The good is always the enemy of the best

I love love love the book My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I've been reading it pretty much nonstop since 2001. I took a year off in there somewhere to read a different devotional, and quickly went back to it. One of my favorite quotes is from the May 25th entry, and though I know it is not even close to May 25, this quote and idea have surfaced again in the last few weeks of my life:

The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best... Many of us do not go on spiritually because we prefer to choose what is right instead of relying on God to choose for us.

Wow. "The good is always the enemy of the best." How many times have I seen that proved true? There are so many things in life that are good, they just aren't God's best for us. One thing that has really struck me this week is that even though I am living in an affluent area of the United States, I do not cease to be surrounded by need. What's tricky here is that it's not financial need or very often physical needs. It's not as obvious as an Argentine orphanage or slum. But there is still a cry from people who have so much, and yet they are empty. Their good is falling so short of best. It's so easy when I am here to start to believe that somehow things that are good- technology and clothes and even experiences like travel- will somehow satisfy me, instead of trusting in God's best and remembering that many of the happiest days of my life were when I actually had the least stuff.

But good isn't just material stuff. Everywhere we turn we are making decisions and choosing paths. And at every juncture there is a God who loves us deeply, more than we could know, and He knows what is best for us, even if it doesn't look that way to us. The truth is, the very best thing in all the world is to know Jesus. And whatever in life brings me closer to Jesus, that is what is best for me. That's the goal, always. Know him more. Because we cannot worship or glorify that which we do not know. The more I know about Christ the more I can praise him, trust him, and adore him. That's why we consider it all a loss for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ, because there isn't anything better.

Kingdom Without Borders

I've been back in the US for 2 months now, and most surface things that once shocked me no longer do (save the gigantic "medium" beverage I had at Hardee's last week). It's amazing how small the world can be, meaning that no matter which country I'm in, I do spend most of my time in a very small geographic region, easily forgetting that the world continues to live and breathe across large expanses. I was in the library about 2 weeks ago, sifting through my favorite section: New Nonfiction. So many gems to be found there, and this trip was no exception. In addition to walking away with The Eastern Stars (the story of sugar and baseball in a small Dominican Republic town), I also picked up Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity. Though still 70 pages from the end, I can't recommend it enough.

Throughout its pages, Miriam Adeney tells countless stories about believers across the world, primarily in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. I found her story telling scattered at first, and it took me a good bit to get into the book, but now I can't put it down. Reading the stories of what God is doing across his Kingdom encourages and inspires me as I hope and seek to return abroad for the 2011-2012 school year. I read about Chinese believers sending missionaries back west on the Silk Road, about native missionaries in India and Brazil, about Iranian Christians reaching out with the gospel despite the government. Adeney never implores her reader to get involved in global missions, never nudges towards giving- she simply tells the stories, and through them, one cannot help but want to get involved in either sending or going. And the truth is, the global church is growing at an astonishing rate. It makes me wonder if the traditional western church is going to be left behind.

I've never been a big reader of missions books or many of the modern fad-like Christian books out there, but this one I love. Simple, unpretentious, and compelling, it gets me excited about educational mission opportunities I might discover when the job search process begins. It gets me excited to learn another language, to observe and learn another culture, to teach kids from so many different backgrounds. And it reassures me that whether or not we personally can see the fruit, God is indeed doing a mighty work for his Kingdom in my generation.

A Wandering Mind

I find my mind wandering often lately; I can't seem to concentrate through an entire conversation, especially if it's not one-on-one. I'm not sure where my brain goes necessarily, sometimes to the people and places of Argentina. I assume this is all part of the transition process- not being able to keep my head in one time and place. I don't know if anyone else notices this wandering (hopefully I'm not that out of it). In some ways I feel lucky to be in this state of great transition. I think that in many ways, we all live in a state of constant transition to some degree or another, and I just happen to be fortunate enough to really notice and consider it. Transition, like so many other hurdles in life, causes us to reach out for what is true and steady and sure, and more than ever I am able to realize what the one constant in my life really is. God's presence is as near and real now as it has ever been and his consistency teaches me to lean on him in deeper ways. I am continually amazed at how he is not only Mighty God, but also Everlasting Father, how God, Todopoderoso, can also be my Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace. When life holds more questions than it does answers (and really, when does life ever really hold many answers?) if gives us the privilege of taking the light for the step we're on and trusting that by the time we need to take the next step, the light will shine on it. Until then, when my mind walks away, mid conversation, sometimes I will do what I can to bring it back, and at others, I'll simply let it float, being in whatever place and with whichever people it needs to in that moment.