No more shame...

This morning was our Women's Missions Breakfast. At the last minute I went after ensuring we had the funds. Several of you know I have been praying for a 'breakthrough' from God, a personal 'word'. I just finished reading "Summer" by Karen Kingsbury, and there was a scene where one of the characters who lost a baby was talking about how she had expected God to work with a mighty swoop of healing. But instead, He worked in a gentle whisper as He did with Elijah.

I realize I have been looking for that kind of 'working out' as well. I have read many missionary bios, and they all speak of a faith reinforced by the God who works miracles. Seems to me, He is working in a very different way in the lives of people around me these days. He is not doing what we think He ought to be doing, like healing our loved ones, like restoring our fortunes. He instead is forcing us to watch, pray, persevere, pray, trust, rest, release, pray... for extended periods. The outcome is not the one we think makes most sense. Perhaps it has to do with this:

Zephaniah 3:12(The Holy Bible, NIV)

But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the LORD.

He is involved in stripping away our masks, our self-control, our common sense, our pride. He wants to expose the core of our brokenness, to let it be exposed to the healing Light, to be transformed into beauty for all the world to see. I know He is stripping me. I feel somewhat fragile. I am so grateful for those of you who care. The Lord listens to your prayers on behalf of those who diligently seek Him.

I am not saying however that I have had a powerful breakthrough. But there are minute crack-throughs happening. Today, it was not the missionary speaker who got to me, but two of our own ladies. One of the ladies is an older Jamaican lady, now retired from an airline industry position, who goes to different countries with her travelling privileges, often visiting our missionaries. Her preference is to serve in the background, which she does most faithfully. Today, surprisingly, she asked to speak about her last visit to Cambodia. With great emotion, she spoke of the Vietnamese refugees who have no legal status there, where abject poverty causes the sale of children into prostitution, where they are called "jungle-people". She spoke of one little girl whom she hugged on a previous visit now 'sold'. Why is God bringing these little Cambodian children to our attention time and time again? Like Randy Stonehill sings, "Who will save the children?..If not us, then who..."

Then, at the end, our leader of women's ministry gave us all a blessing from Zephaniah 3. ...

14 Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel!

Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The LORD has taken away your punishment,

he has turned back your enemy.

The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;

never again will you fear any harm.

17 The LORD your God is with you,

he is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing."
18 "The sorrows for the appointed feasts I will remove from you;

they are a burden and a reproach to you.
19 At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you;

I will rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered.

I will give them praise and honor

in every land where they were put to shame.
20 At that time I will gather you;

at that time I will bring you home.

I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth

when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,"

says the LORD.

I have put on cloaks of shame in different places, most handed to me and forcibly put on, generationally and environmentally. I think about these young girls (and boys) victimized, brutalized and homeless in Cambodia. (Check here for a news clip aired tonight on CTV-W5). Then I realize that God has allowed me to taste of these emotions without undergoing their specific situations. I have tasted the sting of not belonging, the sting of betrayal and rejection, the sting of 'nothingness', the sting of abandonment, the sting of depression and hopelessness, the sting of devaluation. And because of the way God has wired me with a fragile and sensitive psyche, I have felt it more than 'regular' folk.

But today, I know the stirring of hope, that He will bring praise and honor in every place that shame has been instilled, in me, in every child so demeaned.

Sing and pray with me as you think about where you have felt 'shame', He is Mighty to Save :

He is totally sovereign! As Chris Tomlin sings in this next song, "...greater things are yet to come..."
God is using this pain and misery and ugliness as nutrients to build the richest of soils from which will emerge the most beautiful of all creations called "Beauty From Ashes." Let us praise Him for a new generation to emerge in Cambodia!