Remote

Through the years I have envisioned me doing different things with my life. All sorts of different things. But all of them have involved what I would call a “big lifestyle.” I felt at times like my life was even going to be bigger than I would have wanted. I have had some crazy experiences and all roads appeared to keep me on that track. Life has a way of changing, though, and now I find myself with a life unexpected. This is a life I chose, though. The road has a way of wearing a person down. I needed to not be rushing so much. And so my life now looks…smaller….then I always anticipated.
Yet, I love it.

However, every now and again I fear that what I am doing is not big enough for Christ. Am I reaching enough people, is my sphere of influence big enough, is there something more I could be doing, is all of my coming and going really important?

These thoughts plague me sometimes.

I told you a few entries ago that I was reading Nehemiah and the other morning as I was praying through these things I came across a verse. The people of Israel had just rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem and they were praising God for all the acts he had accomplished in their past. It struck me that one of the things the Lord had done for these people was that he “gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers.”

Isn’t that interesting? When God was giving his people their inheritance lands I always noted that some of them got….well….less than desirable pieces of property. And yet, it was a good inheritance, because God gave it to them, and what he gives is good. This verse in Nehemiah admits that some of their lands were a little more remote than others.

What do you think of when you think “remote”?

I think of where I live. Not too many people, not too many houses, not too many roads (well, paved roads, that is). Life here is not what most people would call a “big” lifestyle. And to be honest, neither do I.

And I wonder what the Israelites thought. The ones who were given the “remotest frontiers”? Did they ever wonder why they didn’t get the “kingdoms and nations”? Did they ever feel like their existence in those sparse areas wasn’t big enough? Did they ever feel like their coming and going wasn’t as important as those in the “more populated areas”?

Have any of you ever felt like that? Rather than being given a kingdom, full of all kinds of things to do….big things….that you have been given a remote frontier? And how often do we think, “But Lord! I could be doing so much more! Why in the world do you have me in some no-man’s-land?!” And let me say that even if you aren’t in some geographical no-man’s-land, the Lord could have you in some sphere of influence that you feel affects very few people, so “remote frontiers” are way more than just where you live.

I find the greatest comfort in knowing that while we can perceive our lives, our influence, our ministry, whatever, as being small, as being remote, as being something less than the nations and kingdoms, if we have been given them, well….we have been given them. By Him. And that’s enough. That’s big enough.

As my mother would always say to people who were like, “Wow! How are your kids ever going to do anything with their lives? You live like….out in the middle of nowhere,” she would respond, “God knows where we live.”
And he does. God knows where you live, he knows what you do, he sees your heart, whether you have been given a kingdom and nation….or a remotest frontier.

I find myself praying that whatever inheritance I have been given, wherever the boundaries for me fall, wherever I have been placed, whether it was what I envisioned I would be doing or not, I want to be faithful. I want to be a leader, even if those I lead and have influence over are few and far between. Because the groups of not-so-many-people are still equally as important as the groups you find in the nations…and kingdoms. The few are as important as the masses. They need Jesus, they need hope, they need truth, they need examples of how to live rightly.

This thanksgiving I want to be thankful for my “inheritance,” for this remote frontier I seem to be building my life in. Sometimes a big life looks different than we would expect, but remember, it’s no less important. Wherever you are, whatever you have been given, IS where you are, it IS what you have been given.

Take your frontier for Christ, Wolfies. Go lead the masses, or the few-and-far-between.