Thoughts of Inheritance

For Man the future is fleeting.  For God future IS.  This has never been as plain to me as it has these last few weeks.  One of my favorite scriptures is Matthew 6:27 “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” The idea here is pretty straightforward.  DO NOT waste your life with concerns of what might be.  I’ve found it to be foundational for creating trust between God and I, and yet with the same hand I often I use this passage to justify my ignorance of future things.  Telling God I shall neither worry about the future nor strive for your glory in it.  This is all changing.

Starting in April, though surely not ending, God urged me to think hard about my inheritance.  Initially I had more questions than answers.  I was stubborn in my weakness, instead of being strong in his strength.  Then he used that pride to get my attention.  The story goes like this.

One of my best friends in the world visited me in The CT a few weeks ago.  He is, in all seriousness, an “ambassador” to a place not named America.  We were talking about missions, dreams, strategies and support when I asked how the “fund raising” was going.  A conversation began about how some are called to support, while others are called to go, yet the supporters are not without inheritance.  It is through their diligence, work, and prayer that they are able to “take part” in the great commission.

Hear my heart please.  I believe that idea to be true.  I believe that I have an inheritance in places like Turkey, like China, like Australia.  But when it was said on that day, when my close friend said this.  My chest puffed up.  I wanted to scream “I will create my own inheritance, outside of my support for you.”  Now my motives and thoughts hear are a completely different issue between Jesus and I.  I do believe, however, that my feelings in the moment were, are, God given.

I was reading about Jacob, in Genesis, the other day.  Right before he dies Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.  He talks of the future inheritance through their bloodline and he says that Ephraim, the younger, will be greater than Manasseh, the older.  What’s important to remember here, aside from the fact that this situation is backwards from what culture would dictate at the time, is that this picture of blessing is the same portrait that Jacob is from.  It was Jacob, the younger brother, who gained the blessing of Isaac out from under Esau.  The cycle had perpetuated itself again.  When I read this I realized I felt like Manasseh, I felt like Esau, second to receive.

Those thoughts of pride and arrogance are apart from God.  What is not apart from God is the love and encouragement that came afterwards.  We, I, as an American Christian, do not have to wait for or earn our inheritance through secondary means.  While I believe that it does happen.  I do not think that it is, or should be a replacement for living “as if you are” a missionary, for in fact there is no “as if” about it, you are.

So God has me thinking about the types of things I would do if I were to live in another country.  He has me speaking into relationships as if it were the case.  Everyday I grow stronger in my conviction that The CT has more need than the rest of world.  Whether that is the case or not, it’s something I need to believe some days.  My future, immediate at least, is here and I will do everything I can to build up this place, to gain an inheritance in this city.  The city of my youth.

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