Over the past two years

Recently Claire asked me to create a timeline of events that have shaped and propelled the phase of life that we are currently in, more specifically our pursuit of and calling to start a coffee business as means to reach people for Christ. For the past couple of weeks I have avoided this task like the plague. It has been two years and change since we decided to leave our jobs with Campus Outreach, move back to Charleston and run hard after this vision: using a for-profit business to combine commerce with gospel mission. We started in a dead sprint fully convinced of God’s calling in our lives. Now, it’s two years later and we are still convinced of God’s calling on our lives but we have realized that God is a God of marathons and not of sprints. It is a painful thing to learn to hang in there over and over again when it seems the end is in sight but it’s just another water station providing enough refreshment to keep running. It is also a painful thing for God to take your value system and your worldview and to tear them away and begin to reconstruct them around his value system and his view of the world.

It is a hard task for me to recount the past two years because I love comfort and ease and it has been anything but those two things. However, I have learned one thing in the past two years…just because it is uncomfortable and it hurts doesn’t mean it is bad or that God hasn’t specifically ordained it. Nowhere in the Bible does God say that he wants us to have comfort or happiness. He does, however, love for us to have joy. You see, happiness and comfort are completely based on our circumstances. If things are going well according to our value system or world view, then we are usually happy or we feel comforted. But what happens when something outside of our control opposes or denies us what we value? We become unhappy or uncomfortable. Take, for instance, the Apsotle Paul. He valued (like all of us do) not experiencing pain. So, he pleaded with the Lord three times for him to take the pain away(2 Cor 12:9). “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” God’s power… I like, my weakness…I hate. Then, there is that dreaded exortation from James, our Lord’s brother (James 1;2), “Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds.” Joy in trials? This, I continue to learn…Joy can be had in any and all circumstances, even when I feel uncomfortable or unhappy. Joy is possible even when everything in this world looks bleak and hopeless. My joy is based on what is to come. Because of Jesus I now have a new hope, a hope in what is to come. Even though I resisted him and insisted on having life on my own terms, he still patiently pursued me and rescued me from the penalty for rebelling against the God who created the universe. The punishment I deserve was taken out in full on his own son two thousand years ago. And now that he has reconciled me to himself by allowing Christs perfect punishment to count as my own, he has declared me as having taken Christs identity as my own as his own son…forever! Henceforth, I have the option of aprehending this and having joy inexpressible. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Sorry to be so long winded in my introduction but this reality never ceases to amaze me. It is a hard thing for me to be completely content in my identity as a son of the God of the Universe. In words, it seems easy enough. But when living this way completely contradicts everything that we hear on a day to day basis, it is difficult. Joy in difficulty…power in weakness…these lessons sum up the past two years for Claire and I. There has been lots and lots of weakening and reweakening and there have been many opportunities to seek joy in our difficulties. And there have even been times when we actually trust God in the midst of all of it.

So, I think for the sake of my own faith and for the ecouraging of those who have followed our lives and who are praying for us, I will put together a timeline of our progress and God’s faithfulness. However, for the sake of your eyes reading this blog I won’t make this posting any longer. Please check back soon and see the snapshot of our journey over the past two years.

TO BE CONTINUED….