Windows Open, Outward and Upward

I’ve recently been reading a book called Letters by a Modern Mystic.  It’s the (now) more than 80-year-old prayer diary of a missionary named Frank Laubach.  Fun holiday reading, right? :)  Fascinating, actually.  And (I’m finding, at least) remarkably relevant – both to our situation right now and to this time of year.

At the time that he wrote his “letters,” Laubach had just moved to a remote, very strongly Muslim area of the Philippines.  He was alone in a new community, not yet familiar with the people that he felt called to reach, not yet as aware or as appreciative as he would later be of their culture and even their religion.  It was a time that Laubach described as “the lonesomest year, in some ways the hardest year, of [his] life.”  However, he goes on to say that it was a year that was “the most gloriously full of voices from heaven.” 

Looking back on this year, Elias and I would have to echo a few of those sentiments.  It has not been an easy year – in many ways, the hardest of our married life at least.  We have left behind many people whom we love and places that hold some of our dearest memories, a community that has loved and supported us and a work in which we have seen God bringing forth incredible fruit.  And yet we go forward confident in God’s leading -- and thankful that we have all of those things here as well.  To have all of those things on opposite sides of the world – well, it seems almost greedy really. :)

Perhaps more than ever before, in our move here Elias and I have experienced the generosity of people.  We are so thankful for our wonderful family, friends and church community that have always loved and supported and prayed for us and encouraged us in so many remarkable and unexpected ways.  We are truly blessed! 

Elias has now completed (very successfully, I might add) his first semester in his Social Work program at Humber.  He is enjoying the program and finding what he is learning valuable and practical to what he has done in the past and would like to do in the near and distant future. :)  This next semester he will only have to commute to Humber three days a week (oh the blessing of only THREE 4:30 a.m. wake-ups!) as he will be doing his first work placement here in Kitchener, with the Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo.  He is looking forward to the opportunity and, as you can see from this picture, he is acclimating just fine to Canadian winter – aided and abetted by four or five layers of clothing UNDER his winter jacket. :)

I have completed my first term of teaching at Fellowship Christian School here in Kitchener.  I have a class full of wonderful, unique, very keen individuals.  Over this last month or so they worked hard to raise money to fill 14 Christmas boxes for Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child.  We had the opportunity to drop these off in person at the Operation Christmas Child collection centre and to tour the centre itself.  An incredible experience!  Even more than the massive scale of the centre and the work that is done there, I was impressed with (and blessed by) the generosity of my students and their very sincere desire to reach out to the world in whatever ways they can.  They are already ambitious and selfless workers in God’s kingdom, and I am looking forward to watching them continue to grow in faith, in character and in each and every one of their abilities. 

As we look forward to this Christmas season (my first one spent with THIS part of our family in five years, and Elias’s first EVER!) and to the New Year, we do so with gratitude for what we have experienced of God’s blessing and his presence with us in the experiences of this last year – and with anticipation for what is to come.  Not all of that is certain – such, I have discovered, is life. :) My comfort in that is that, this New Year as in every other, I can say with the Psalmist, “Lord you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance” (Psalm 16:5-6). 

This has been a year in which God has done BIG things for us – he always does, if we bother to pay attention. :)  He has worked miracles through the Canadian visa department (which in itself is a BIG thing!) and has provided for our every need.  We look forward to another year lived in his keeping.

I’d like to close with another thought from my 80-year-old prayer diary.  On the 3^rd of January, 1930, Frank Laubach reflected on the coming of the New Year with these words:

“To be able to look backward and say, ‘This, this has been the finest year of my life’ – that is glorious!  But anticipation!  To be able to look ahead and say, ‘The present year can and shall be better!’ – that is more glorious!  If we said such things about our achievements, we would be consummate egotists.  But if we are speaking of God’s kindness, and we speak truly, we are but grateful.  And this is what I do witness.  I have done nothing but open windows – God has done all the rest.” 

Laubach’s New Year’s resolution, 80 years ago, was this: “to be as wide open toward people and their need as I am toward God.  Windows open outward as well as upward!  Windows especially open downward where people need most!”  I pray that his resolution will be ours as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!