Recently I texted with a friend from Vienna who's about to move with her husband and kids to yet another missions field (this will be the third move in a half-dozen years).
"You think we're crazy?" she wrote.
I thought for a moment about my own family's recent decision to accept a ministry position after we'd only been in our current city for two years. We are putting a home on the market in a down economy--and we just moved into it last December.
"Not crazy, just called!" I texted back.
A speaker I heard last weekend told our women's group about the time when she and her husband felt God tug at their hearts to start a new church. He had a good job (with health insurance)...and she was seven months pregnant. But they obeyed. And God blessed them beyond their wildest expectations.
Not crazy, just called.
The Christian actor who perserveres, rejection after gut-wrenching rejection, until they finally get a redemptive role?
Not crazy, just called.
The young woman who forgoes her college education and breaks up with her high-school sweetheart to live in Uganda and serve orphans?
Not crazy, just called.
And then there are the faithful believers all over scripture who must have looked absolutely insane to the rest of the world.
Noah...Abraham and Sarah...Moses...Hannah...Samuel...Solomon...Mary, the Mother of Jesus...John the Baptist.
What about Jesus? He left a heavenly throne to walk among the poor, sick, and ungrateful. The ones He came to serve murdered Him--and He let them!
Crazy? Nope. Just called.
As I ponder my own faith-journey, and the adventures God has taken me on, I feel overwhelmed by His faithfulness, awed by His love, and amazed at His plans.
In Switzerland, during a Christian summer camp for teens, other adult sponsors and I scaled a glacier--in the rain--with young people we barely knew, in order to give them an experience they (and we!) would never forget.
After college, I toured the country (in an RV, no less!) promoting missions through music and drama--with seven people I had never met. One of them ended up asking me to marrry him, and I said YES.
Early in our marriage, Carey and I left a secure youth ministry job to follow God into creative arts ministry. We didn't know at the time that He was preparing a place for us in a brand-new Christian-based theater company; a venture which--for ten+ years--allowed us to proclaim His grace through music, acting, and comedy.
We've said YES to God when common sense would yell, "Are you crazy?!" And I'm so glad we did.
Honestly--sometimes, I've questioned Him. There have also been days (and entire seasons) during which I stubbornly refused Him.
But when I obeyed, the rewards have been numerous: Peace. Confirmation. Affirmation. Provision. A deeper faith.
And to tell you the truth? I wish I'd said YES a lot more often, with more enthusiasm. Because there's nothing God loves more than His children trusting Him with absolutely everything.
