Julie's Input

Everybody wants to hear from Julie...so here ya go:

There’s not a day that goes by here that I don’t feel foolish and weak. And my flesh hates this. I want to say it correctly, love my friends well understanding the deep cultural nuances that seem to always be barriers here, please the parents of my students, be an insightful mother, encourage my husband and the list goes on and on. I fail miserably in my own strengths, but it is so beautiful when it is the Lord flowing through us.
And Jesus keeps whispering in my ears 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

As January rolled around and we celebrated four years in Thailand, Brent and I began crying out for fresh faith that we would see Thais coming to know Jesus in a transformational way. It gets a bit discouraging at times here the daily things that confront us that I know the Lord detests and have been a stench in His nostrils for centuries: idolatry, sexual perversion, drunkenness, merit-making, broken families. I realize more daily that I come from such a “microwave” culture and want instant results instead of the Lord’s perfect timing. I think of the years of missionaries in Thailand and yet still less than 1% of Thais follow Jesus. So Brent and I prayed desperately for the Lord to send encouragement and remind us of our calling here, for fresh insights and honestly something specific to spur us on. And isn’t it always beautiful and humbling how our faithful Lord answers prayers?
We have a regular visitor at our home. His nickname is Wallace as his given name means something derogatory. He is a simple man, maybe in his late thirties. He didn’t go to school as he has some type of condition that makes him socially awkward and makes it difficult for him to learn. But Wallace keeps us informed of neighborhood events, often invites us along on his outings and has become a friend to our family. His mother beat him after she found out he had been at our house when we were having a party for some of Brent’s students as she felt embarrassed by him imposing on the “white people.” We hadn’t seen him for a few weeks and when he showed up and told me what had happened to him. His first question was “Do you care?” My heart broke. So we regularly pray over Wallace as he drops in and share with him about how much God loves him. He has begun to ask us for prayer and wanting to know more about this Jesus we pray to.

Recently, after a rather long week, Wallace was hanging out in our kitchen on a Friday evening. He started to ask Brent to tell him more about Jesus (while Jak is snacking on whatever he can find as he finds Brent engaged and me finishing up some school work so I could be “done” for the weekend). Then Brent simply asks Wallace, “Do you want to ask Jesus to come into your heart and be Lord of your life?” Wallace’s eyes light up and we have such a holy moment there in our kitchen. You know what I am talking about? Moments, when you are living in the midst of answered prayers. And then I looked around at the four of us. Jak, considered a discard of Thai society; Brent, who speaks Thai at a sixth grade level; me, the one who feels daily overwhelmed and completely desperate for Jesus as I struggle to take every thought captive so as to not go bananas with all that swirls around in my mind; and Wallace, this man from the neighborhood that people only tolerate and then make fun of when he’s not around I Corinthians 1:27-31 quickly came to mind:
27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."[a]
God’s ways are not our ways, but much higher and mightier. It’s the upside down gospel of Jesus going to the weak, poor, outcasts. These are the hungry. Wallace then eyed the plate of cookies Kate and I had made that afternoon and asked if we could celebrate by eating cookies. We all enjoyed chocolate milk and cookies as we thanked God for His faithfulness.

Beth Moore rings in my ears, “It’s a scandal that God would use any of us!” And He does. The weak, broken vessels that we are and He transforms us into prophets, priests, and kings. Ambassadors even. That’s either insane or a miraculous God. Aren’t God’s ways mysterious? So we press on here believing God that one day every knee will bow and worship the King of Kings.