Heart Tracks - The Outpost

"For He has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.' " Hebrews 13:5....."Sometimes it is not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me but drudgery. There is no Hill Difficulty to climb, no vision given, nothing wonderful or beautiful, just the commonplace day in and day out.....We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing, that He is preparing and fitting us for some extraordinary thing by and by, but as we go on in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute." Oswald Chambers

Throughout history, empires and nations had lonely outposts situated on the border of their frontier and manned by soldiers tasked with defending it. They were almost always found in isolated areas, and those who served there did so while being unknown and forgotten by most everyone they were charged to protect. Even by those who had sent them there. Yet to them fell the task of being that nation's first line of defense against invasion. In the monotony of that frontier life, they needed to be in constant watchfulness. Ever ready. Ever faithful. Even while no one noticed. Following Christ can oftentimes be the same. He will place us in our own lonely outposts, and task us to be watching, to be ready, to be faithful. Even while no one else sees, notices, or applauds us. What lonely outpost might you be stationed at right now? Pastor, missionary, teacher, leader, husband, wife, employee. Will you "garrison" that place, live in a state of constant readiness, in faithfulness, even when doing so is the very definition of drudgery?

The culture of the west is completely enthralled with the idea of excitement. The Church is very much a part of that culture. Everything must have it, and our senses are bombarded with such stimulus all the time. Nobody wants to sit through a movie that lacks it. People leave marriages, relationships, churches and ministries because they feel such excitement and adventure is missing. So they go looking for someone, someplace, where they might have it, and have it in abundance. We want something to be going on around us.....even while nothing is really going on within us. We fully depend on outward stimuli. It keeps us from realizing what is missing within.

What we need to know is that He is God in whatever place we are. What we need to realize is that Christ is fully present in even the most lonely of places. Here's what we need to know most of all. If we are truly His, truly following Him, it is He who has put us there. And if He has put us there we can thrive there. We can know His abundance there. We are His there. Fully His. And....that is enough. At that outpost joy, peace, life, overflow from within us. We are fruitful even if it seems that nothing at all is happening. At that outpost, we stand ready, faithful, and listening. Most of all, we bring Him pleasure. Great pleasure. We don't need to drum up artificial excitement because we're caught up in the wonder of His glory and life....even in that desolate outpost. And we know that though that outpost might seem to be at the end of the world, it is not. Oh, He will use it to make an end to the "world" within us, but He intends that at that place we enter into the fullness of His world. Have we? Will we?

Are you at such an outpost? Feeling forgotten, passed by, unnoticed? You're not. He sees, He knows, He blesses, and He will grow you there. And at that outpost, you will find what true adventure in Him really is. You're on the borderland of His Kingdom.

Blessings,
Pastor O