Leaving

As we look to head back to the UK for a few months this summer, the question over and over in our minds has been, how can we leave? What will happen to the few believers we're involved with? Pride can creep in and we find ourselves asking if they can cope without us? I find every time we go back to the UK the Lord needs to work on me yet again to show me we're really not indispensable (I'm a slow learner!). This morning I read Exodus 14.14 (Moses speaking to the Israelites when they saw the Egyptians pursuing them), 

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. 

I really felt this verse speaking to us in our situation- we've been worried about the group of believers we meet with each week and how things are going to work out in our absence. But why are we worried? Of course God will fight for them. He sent his Son to die for them didn't he? They are his bride aren't they? So of course he is going to be on their side and will guide them and fight for them like he did for his people thousands of years ago as they left Egypt. We need only to be still and trust him and pray hard.

Rekedal Smith's thoughts on leaving India struck a chord with me as we constantly think through how can our work be reproducible and not reliant on us. It would be a tragedy if when workers leave, the work did not continue in their absence.

Rekedal Smith:

Steve and I have recently been meditating on a 2000-year-old reality: Jesus only needed three years to fully train His disciples. Three. During that time, He expected the disciples to do things. They didn’t just sit in the pew or study. More than once, Jesus sent them out to heal the sick and preach the Kingdom without Him (Luke 10). He commanded them to give hungry 5000 + people something to eat (Mark 6). At the end, He told them it was good He was going away. Without Him there, they’d be able to rely on the Holy Spirit. They would do greater things than He had done.

Last month’s visa issues reminded us that we do not know how long we’ll be allowed to live here. Are we raising up leaders who will also do more than we have done? Do we agree with Jesus, It’s better for you if I go? Do we willingly share authority in this work? If we had to leave tomorrow, would the work continue without us?   Like Jesus, Paul also invested in others and then left. He was constantly on the move. At one point, he told Timothy, What you have heard me teach publicly, you should teach others. Share these teachings with people you can trust. Then they will be able to teach others these same things (2 Timothy 2). Paul didn’t hoard insight, knowledge or strategies, nor did he want Timothy to. He instructed Timothy to willingly share what he’d received. This “pay it forward” idea is a critical element in making disciples.

Eirene [their daughter] realised a few months ago that she could graduate from high school one year early. Adjusting to this new reality has been a rollercoaster. I’m going to miss her more than words can say. At the same time, I know it’s right and good that she begin the next phase of her life. She’s ready. But, what if she’s not ready? What if she makes a mistake? What if something unexpected happens? What if? Yet, this is what we’ve raised her for. Our job has been to parent her the best we could so that one day we’d see her thrive, independent from us. It’s time for her to let go of our hands and grasp tightly to the hand of Jesus, and make her way in the world. Right? But, what if? 

I haven’t always applied what I know about parenting to disciple making. I haven’t always recognized that my goal for my spiritual children is the same as with our actual children - to see them thrive with Jesus, independent of us. Usually, we who are in ministry hold onto our spiritual children for too long. That we’re leaving India next month still shocks us. Just months ago, we told people, “the longer we live in India, the longer we want to live in India.”We now see that, just like we want more for Eirene than being dependent upon us all her life, God wants more for His Indian disciples than being dependent upon us. God knows, better than any of us do, that Sanjay and John and their spiritual children and grandchildren are not dependent upon us for the state of their spiritual lives. They are obeying Paul’s injunction to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2: 12). We must believe that God can direct them in that. 

Are Sanjay and John (and the others) ready? What if they aren’t ready? What if they make mistakes? What if something bad happens? On the other hand, what if something good happens? We’ll never know if we refuse to let them go. Why would we refuse? Only because, deep down, we don’t really trust that God will lead them in the way they should go.   So, here we are, letting go of Eirene earlier than planned. I am so grateful that the One whose hand she will grasp is trustworthy. The same is true for our spiritual children. Those of us in leadership almost never think they’re ready. Thankfully, God, the Rock, is always trustworthy.

Jesus’comment to His disciples echoes in our minds - Let me say it again…It’s better for you that I leave (John 16: 7, The Msg). How could the departure of the Word of God made flesh be better for them? Who did Jesus think He was kidding? His disciples didn’t know it, but they needed Him to leave so that they could grow.   Grow they did. After Jesus went back to heaven, they healed the sick, raised the dead, were transported from one location to another, were imprisoned and stoned to death. They testified about God to high ranking government and religious leaders, they had disputes with each other, and loved each other. They prayed, had dreams and visions, spoke in other tongues, spread the Good News to new lands and new peoples, and made more disciples. In short, they did greater things than Jesus did, just as He said that they would.