Just Being…

One of the things asked most of me before I moved to Ecuador was, “What are you going to do there?”  There are many things people can mean by that (and I answered it in this post), but most of the time in my circles it was a question about a “ministry” or “mission”.  I came here knowing that God was calling me and that He would have “good works He created in advance for me to do,” (Ephesians 2:10) but I truly had no idea ahead of time what that would be.  As the scripture title of my blog states, I’ve just followed Him one day at a time and listened to His voice telling me along each step the way I should go.

Once I was here, one of my biggest daily prayers was that I would be “salt and light” (Matthew 5:13-16).  Although I knew in my head the truth of what I said in the previously mentioned post, eventually I began to feel restless that I still needed to “do” something.  Then one day in my prayer time, the Lord quietly spoke to my spirit and reminded me that the elements of “salt” and “light” don’t have to “DO” anything – they just have to “BE” what they are, and in so being, have the affect that they are intended to have.  Salt acts as a flavoring and preservative – it just is what it is, but when added to food, it produces an intended result just from the nature of what it is.  Light is the same – it just IS, but the result is that the darkness is dispersed.

So once again, the Lord confirmed to me that all I have to do is BE who He created me to be.  Which, by the way, has taken a lot of time and effort on both of our parts to accomplish – me submitting and cooperating and Him transforming me to be a different person on the inside than the one I was when I first came to really know Him.  I can remember distinctly many years ago, when I dared ask Him to make me into who He intended me to be before my sin, the sins of others and the world had warped and marred me.  I asked that “every plant (in me) that my heavenly Father had not planted would be pulled up by the roots.” (Matthew 15:13)  It has been a long, sometimes painful process (which is still not totally complete), but I honestly cannot recognize who I am today – and for that I am very grateful!  (This process, often referred to as “sanctification,” is beautifully illustrated in the poem, “The Touch of the Master’s Hand.”)

Quite honestly, I have never felt more challenge, purpose and more ALIVE than during this season of just getting up every day in a whole different world than I was used to and submitting to and relying on God to use me for His purposes.  It is truly in “losing our life for His sake that we find it.”  (Matthew 10:39)