Do Rules Rule?
Wes Wick
Judy and I have been immersed recently in the Beatitudes, with Jesus challenging hearts and minds in this powerful intro to His sermon on the mount.
We’re sure there were plenty of rule-followers in the audience, with the Pharisees being chief among them.
But Jesus challenges those determined to color inside the lines and paints a very different picture of what following after God means.
We’re called to not just follow principles or rules but to follow hard after God, attentive to His voice and open to taking the harder path.
A few months ago, just after Dan & Shani joined our leadership team, Dan felt led to plan a Brazil mission trip for November (this month!) to help a church there with a significant project.
Our board brought up the rules of why this trip would not be a good idea right now, a major sidewinder as Dan & Shani were just beginning to raise their support. But superseding these rules, Dan sensed clearly that God was asking him to take this leap of faith. After further discussion, still aware of conventional support-raising wisdom, we knew we needed to set these rules aside and allow Dan to proceed with this calling.
This month, Dan and his 14-member YES! team of US volunteers are helping a Brazilian church add a new children’s wing to their facility. Collaborating with their church volunteers, YES! is not only providing needed labor but also the materials for this 2600-square-foot project (through some amazing YES! donors’ generosity, of course).
Not just older-adult volunteers, this is an intergenerational team, ages 29 to 75, mirroring our ‘together with all generations’ YES! mission.
And even with this $60K+ project going on, God has helped Dan & Shani move close to the halfway mark in raising their monthly support.
As we consider conventional rules related to older adulthood, may we listen intently to God’s voice and obey His calling in our own lives. The conventional path may seem safer, but we may also miss His call and blessing.
Lord, please keep us on Your blessed Beatitude path...even when it means choosing poverty, mourning, meekness, hunger, thirst, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and persecution!