Stepping stones

Submitted by Gina…

We had a time of memorializing some stones this past weekend at the Praxis Discipleship Retreat. (Joshua 4: “Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder…to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?” tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord…These stones are to be a memorial to the people of the Lord forever.”).

It was truly divine how it all came together – from the Joni Eareckson Tada video on embracing suffering, to the Truth Project session on “Whose Story?” to the RC Sproul message on Holiness. Joni taught us how to view the sufferings in our lives as a way to lean on Jesus and experience hope in Him; to not waste our sufferings, but to have hope through them, and allow God to use our response to them to encourage others. Then in the Truth Project, we learned of how the pilgrims suffered, refusing to even go home in the midst of their comrades dying around them, because they “cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations…for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work.” We were all caught up with the idea of the noble life of living for God’s story, not our own little story…when something really neat happened.

For our session the next day, Pastor Ed and Kelly had the idea of assembling a panel of our ministry directors, to share with us about some of the stories of their laying down of stepping stones for the sake of God’s story. We remembered together (or heard about for the first time, for many of us there) -  how Timothy and Alice would commute faithfully every weekend with some other staff members on late sleepy drives in between Berkeley and Davis to meet up with those 1 or 2 students for Bible studies, some of whom would often just not show up, (and now Waypoint ministers to over 200 college students…); how Tony pretty much single-handedly financially supported all of our Japan missionaries; how Michelle would bike Stephen to school (and get into biking accidents in the rain sometimes!), and how the 2 or 3 sisters would do all the grocery shopping on bikes since there was no car that first year of planting a church in Japan; how Michelle had committed to just taking on whatever ministry in which there is a need, though she may not particularly have the personal interest or initial “gifting”; how Chris and Judy would pack up and move 7 times over the course of a few years, for the sake of planting churches; how Pastor Ed/Kelly, Pat/Jeannie, Peter/Hope would drop everything to house a family in need, even building extra rooms onto the house overnight, with the whole church getting involved with cooking rotations, tutoring rotations; all the financial sacrifices to be able to contribute to a church building, and ministry needs, without even a thought, before there was even a reimbursement system! and on and on…

For me, I’ve heard many of these stories before, and was even there as a young college student or college grad during the laying down of some of these foundation stones…but how easy to just get caught up in the myopic issues of my daily life today, so that I walk right by these stones, and don’t pause to ask, “What do these stones mean?”

But when I don’t remember my history, my spiritual heritage, the story of God working through the lives of obedience and sacrifice passed down to me, then I miss out on that chance to really see the greatness of God, and this larger story that He is calling me to be a part of.

I haven’t mentioned yet the RC Sproul video message on the Holiness of God that we saw. He spoke of the prophet Isaiah’s response to one glimpse of God’s holiness – how that wrecked him, caused him to cry out for God’s forgiveness, and then made him just want to respond to God’s aching heart for lost people, with “Here am I, send me.”

We were led through a time of prayer, where we were able to lift up that humble cry to God, “Here am I, send me.” I was broken that God would still want me to pray that prayer, with all my sins and issues…but as RC Sproul reminded us that the only prerequisite to be sent is to be forgiven…how could I not run to take hold of this lofty calling of being included in God’s story “for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ, even though I should be but a stepping stone to others in the performance of so great a work.” I can think of nothing greater than being able to take my place in this line, and to be counted in this way as part of God’s story.