Following His Lead, Part I

Happy New 2008 everyone!

It was a very fun and enjoyable New Year Eve's celebration, a time of fellowship and counting God's blessings upon our lives last year.

And Jeannie graciously blessed us with her place to stay over and we played board games... Edmund and Joy are walking Settler's Cafes, I tell you. Got a game here, game there, games games everywhere - from a game about escaping zombies to a game about building power plants across the USA, they had the games! :)

So that was the last day of 2007, and something that Dehua shared with the unit struck me: It's not just about giving thanks to God for the blessings that have happened to us, but also for the disappointments, etc... because they are blessings in disguise. Otherwise if we had a very easy year, we wouldn't have the opportunity to learn to die to our old selves, to allow God to shape and mould us... As Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest,

"God's order has to work up to a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him, and we begin to debate; then He produces a providential crisis where we have to decide - for or against, and from that point the "Great Divide" begins."

I remember there were many, many experiences in 2007. Some were very, very, very sweet; others were very heart-rending. I had the blessings of experiencing God's answers to my prayers for certain friendships to grow, and Weizhu's friendship is really one of them. And I can't forget how He, in answer to another prayer, blessed a particular friendship to grow so quickly in a year. Yet another friendship in my CG, yet another friendship here and there.

And as I think about why He chose to bless me with these particular friendships, I'm reminded that friendships are a gift from God, and He gives us particular friendships to equip and strengthen both me and the other friend for the specific purposes that He has for both of us. For a friendship, by essence, has to be mutual, and it is because both share a common destination, a common goal. To paraphrase CS Lewis, "Friendship love is not the same as romantic love. Lovers look into each other's faces; friends look toward a common destination."

Of course, there were very sad moments. One friend whom I'd brought to Christ in 2006 decided to turn away from God, despite his personal experiences, because he was disappointed by some things. I was very heartbroken when he told me of his decision - because this was not a friendship thing, but his own eternal destiny. And I pled with God in private to touch my friend's heart again, and to save him again. Quite confused, but when I read the Bible, I was reminded that Jesus Himself understands - in fact He feels deeper the anguish in his heart for those who have chosen to turn away from Him. But He didn't let that affect him emotionally; instead, He kept on sharing the gospel with more and more people. So I recall this beautiful quote that I read some time ago:

On that glorious eternal day, when I die and go to heaven, I will be very surprised to see three types of people there in heaven:

1. Those whom I didn't expect to see.


2. Those whom I expected to see, but did not see.


3. Me.