They warn you, they tell you, you read accounts of what it is like on the mission field. You nod your head, agree, and think things like, “Yes, I’m prepared!” or “Wow, but I think I’ll be ok!”. But the mission field can be very lonely. In a good way most of the time, but lonely none the less. In a way, I feel like God has been preparing us for this over the years. Slowly moving us out of circles of friends and away from our old stopping grounds, and usual places and people. Pressing me into Him and Him alone.
But sometimes you just miss hanging with family and friends on a Friday night or being able to stop in to have a cup of coffee with your best friend. You think about a friend back home but realize it’s 2:00 in the morning back in the states and well, no point in messaging, you think, as you plan on doing it later. But then life gets in the way and you don’t get to it. You see a message from someone at 10:00pm at night but are just crawling into bed, and so tired so you say to yourself, I’ll read it in the morning. Keeping up with family and friends is hard from the field. It’s hard as you are trying to communicate on a grand scale with everyone via newsletters, blog posts (which I haven’t gotten to lately!), emails, and social media posts. But also keeping up with individual relationships becomes difficult. You have people vying for your attention on the field and those from home who need you as well. You have your organization who needs emails from you, conference calls abound and the hours of your day ebbe away. You are trying to balance all of it, but sometimes you feel like you are failing.
In the days when it feels like things are not working and tears of missing everyone seep from my eyes, the goodness of God overflows in His friendship. A friendship that is available to us. His Word says, “And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.” Also in John 15:13-15 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
It is unbelievable that the God of the universe, the creator of everything, the God who is holy, holy, holy, and worthy of all our praise and who does His will on this earth is also a God who comes close to us as a friend. The presence of our Father God on a morning when the ache for those from home is crushing your heart is the most precious hug you can receive. He is there, listening to us, to you, He wants to be invited into my pain, my ache, and yours. He has something to say to us, and when He speaks we see Him in all the fullness of who He is. We fall on our knees in awe and at the same time cry out, Abba Father. And then and only then can we say, not my will but yours be done. The words that are written in my journal continually are, “I trust You.” The two things we see in the above verses are believe and obey, then we are friends of God. Where do you need to believe and obey? Even in your hurt or pain? His friendship waits.
God is there waiting to be a friend. And because He is GOD, the one true God, He can touch your life in a way no one else can. What a friend we have in Jesus! Thank goodness for the friendship of God. The lover of our souls….healer of our hearts….guide to our journey.
