I received a spanking today. No paddle was used. I didn't have to pull my pants down. I am sitting down as I write and there is no discomfort. But, nevertheless, I received a spanking. That spanking came from the Holy Spirit. I'm pretty sure the HS doesn't look like the woman in the pic, but, well, I liked the pic. That is how I have felt the last couple of days.
I'm sitting on a nice leather couch in a hotel in the mountains near the Czech/Slovak/Polish border. It's a hotel that our organization owns and runs. Over the past week Americans and National leaders that make up JV have gathered here for our Fall Training Conference. What none of us realized before we came here is that the spiritual climate would be so rich. I don't know if I have ever entered into an atmosphere that has been so condusive to growth. I'm not the only one who has said it. The Polish Country leader said that this is the best conference he's ever been to and he has been on the field for over 10 years. Dann Spader, a well-known student ministry trainer and a JV Board member, said that he has a great sense that this conference would be a turning point for our organization. I've talked to many others who agree: the soil is rich here.
The spirit of this conference and the things that are being taught have been impacting my heart profoundly over the past couple days. It has been opening up chambers in my heart and propelling me to investigate deep areas of spiritual blindness in my life. I wish I could write everything that God is showing me. I feel like issue after issue is surfacing. I feel like issues that I have refused to turn over to God are being exposed and that I am finally ready to turn them over to Him. Since I can't write everything, I'll share and illustration that was shared with me tonight by a good friend...
We are like sailboats. And we are sailing along on this huge lake and when we go out onto the mission field its as if the lake is partially drained and all of these rocks appear. As we sail we begin running into all of these rocks. The rocks hurt and cause damage and we wonder, "Where did these come from? They weren't there before." But they were...they were there all along. They were just covered by water. That water is comfort. As a missionary, it is the comfort of America. It's the comfort of a good movie, the comfort of Oregano's, the comfort of friends and family. But when we step out of that comfort and it is drained away, we begin to experience inadequacy, incompetance, loneliness, a new culture, a foreign language, etc. and the rocks appear.
God doesn't just do this for missionaries, but I think it is just more certain that we will experience it because of our situation. God does it for people in America, but it is usally through tragedy or a drastic change in life. He drains our lake and reveals to us the rocks that have been hiding under the surface.
Yesterday my ship hit a rock. It was pretty small. Tonight I shipwrecked. I can barely think through everything that God showed me. But I know that I am at a critical point in my walk and that as I began to walk with the Spirit in these things God is going to begin to fill my lake back up. He is going to begin to fill those areas in my life and I will be able to sail in freedom knowing that those rocks are covered by Him and His grace.
