Born for Rescue: A 5-Day DevotionalSýnishorn

UNDERSTANDING AND UNEXPECTED PATHS

TODAY’S STORYLINE

“Stop where you are!”

I didn’t speak Pashtun, but I didn’t have to wait for the translator on this one. I also didn’t actually say yes, but stopping in my tracks was basically the same thing. We’re dead, I thought to myself in English, along with a few other choice words. The man speaking to us was wielding an AK- 47, as were the other six guys with him. I had gone too far this time. People often ask me what emotions I feel in moments like these. You may not like the answer. I was scared sh**less.

Most people don’t think of food delivery as a very dangerous job. Then again, most people probably haven’t driven a truckload of food to Afghan refugees in a camp that even the UN itself is afraid to enter. I never dreamed that I would be doing such a crazy thing either. You see, I’m just a guy in advertising.

It had been only eight weeks since the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, and through a series of unpredictable events, I found myself in Pakistan riding in a truck loaded down with several tons of food. We were trying to deliver it across what felt like a war zone to get to a crude encampment—a refugee camp—of more than 50,000 starving people just across the border from Afghanistan. These people were fleeing the shock and awe of devastation still

being inflicted by thousands upon thousands of American bombs falling across their homeland. When I say it felt like a war zone, I mean that literally.

I guess I had it coming—this was the only time my wife and children had ever been mad at me for going on one of my trips abroad. Russia. Sudan. Ethiopia. Many others. My family somewhat understood the level of danger I might encounter, though this was not the only time I would find myself standing before soldiers, warlords, or AK-47s precariously pointed in my direction. My family usually didn’t know, mainly because in those days, I wasn’t always real keen on telling them the whole story.

We had watched together in horror as the World Trade Center was struck by two hijacked commercial airliners. As the first tower crumbled under the extreme heat of the jet-fueled explosion and was about halfway down, I dazedly said, “Now I know why God told me to go to Afghanistan.” Susan looked at me with the strangest expression of “Have you lost your ever-loving mind?!” Honestly, I was surprised I had said it out loud, because I didn’t mean to. It suffices to say that earlier that spring, I had sensed that I would be going to Afghanistan. I just didn’t know why.

Until now.

SEEING YOUR OWN STORY

You may not have ever stared down the barrel of an AK-47, but have you ever found yourself standing in a place or situation you weren’t inviting or expecting? Even as Christians, we often find ourselves working hard—and worrying hard—in futile attempts to secure stories for our lives that align with our own predetermined visions and expectations of safety, security, and the advancement of our own dreams. Naturally, we tend to avoid that which smacks of scarcity or unpredictability.

Our own desire to fully know and understand every facet of the path before us gets in the way of the life God wants us to experience the most. It also hinders the possibility of being equipped by God to help those who need His love the most.

This passage is a great place to begin the journey of becoming open-hearted to the rescue that Christ offers the world... a rescue that begins with our own deep need for freedom from fear and other life-controlling issues like pride, anger, greed, and addiction. A general opposition to God’s ways often characterizes the lives of people all around us, including people of faith. When we were born, we began our need to be rescued from these things. Any great story begins with a series of steps towards a surprising destination or experience—and often into a journey we don’t necessarily want to take. The good news is that if we can disengage our own need for the complete understanding of every path before us and see our own need for rescue, God promises to make our paths straight and navigable, no matter where they may lead.

LET’S PRAY

Father, you know that I really want to completely understand where you are taking me before I commit to going. I confess this fear to You and choose instead to lean not on my own understanding, but to submit my ways to the grander intentions and power of Your ways and purposes for my life. You know I can’t do this on my own, so I invite You to continue Your renovation of every room in my heart. Amen.