I can confidently say that Bugs Bunny cartoons did not adequately prepare me for my deployment to the Middle East.  According to Looney Toons, the most reliable feature of any desert is the presence of a mirage followed closely by an abundance of magic lamps.  The cartoon bit was always the same.  Dying of thirst, dressed as Lawrence of Arabia, Bugs Bunny or Yosemite Sam would spot a palm-lined oasis in the distance, only to find their hopes dashed by a pesky mirage.  I have been here since May in the heat of the summer and I have yet to see a single mirage (or lamp for that matter).  It is worth noting that the defining characteristic of a mirage is that it promises something that it can’t deliver.

The expectations I set for ministry prior to my deployment and the things I would accomplish for God’s Kingdom were in many ways like a mirage.  When I arrived at what I thought was a palm-lined oasis, I quickly realized it was something completely different.  Maybe you have had this experience.  You resolve to do something for God, perhaps after hearing one of Aaron’s inspiring sermons.  Before you can realize this great vision, reality smacks you in the face.

I prepared and prayed for this deployment and I had an idea of what God would do through me in this place, an expectation of what that ministry might be.  Not gonna lie, I imagined I would be preaching and leading Bible studies, and if I could get my hands on a guitar… well you get it.  So far, that vision of ‘Middle East Billy Graham’ has been more mirage than reality.  Often we imagine how God may answer our prayers before we pray them.  Usually while we wait on God’s answer to prayer, our hope is that God will give us exactly what we asked for.  Our sin nature causes us to want to lead God to the outcomes we most desire, even in prayer, but is that how it ought to be?

Psalm 25 teaches that God leads and we are to follow: “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” (Psalm 25:4-5) The problem I have experienced is, instead of marching toward a goal, I end up wandering in a desert (quite literally) toward a mirage of my own creation.  Meanwhile, I miss the gentle leading of the Lord, which is the very answer to prayer that I am seeking.  The solution to this problem starts when we stop looking for an oasis that meets all the desires of our prayer and start looking at Jesus.  Jesus was very clear about one thing in His ministry, we only harvest where He has sown the seed. 

John chapter 4 tells the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.  Because of the first century prejudice that existed between Jews and Samaritans, this interaction nearly scandalized Jesus’ disciples.  Jesus promised this woman (and us) living water.  This unexpected encounter (to the disciples), was actually a divine appointment that resulted in a multitude coming to salvation.  Jesus taught his disciples a very important lesson, “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” (John 4:37-38).  Meaning, when we have success for God’s Kingdom, it is only because God prepared the way before we arrived.  

The Apostle Paul put this another way, “Paul planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase.” (1 Cor 3:6).  God always reaps a harvest where he has sown.  Should we pray for God to lead us? Absolutely.  Should you have an idea or expectation of how God might answer that prayer?  You would not be a human if you did not.  The wisdom comes from discerning God’s answers to your prayer.  

So what am I to do?  The mirage has faded and there is only sand as far as I can see.  Satan has whispered in my ear more than once that I have failed.  I think it is time to look around and see the ministry that God has led me to.  It does not include a podium, a microphone, or a guitar.  I have already annoyed everyone at the Base Chaplain’s Bible study with my long theological rants.  So where does that leave me?  The answer is with the fruitful harvest that God has led me to.  I can’t wait to report to you what that is, once I have figured it out.  I remain willing as ever to obey God’s leading, but more than ever, I am also ready to get out of His way.

One last thought.  Between 1947 and 2005, Billy Graham let 417 Crusades, in 185 countries, on every continent except Antarctica. You and I may never evangelize to the untold millions to whom Billy Graham gave the Gospel, but as great an evangelist as Billy Graham was, somebody first shared the gospel with him.  Whether you are Billy Graham, preaching to millions, or the person who witnessed to Billy Graham, in both cases God sowed the seed, and God reaped the harvest. 

God probably won’t send you or me into the mission field we expect, but the mission field he sends us to is always the right one.  Learn from me; don’t keep wandering toward the mirage.  Look around you at the oasis God as already led you to, and share the living water with anyone who will drink.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3

I have been cooped up in the house like the rest of you for the last two weeks.  I know it has been two weeks because of the itchy beard I started growing on Friday April 3^rd, the last day I was at work.  Over the course of the last two weeks, like your family, the five of us have enjoyed concentrated togetherness.  Unlike the two weeks we get off at Christmastime, the quarantine togetherness is government-enforced by our local police squad! Which makes this time both special and weird.

Much like my beard, our uninterrupted family huddle is starting to get itchy.  I’m sure you can relate.  We all hate to admit it, but the old adage rings true that “absence makes the heart grow fond, while familiarity breeds contempt.”  Needless to say, we are starting to annoy one another.  Worse yet, each day makes it more and more difficult to hide our annoyance. 

In a moment of clarity, I’ll accept the blame: it’s not my fellow prisoners’ fault that their loud breathing has begun to shred my nerves like a cheese grater.  I choose how I react to people.  So how can I “count others as more significant than myself” during the quarantine -- or any other day for that matter?  Philippians 2:2 gives the answer.  The Apostle Paul calls this “participation in the Spirit.”

The Spirit mentioned here is God the Holy Spirit.  Without going down a lengthy hermeneutic rabbit trail, the Holy Spirit is the person of the triune God Who indwells a believer at the moment of salvation.  Not only that, but the Holy Spirit is the agent of renewal and regeneration Who accomplished the resurrection of Christ and will someday resurrect you.  Paul tells us in Philippians 2:2 that we are not simply God’s puppets, but we can participate with the Holy Spirit.

In Mark 12, Jesus taught us that loving God with your whole being and loving your neighbor are the greatest commandments.  God is great and worthy of love, but my neighbor lets his dog pee on my yard every single day.  How do you love people who are so unlovable?  Have you looked in a mirror lately?  We are all unlovable at times.  Let’s be honest, this quarantine hasn’t raised our stock very much either. 

Paul tells us that loving people as our Messiah commanded is a choice.  He says we need to look at ourselves and then choose to consider others more important than us.  This is a high standard, because Ephesians 5:29 makes it very clear that there is no one we esteem more highly than ourselves.  In fact, Jesus uses our self-love as the standard by which we are to love others. 

Each day is like an individual Mad-Lib, in which we alone fill in the blanks.  What verb will you choose when faced with a person who annoys you?  Will you “yell” or will you “forgive”?  I am glad that God is not keeping a tally of how many times I have yelled when I find my kids’ dishes and laundry occupying the floors and furniture of my house.  Just like you, when met with the conditions I have set for myself to be annoyed, I have a choice in how I react to others. 

I am not suggesting as parents that we should not correct or discipline our children, but Christ’s command is not limited to those whom we deem our equals or superiors.  Christ says that we are to consider the least in God’s Kingdom as more important than us.  Dads and Moms, that means your kids, and even your neighbor’s annoying kids.  From personal experience, the times I choose gentleness and affirmation over annoyance feel like such a victory that I almost feel pride for making the more noble choice.  It is ok to feel good about obeying God!

When we make the choice to treat others better than we would even treat ourselves (or at least as good), we get to enjoy the blessing of participation with God’s plan of redemption.  Not only that, but Christ teaches us, “as you do for the least of His brothers and sisters, you have done to Me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Tomorrow is going to be a new slate of choices.  Take each one as they come at you and chose to participate with the Holy Spirit.  You’ll be really glad that you did.

Emblazoned on the cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are the words, “Don’t Panic.” Today, the iconic words from author Douglas Adams seem more relevant than ever.  We live in an age that is familiar with the ever-present threat of terrorism and extremism, but for most of us, the closest we will ever get to those horrors is an article on a news website.  In the modern era, we aren’t acquainted with the type of global fear that the Coronavirus has caused.  Compared to the 20^th century, the 21^st century has been benign. 

Rewind the tape 100 years and the Spanish Flu followed the bloodiest war in human history (to that point).  The Spanish Flu claimed between 50-100 million lives following World War I, which had claimed 13 million lives.  Those numbers are incomprehensible from our modern perspective.  So what is the difference?  Why, when faced with a potential pandemic, do we feel personally vulnerable?  May I suggest our unprecedented access to information, no matter how reliable the source, has brought once seemingly distant troubles right to our doorstep.  The reality is that the Coronavirus, like pandemics before it, can infect you whether you are informed or not.  What the Coronavirus cannot do, however, is determine whether you are going to panic or make a plan. 

I believe all Christ followers have a responsibility during this crisis.  Like the best of our forebears who ministered to the sick during the bubonic plague (among other plagues), we too can serve our communities and lift up the name of Jesus to the least in His kingdom.  I’m not going to offer specific ministries, but a few guiding principles you should consider as you trust God to guide you during this time. 

1. “Don’t Panic.” Honestly, what good does panic do you?  Consider your calling as a born again follower of Jesus.  I remind you, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7).  Why did he do that?  First, because we serve the God of creation.  Nothing happens within His creation that is beyond God’s control.  That is the master you serve.  Don’t misunderstand -- I am not blaming God (as some have) for Coronavirus. However, I am confident that He can use even this time of trouble for His glory. (1 Peter 4:12-19, Romans 8:28).
2. Be wise. Proverbs 13:20 tells us, “He who walks with the wise will become wise, but he who walks with fools suffers harm.” Who are you taking your medical advice from, your doctor, or your crazy uncle on Facebook? Take the necessary precautions recommended by your health care provider and the health care officials of the government.  Of course you should pray for God’s protection, but it does not show a lack of faith to follow sound medical advice to prevent the spread of the virus.  The prophet Daniel (Dan 2:21) tells us that it is God who appoints and removes our leaders for his purposes and the Apostle Peter tells us that we are to be subject to our leaders in government.  Practically speaking, our government has issued sound advice on this virus, so take your medicine, people.  Just look at the Apostle Paul and his disciple Timothy.  Timothy had a stomach issue, so did Paul prescribe prayer? No, he told him to take wine with his food, because the water was suspect.  That’s just good advice.
3. Be missional. If you have been on the lookout for an opportunity to be on mission for Jesus, my friend, your ship has come in.  I have heard from multiple people at work and through many media outlets that Coronavirus is God’s judgement.  It is strange how religiously minded non-religious people can get.  Lately everyone is a prophet of the apocalypse.  Too bad they don’t know what apocalypse means (it means revelation).  It’s true, when God eventually reveals himself through the return of Jesus Christ, the world will be judged.  My friend, let’s not suppose that day is today.  May I suggest to you that the trials that precede Christ’s revealing are not judgement at all, but opportunities for individuals to actually know the God of the universe?  Isn’t it more likely that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”? (John 3:17) Now is our opportunity to tell a world that is facing up to their mortality that Jesus is a God who saves.

So what do I suggest you do?  Well for starters, stop hoarding toilet paper.  If it’s too late and your bunker is already stacked to the brim with TP, maybe knock on your neighbor’s door and see if they could use some.  Once you have met that most delicate of needs in your community, be bold; tell them that TP is from Jesus and tell they He can give them much more than two-ply.  Pray for your neighbors, your co-workers, your Gospel Community members.  Be a warrior of prayer, be a warrior of worship (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).  Rejoice in the God who has a plan for your life and trust that He can see it to completion (Philippians 1:6).   Above all, don’t panic! We are not a people of fear. We are a people who, when crisis comes, bless our neighbors, not hide from them.  Be a person who brings peace to a broken and fearful world. 

Sometimes you find truth in unexpected places. In 1950, American statistician and engineer Edwards Deming went to Japan.  He was a missionary of sorts, but his mission was for business, not God.  Deming is the father of a concept called Statistical Product Quality Administration (SPQA).  The philosophy was simple: businesses would improve and compete if they designed better products that didn’t break as often, had assembly lines that produced higher levels of uniformity in products, improved product research and testing, and sought foreign markets for sales.  All of these things seem obvious to us today, but they are only obvious to us because Edwards Deming made them obvious by his life’s work.                                Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

In 1950, nobody in American business would listen to Deming or heed his SPQA method.  Post-World War II Japan was another story.  The country bought into SPQA wholeheartedly, and Deming is largely credited as the catalyst for the economic miracle that catapulted Japan from a nation in ruins in 1950 to the world’s second-largest economy by 1960.  Though SPQA is not a biblical tenet, it gave rise to a business practice that I find to be quite evangelical: Just-In-Time manufacturing. 

Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” The notion of storing God’s word in your heart got me thinking about Just-In-Time manufacturing.  My graduate degree is in Procurement and Acquisitions Management, and supply chain management was a big portion of my study.  Supplies are basically anything you keep on hand before you need it.  To keep shipping costs low while minimizing real estate devoted to storing materials, a manufacturer must synchronize delivery of materials as close as possible to the moment they are needed to assemble a product.  For example, if you need five tons of ice cream per day at your ice cream sandwich factory, you lose money for every day that you have to refrigerate any excess ice cream not used to make a sandwich.  Get it?

Storing God’s word in your heart is a lot like running an ice cream sandwich factory.  Ostensibly, like the ice cream, you are storing God’s Word for a purpose.  Psalm 119:11 gives one such example: so that you won’t sin against God.  According to the Psalmist, having God’s word on hand, stored in your heart, produces the effect of not sinning.  I like that idea.  But I also realize that it is difficult to memorize and store a great deal of rote knowledge so that it can be effectively recalled when needed.  What if we used a Just-In-Time method to store our scripture?

Psalm 119:11 gives one reason to have scripture on hand, so we can avoid sin in our life.  The great commission gives us another (Matthew 28:16-20): to reach the world in salvation.  If we were to apply the concept of Just-In-Time to scripture storage, we would always have a fresh scripture on hand when we needed it in order to witness.  Just-In-Time scripture comes from daily study and renewing your mind in God’s Word.  Imagine the effect of having fresh scripture delivered to your heart every day.   Truly, you can only keep so much material in storage before you have to start using it or giving it away. 

Deming is known as the father of the quality manufacturing movement, but I assure you the quality of your walk with God can only improve the more you hone your scripture supply chain.