Because it Has to be Done.

My dearest friend is moving to Africa. Sigh.

For how long, no one really knows...but probably just shy of a dozen years. She will be back on furlough with her family every three years. This is not a surprise. In fact, when we first became close--about 12 years ago--her heart for orphans in Africa and her desire to help them was one thing that she shared with me. As time went on, I got the real sense that this vision would indeed become reality...and it has been with great joy, with a hint of grief that I have watched the Father's plans unfold for her family.

With great admiration, I have watched her slowly and methodically say goodbye to bunches of worldly possessions, a loving church family, the comforts of all that is "predictable" and "known", many good friends, a fulfilling community life, and most heart-wrenchingly: family. I have seen through all these things the physical, real-world embodiment of the idea that "He must increase, and I must decrease".

So, how and why is someone willing to say goodbye to all this? There are, I think, at least two answers to that question (just my thoughts, not necessarily my friend's).

First, because the Father clearly called this family to this task...and a wise friend once said that there would be more fear of NOT going after such a clear call is made on one's life, than any fear of answering that call...even if the call was to give up everything and serve in a small village in Tanzania.

Second, and this is just my simple-minded view, but very simply: it has to be done. It is a supremely good work--in Hebrew: a mitzvah--that should be done, particularly by God's people. It is one more step toward 'repairing the world'--tikkun olam--that should be a distinctive of God's people. This concept of 'tikkun olam', carries with it the idea that the world is profoundly broken and can be fixed only by human activity...with the Father's help.

So I hold and balance two conflicting feelings in each hand. As my heart aches and breaks for the impending loss of the physical closeness of my friend, still I am overjoyed that she is going to repair a little piece of the world so far from here. We are so close that I feel a part of me gets to go there with her. I am also challenged to ask lots of questions of myself and my Heavenly Father, a few of them being "Am I willing to give all this up? Would you increase, and help me to decrease? What would you have me do...and where...and how?"

What if we as believers all asked...begged...even pleaded, "What would you have me do?"

May we have ears to hear.