“The real value of an object is that which one who knows its worth will give for it. He who made the soul, knew its worth and gave His life for it.”
Arthur Jackson
Two months after our move to Wichita, we were at a church service when we received this prophetic word. “God used the job to move you to Wichita, but that’s not the purpose for which He brought you here.” That word resonated within our hearts, and six years later, it continues to be like a lens through which we evaluate things.
Initially, I thought the word referred to some ministry, what God wanted us to do for Him as we ministered to others. Living in a new city with fewer friends and commitments gave me the time and focus to finish writing and publish Restoring Your Heart to Deepen Intimacy. God brought us to Wichita to be involved with other people and complete the book, but what was even truer was the plan of what God wanted to do within us, not just through us.
The larger reason God moved us to Wichita had to do with who we were to become as we embraced the slower pace of life, taking care of our internal worlds and our spiritual formation to become more like Christ. Those, I believe, were the greater, underlying reasons God moved us out of Omaha to Wichita. God cared so much about our souls, our inner beings, that He moved us here.
“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). God moved us to Wichita, not with the outcomes we had in mind, but to slow us down and set a new pace in which our spirituality and souls could come back to life.
I am so grateful God cared more about who He wanted us to become than what we would accomplish for Him. God prioritizes our inner being over outward doing and cares more for our souls than what we achieve for Him.
“Despise the flesh, for it passes away; be solicitous for your soul which will never die.”
St. Basil the Great
Relevant Reflections:
Through what lens do you evaluate your life: your internal soul or what you do?
How have God’s ways not been your ways?
Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay
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