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Mountains of Purpose

by | Sep 18, 2017 | Missions Articles

I lift my eyes up to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. – Psalm 121:1-2

Have you been asking God what he wants you to do with your life, and you’re not getting an answer? Well, think for a moment if you’re really not getting an answer, or if you’re just not getting the answer you want.
I had my own plans for myself, my wife, and our young son and daughter. Continue to live comfortably in America in the pleasant and predictable life we had built for ourselves. This would have been fine… there’s nothing wrong with that… but it just wouldn’t have been right for us. One day, God started working on me, or at least, I finally started to notice that God was working on me. The complete and comfortable family life we had built for ourselves was wonderful, but there was clearly something missing. God brought discontentment and longing for purpose into my heart, even though I had every worldly comfort and relational support a person should need.

First, God told me to join the prayer team at church. I said no. Then he told me again, to which I said no again. Only after growing weary of months of struggling with God did I relent and do what he had asked me to do. And it was the best choice of my life. Through the prayer team, I was able to minister to others, as well as witness the faithful example of so many other servants of Christ, more mature in their spiritual development, and able to give me the guidance I so desperately needed, and continue to need every day. Eventually, my wife and I were called to short term missions. She had spent a semester of college living in Honduras, and she had often said we should move there. I always told her she was crazy. But we went for a week in June 2016 to help work on some classrooms being built at a school there. The last day we were there, God showed up in a major mystical way – mystical doesn’t mean magical, it’s just the word we use to describe the way God talks to us individuals directly, because he does. He used the beautiful landscape of Honduras and Psalm 121 to tell me that he was going to keep me and my family safe in the mountains of Honduras. Now this was both extremely comforting and extremely unsettling to me, because I had absolutely no intention of moving my family to Honduras.

A couple weeks later, we got to meet the school director in the states. He said they really needed teachers. Later that night, I asked my wife what she would think if I taught at the school in Honduras. She looked at me like I was crazy. Then later, my wife (who is a nurse) pointed out to me that there’s a medical clinic in the same town that actually has strong relational ties to people in our hometown in the US. So the opportunity was there for her to volunteer.

Now we’re here, and we’ve got about a month in of teaching and nursing. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been full of joy and purpose. The mountains are beautiful. The people are vibrant and welcoming and genuinely caring. The rain is just as unpredictable as the electrical infrastructure, adding mystique to the idyllic landscape. And our children are just old enough to attend preschool at the same place where I teach high school science, so I get to see them at work every day.

The school is in the mountains, and we rent a house that’s even higher up the mountain. Our new neighbor just happens to be the pastor of a small church that’s across the street, which has become our home church here in Honduras. The first time we attended, our pastor used several scriptures in his message. He finished up his sermon with Psalm 121.

So don’t just keep asking God what he wants you to do with your life. Instead, tell him you’re ready to do what he says, and you’ll hear from him. Then actually do it… whatever he says. It may be nothing like what you expect, but he will fill your service with both joy and purpose.

By: Luke Joyce

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