Entrusted

Now that fall is almost here and we are shifting our gaze back toward Virginia Beach again, Ross and I have been doing a lot of talking and praying about how we will be spending our time (our most precious commodity at this point in life). Besides raising and schooling four humans, getting them to soccer, putting food on the table, and being decent friends and family members, we have to ask ourselves these questions. “What has God entrusted us with?” and “what has He called us to steward?”

The main things are not things at all, but people. For us, it’s our marriage for starters, then our children, and in more recent years, a collection of 20-somethings the Lord has put in our lives to lead, encourage, and point to what is good, true, and beautiful. This looks a bit different depending on the season, but it is always done by sharing our lives with them. . . by inviting them into our home, into our mess, and proclaiming that God is good no matter our circumstances. In the summer seasons, it even looks like living with and working alongside of them. This requires an immense amount of trust, and we are endlessly grateful to those who trust us enough to come and work and live under our leadership in the summers, and also to those who choose to be a part of our community in Virginia Beach. We do not take that lightly.

As we’ve gotten older, it has become more clear to us what God has called us to steward. It has also become more clear what is required to do it sustainably (hint: rest, sabbath, time away, and confidence in giving ourselves permission to do so). This year we decided to stay in Hatteras well into September to give ourselves more time to decompress after running camp, and it’s been glorious. I’m watching a bright red sun rise over the ocean while a momma deer and her does are feeding in the yard behind our house. Everything is quiet. I still have to fight against the condemning thoughts that our kids are going to be behind in soccer or behind in school, and breathe in the rest and beauty that is restoring our souls. I have to remember that when God calls us to much, He provides everything we need to do it.

No matter your life-stage, it is God’s desire to entrust you with the Kingdom work He is doing on the earth. As we grow in maturity and trust, more and more will be entrusted. The stakes get higher and the pruning is painful, but there’s a fullness of blessing and joy along the way. There is peace and purpose.

No one every fully arrives either. We are constantly being led, shaped, and loved into transformation until the day we meet Him face to face. Then on that day, we will be fully transformed.

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” - 2 Corinthians 3:18

But why does God care about what we do with our lives? Aren’t we just loved as we are?

Well yes, but His love goes much deeper than mere acceptance. It is God’s heart and desire to make us more like Him, to come alongside Him, and to share in His Kingdom work. He wants to be close to us. He created us to be in communion with Him, not separate entities that go our own way. Imagine a father desiring to pass the family business on to his child. Of course the father does not love his child any less if he chooses to go out on his own. He has the freedom to start his own career, to build his own business from the ground up. But it’s natural for a father to desire to work alongside his son (or daughter... just trying to keep the image simple). Why? Because the father desires to be close with his son, to work alongside him, to pass on his legacy and watch him expand what he has already built. It’s the same with our Heavenly Father. He wants to entrust us with His kingdom work…because He loves us and wants to be close to us.

Our culture has now progressed beyond this model of inherited work, which was far more common in an agricultural age. Newer technologies have introduced endless opportunities. But something has been lost. Getting to be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do with your life sounds like freedom. But endless opportunity can be its own kind of slavery.

It’s the age old question: Do we really want to do whatever we want?

Or do we want to be entrusted?

Living entrusted can feel like being a slave at times, but it actually means we get to live like sons and daughters in a Kingdom. It means that our lives are not our own, and yet we enjoy the benefits of living in daily communion with the One who created all things, knows all things, and loves us more than anyone could. We can still be loved when we are going our own way, but we miss the far greater benefits of our inheritance.

“And how do we know what His will is?” You might be saying to yourself. “That would be lovely if He would just go ahead and tell me what I should do with my life!”

Proverbs 3:5-6 says

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

The key word is trust. It requires trust in God’s heart and in His ways to be entrusted with the work of His Kingdom. Just start there. Do you trust His heart for you? That He is good and has good things in store for you? That He delights in you and wants closeness with you? Well, He does. You are precious and treasured in His sight. He made you. He adores you. He is trustworthy and true. It’s worth it to give up going your own way. It’s worth humbling yourself before God and others if you need to redirect your path. There is an abundance of mercy and grace waiting for you. It’s not about perfection or striving. It’s about living in communion with your Heavenly Father who made the world and everything in it.

We don’t get to see the full view of what we are stepping into though. We may only get a glimpse at first. The beautiful thing about this kind of trust is that we start to see more clearly the kingdom around us. We have a new lens. Our desk and coworkers are no longer a prison we have to endure until the hour comes when we are free again. It’s an assignment from the King. Our children are no longer miniature versions of ourselves to control or creatures to be tamed, but future stewards of a kingdom we are tasked to nurture and train. That painful thing in your life, that hardship, that loss… even that becomes an opportunity for more closeness with your loving Father to take those ashes and sculpt them into something beautiful. The world becomes bigger and brighter through this lens. There is more hope, more meaning, and more at stake.

We must believe what He says about Himself and about us to experience the fullness of His love.

When Moses went up the mountain to get as close as he could to God, He also drew near to Moses. Though Moses would have died if he had seen the fullness of His glory at that time (he had to hide his face), it was God’s heart to draw near to Moses and reveal Himself. This is what God declared about Himself in that moment…

“The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” - Exodus 34:6

Draw near to your God and do everything you can to remove the obstacles that stand in your way. We don’t have to hide our face. Stop doing that thing, stop scrolling, stop thinking so little of yourself. Start trusting, start learning to put your attention on what brings truth and life. Surround yourself with people you want to be like. Enter more fully into a church you can trust, into a community who can help direct your path. We certainly weren’t meant to do it on our own.

You get to decide how you spend your time, how you spend your life. The world will tell you to be anyone you want to be and do anything you want to do, but everyone knows deep down that’s a lie. . . it’s the temptation of the garden. Adam and Eve believed the lie that what God was offering them wasn’t enough. But out of His great love and mercy, God continues to offer an outstretched hand to trust Him and let Him be the One who directs our path. He has even more in store for us than being loved and accepted. He has plans to entrust us with His Kingdom.

“Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

-Psalm 16:5-8