"Anywhere"

During our vacation, I read a book of short biographies of five women: Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God. Each morning as I drank my tea sitting under a huge pine tree and looking out at the ocean, I read one chapter - each about a different woman: Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim and Helen Roseveare. I was challenged and inspired by each of their lives in different ways.

Lilias Trotter was a single woman from England at the turn of the century who became a missionary to Algeria- working among Muslim women. One quote that particularly stood out to me was:

"How many of have said and sung with all our hearts 'Anywhere with Jesus,' but at the same time we did not realize all that it meant for us. Indeed at home, and surrounded by all that home means, we could not know. When the test comes we must not forget that "anywhere" means for missionaries something different from life in England, and let us take very good care not to make a misery of anything that 'anywhere' brings us.

To us in Algeria, it must mean sometime or other Arab food. Do we object to it? And mice, do we mind them? And mosquitoes, do we think them dreadful? In some parts it means close contact with dirt and repulsive disease. Yet if Jesus is there, what have we possibly to complain of? It means living among stiff-necked and untrue people and struggling with a strange and difficult language. And yet let us evermore write over all our miseries, big, and for the most part very little, these transforming words 'With Jesus.' And then the very breath of Heaven will breathe upon our whole being and we shall be glad."

When Ron and I came to Southern California in 1990, we were pursuing working in missions and served two terms at the USCWM. (U.S. Center for World Missions.) In 1994, it became clear that our lives were taking a different turn as we felt God knitting us in and calling us to Sovereign Grace here in Pasadena. And, as Ron accepted a call to pastor the local church in 1999, I realized that our lives wouldn't be the adventure I had hoped it would be. "Anywhere" was turning out to be a very ordinary, uneventful life of wife, mother of five children, and pastor's wife in California.

As I read the quote above, from Lilias Trotter, I was challenged by the reverse.

When the test comes, we must not forget that "anywhere" might mean something very different from what we expect. Maybe God is calling me, not to the foreign field, but to stay home and serve him here. I must take very good care not to make a misery of anything that "anywhere" brings me.

Here in So. Cal, it might mean:

- sacrificing a middle class standard of living, do I mind?
- living in a neighborhood I don't prefer, do I complain?
- it means living in a place that's far from my Midwestern roots (and values) and struggling to cope with an urban setting, crowded spaces, traffic jams and people who are not like me.
-at times it means contact with people who are poor, or dirty, uneducated and ignorant. (Why would I be okay with that if I was in a different country?)

Anywhere? Marriage, motherhood, an ordinary life? Los Angeles? Sacrifice, stress, weakness, loneliness and trials? Anywhere?

Did God call me here? to this place? at this time? with these trials?

Am I taking care to not make a misery of where "anywhere" has brought me?

"If Jesus is there, what have we possibly to complain of?"