Moving

I'm starting to get really nostalgic about moving and this whole leaving Austin business (I don't like the leaving Austin part). As in, Bryan Adams just came on my iTunes and I'm getting teary eyed.

This feels very similar to when I graduated from high school and it was time to move on to Austin. I had no idea what life in Austin would bring. And it's amazing to think about all the tremendous things God has done in and through me, others, and events here. It's funny how during my last two moves (Dallas to Austin, and this one), things seem to have settled so much pretty shortly before it was time to go.

In Dallas I had been lonely for much of high school. Had lots of friends, but was always ready to move on, go somewhere else, try something new. It was restlessness that drove me to dream of a new place. By junior year, the darkness of doubt and questions made me not just humanly lonely, but spiritually lonely. But God provided the most amazing friends I could have asked for, and just when it was time to leave.

So I came to Austin. And here I met challenges bigger than any I would ever imagine: the darkest days of doubt (without God, there is no true peace or hope), depression, anxiety, fear, my family being stripped from me, my idols being stripped from me, my self-confidence being stripped away, all so that God could break me and mercifully put me together as a new creation, newly aware of who He is and how good He always will be. I have seen friends hurt worse than I could fathom, I've seen hallmates chase vanity in ways that only lead to heartache, and I've watched respected leaders fall amid lies and deception.

But what I also encountered here was a light and a song like I've never seen or heard. I met Believers who woke at 8 a.m. to pray at the Tower. I met men who make it their mission to plant churches among college students. I met women who pour out the truth of God into younger women with the passion of someone who understands that their treasure really does belong at the foot of Jesus' throne in Heaven. I have met people who live for THAT day, not this day. And yet those same people have more joy in the present than would make sense to the normal observer.

Five years in Austin. Five years in God's grace. Five years of chasing truth, running from truth, being ripped apart by truth, and learning that truth is the sweetest honey to my lips I will ever find. Truth has put a song in my heart. Truth overrides how ugly that same heart often is. Truth leads me, guides me, assures me.

Five years in Austin - and an encounter with truth. And it's that same truth that tells me I have to leave.

God Called us to be Helpers

So, I just learned today that Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was married for seven years. Before he died in 1917, he had published only one book. Yet today, we have 30 works in his name! How did that happen?

According to a biography by RBC Ministries, the reason we have his works today is, largely, his wife:

Although Oswald Chambers wrote only one book, Baffled to Fight Better, more than thirty titles bear his name. With this one exception, published works were compiled by Mrs. Chambers, a court stenographer, from her verbatim shorthand notes of his messages taken during their seven years of marriage.

In other words, Mrs. Chambers spent much of married life copying down her husband's messages. And then she spent a few weeks or so publishing his sermons, right? WRONG! RBC goes on to say that for the next fifty years, Mrs. Chambers "labored" to give her husband's words to the world. This further cements two ideas that God has been teaching me in the past year or so:

1. We never know how God wants to use our giftings to build His kingdom in the future, so we have yet another reason to work with all our hearts in the "small" and the "large" tasks. I doubt Mrs. Chambers was born with the revealed knowledge that she would one day need court stenography skills to bless the world with solid Biblical teaching. Maybe, but I doubt it. So, praise God that He equipped her with those abilities and then employed them for His work. Lord, may I be open to any kind of preparation You are doing in me right now!

2. Without constantly dreaming of future ministry, or bigger and better ministry, each individual should worship and serve God in the place assigned to him or her. Mrs. Chambers was a wife, and she was therefore called to be a helper to her husband. "Helping" often means laying aside all personal ambition to stand as a pillar, support, and encouragement to the one who is helped. I wonder if Mrs. Chambers had ever dreamed of another vocation - perhaps she had once wanted to excel to the top of her career.

But God had called Mrs. Chambers to be a helper. So she spent seven years taking notes on messages. Then she spent another 50 years transcribing those notes, editing them, finding willing publishers, negotiating contracts, and finally seeing those notes published.

Be the Part You Are

Let's rise above the common lie that to be a helper is to be a non-essential part of the body. Many people lie to us in the name of "dignity" and "empowerment." They teach us that a career, a hobby, or even a mere sense of personal pride are more important than laying down our lives, serving husbands, and raising children. But we have an answer for those lies. The answer is rooted in Scripture. And that Scripture finds expression in the lives of women like Mrs. Chambers, who spent a marriage - and a life - helping. Thank goodness she did.

Mrs. Chambers exemplified once important principle that applies to the married and to the single: function in the body as the part you were designed to be. For Mrs. Chambers, that meant being a married woman who served her husband well. For me at this point, it means loving Jesus with every ounce of my life as a single, as a student, and in the various roles in my church, family, and friendships.

Understanding God's Heart for Wives and Mothers Renews our Mind

It's important to understand God's heart for wives and mothers for two reasons. First, it renews our mind about the future and teaches us to view marriage with dignity. Be honest: how do you view the role of a full-time mom? I grew up around several people who made fun of stay-at-home mothers. It was as if being a mother was petty or trifiling. I even mocked girls who wanted to be wives, arrogantly promoting careers and ministry positions (as if motherhood and ministry are always two separate pursuits!). Yes, there are some moms who use motherhood to pursue comfort and vanity. Many, however, exemplify sacrifice, caring, and service to their families. The Biblical calling on a mother's life is a good and holy one. Let's not take that calling lightly. When we understand that God has called wives to be helpers, we understand that He has a precious plan for women who obey that calling.

Singleness is Not a Waiting Room

Understanding God's heart for our role as women is also important because it renews our minds toward the present and teaches us to view singleness with dignity. Most of us singles will marry. Some of us are called to lifelong singleness. Regardless, we see in Scripture that we have a calling and a purpose to serve God here, now. When a woman is married, her husband is her head - she follows him as he follows Christ. For the single woman, Christ is her head. Therefore, she is called to serve Him.

Paul encourages the church in Corinth:

"...But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (I Cor 15:57-58, emphasis added).

... and that was to the married and the unmarried. What a privilege! We are called to "always" abound in the work of the Lord! That means that singleness is not a waiting room where we listlessly sit around and hope to get married because then life would really begin. No! We have the blessing - the holy calling from God - to serve Him now.

That "always" means the future, ten years from now. It also means now, this minute. That's the great thing about God's promises - we don't have to wait to trust them and to act on them.

Therefore, we have several promises to claim. We take God at His word when He says in Genesis 2 that woman was made as man's helper. We trust that by faith in Christ's sinless life, death, and resurrection as our substitute, we are able to know God and be deeply known by Him. Because we have the hope of eternal life, we are victorious over death and any fear. Because we have this eternal victory with Christ, earthly sacrifice only makes eternal life sweeter. We can serve God joyfully, because we know the outcome: life.

And we have more promises to claim that help us as we walk toward that life: His power is made perfect in our weakness. What He has begun in us, He will carry out to completion. If He demands something of us, He will give us the grace to obey.

It is a precious and blessed thing to be a helper called by the Lord.