesus calls us to a radical worldview that dramatically changes the way we relate to the world around us.
In Chapter 8 he tells the story of John Paton (1824 - 1907) a promising young Scottish pastor who felt the call to the New Hebrides - Pacific islands with known cannibalistic people. Many people tried to dissuade him. One older man in particular would exclaim, "The Cannibals! You will be eaten by the Cannibals."
This was John Paton's reply, "Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms: I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by the Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeneess of our risen Redeemer."
What faith!
Shortly after reading this story, I came across two other stories that in some way involved cannibals.
The next one was something I saw on Facebook... a video called "Never the Same" based on the book "Peace Child" by Don Richardson....another story of missionaries who were trying to reach a cannibalistic people group with the Gospel. They found an opportunity when they became aware of a practice where two warring tribes would exchange a peace child as a sign of their promise to keep the peace. This was an unexpected opening to sharing who Jesus is and how He came to reconcile us to God.
And finally, one of our pastors shared something during a sermon about the true story behind the novel Moby Dick. The whaling boat, The Essex, had been severely damaged by a whale and was slowly sinking. The crew had no choice but to leave The Essex and take three 20 foot boats to land.
The closest land was a group of islands. But, they were convinced that these were inhabited by cannibals. So, they chose a different route to land further away. Starvation and trouble followed them. And, as crew members died, the survivors themselves resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.
So why did I find these three stories significant in our process?
Well, the simplest analogy is that in each of these stories I could see how cannibals represented fear.
Fear is something with which I am well acquainted. And I have to admit that I've allowed fear to rule many of my decisions over the years.
But, here's what I saw in each these stories.
In the story of John Paton - he didn't let fear hold him back.
In the story of the Peace Child - fear isn't what it seems, there is a way through the fear
In the story of The Essex - when we give in to fear we can become what we fear.
It didn't seem an accident that these were the messages I was getting in the midst of making some of the biggest decisions of our life.
But now what?
(More to come)
