In some ways things are now more settled for us than they have been at any point this year. We have a place to live, we have Singaporean visas, and Alex’s job is about to start. However, there are still lots of unknowns. In particular, two questions loom in our minds: How long will we stay in Singapore? And what will our ongoing relationship be with the people whom God connected us with in India, Nepal, and the Philippines?
It’s easy to mistakenly think that God is like us and that His ways are like our ways. We love control and security, and ‘settling down’ in Singapore could quickly become a comfort, with us focusing on things like making new friends and adjusting to life here. Or we could do the opposite and look ahead to all the unknowns, play out different futures in our minds, and get anxious because we don’t exactly know what God wants us to be doing in Asia.
But we know that God does not see these two paths as the only options for us. We realised that we needed to “...take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), and “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Only once we had done those two things could we sense what God was telling us:
Be at peace, but not complacent.
Be at rest, but still expectant.
We wanted black and white, we wanted answers to our questions, we wanted one focus and one goal. But God is not like us and neither are His ways. So often His direction may seem contradictory, but it actually teaches us to rely on Him rather than ourselves.
We know God wants us to continue living in the promises we have made to Him, experiencing the peace that only comes from knowing that we are in the hands of the Almighty God. He wants us to be at rest knowing that He has planted us in Singapore for a time and so we do not need to plan, scheme, or try to control the future but to simply trust in Him.
If God wants us to be at peace and at rest, then how come it feels so difficult at times? How come we aren’t able to just bathe in His divine restfulness? We are discovering that although God’s peace and rest is a gift, it must be actioned. It is a gift that will lay unopened unless we pick it up and unwrap it and accept it as the truth for our lives, discarding whatever else we were holding before. Like it says in Romans 8:6, “the mind governed by the flesh is death but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace”. Only when our minds are captivated by God, can we experience His life and peace.
At the same time, God does not want us to be complacent. During our travels we came across a quote that went something like this: “The person who returns from a pilgrimage, unlike a tourist, is not the same as the person who left.” Since we left Melbourne we have felt like pilgrims, pursuing the path that God sets for us without knowing what the next day will bring. And so we know the truth of this quote, because we are changed from the Alex and Emma who set out. Just because we will be living in one location for the next 10-12 months does not mean we should retreat from the people we have become or settle into complacency, dulling our reckless abandonment for God. Instead we want to be continually expectant of witnessing and being part of God’s handiwork in this world, both here in Singapore and in our ongoing relationships with people in India, Nepal, and the Philippines. It may look more ‘normal’ or mundane, but we know that God is still at work.
Our challenge now is to be at peace, but not complacent; and at rest, but still expectant. How do we do it? As always, the answer is less of us and more of God.
