A Convenient Season For Obedience

In my quiet time this morning, I was convicted and challenged by two passages: Acts 24:25 and 16:6-11. In Acts 24:25, Paul writes, "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." This passage compelled me to consider, how many of us are waiting for "a more convenient season" to say "yes" to His call on our lives? How many of us are waiting for a more convenient season for obedience? How many times have I put God off until faith becomes sight when faith precedes seeing? Convenience is fickle, circumstantial at best and a cop out at worst. I am convinced that obedience season is now; faith requires a leap into the nebulous unknown. Whispers of this concept are conveyed in the Old Testament in 2 Chronicles 29:11, "My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that you should minister to him..." Let me not be negligent in my obedience by waiting on convenience.

Which brings me to my second challenge Acts 16:9, in which Paul recounts a dream, "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us." The verse is embedded in a context of closed doors, denied access, and inevitable frustration and disappointment. Paul and his traveling companion Timothy were attempting to spread the Gospel to Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade them and "suffered them not." This is when Paul was given the dream/vision beckoning him to Macedonia, a place previously overlooked and unconsidered. This verse resonated with me profoundly as I had always felt called to Latin American countries or possibly African countries, but Asia had never even crossed my heart or mind. And yet here I am on Don Khone, one of the Four Thousand Islands in Laos, teaching English in Pakse after having taught in Mongolia last summer and China the summer before. And yet it is here in Laos that I have heard the call, the cry for English teachers, like nowhere else. From acquaintances off the street to brothers and sisters in the church to foreign full time staff in the schools, the sources are myriad but the supplication is the same. "Come over into Laos, and help us; we want to learn English!" So I have decided to go. Choosing to give obedience precedence over convenience.

And yet, like Gideon, I do so with tenacious temerity. In accordance with the way the Lord sent the animals on their journey on the ark two by two and the disciples out to spread the Gospel in pairs, I lay down my fleece: if God is calling me to be a missionary, He will provide for me a community of teammates who are like minded and together we can serve of one heart and one purpose, lifting one another up and encouraging one another in the faith and in glorifying the God to Whom we have been called and Who has called us.