And the Lord said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Exodus 33:19
“Trusting in Your goodness and great mercy, O Lord, I come as one sick to the Healer, as one hungry and thirsty to the Fountain of life, as one in need to the King of heaven, a servant to his Lord, a creature to his Creator, a soul in desolation to my gentle Comforter.
But whence is this to me, that You should come to me? Who am I that You should offer Yourself to me? How dares the sinner to appear in Your presence, and You, how do You condescend to come to the sinner? You know Your servant, and You know that he has nothing good in him that You should grant him this.
I confess, therefore, my unworthiness. I acknowledge Your goodness. I praise Your mercy, and give thanks for Your immense love. For it is because of Yourself that You do it, not for any merit of mine; so that Your goodness may be better known to me, that greater love may be aroused and more perfect humility born in me.”
Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) in The Imitation of Christ) excerpt from Chapter 1, “Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth (Grand Rapids, CCEL), p. 156.
By the time this posts, I have arrived safely in Pakistan. It is a place of desolation. I am “as one in need to the King of heaven.”
As my sabbatical draws to a close, a friend asked me this week what life looks like after my sabbatical. I said that if you read my Christian Leadership Alliance blog, “What is a sabbatical?” you discover that I have not shifted from “normal” to “nothing” but from the “normal” to the “needful” things.
In short, as my sabbatical concludes, I plan to shift make the “needful” things my new “normal” way of living.
And God keeps deploying me to serve His workers in hard places. I trust that his goodness will pass in front of me and bring blessing to places of desolation, like Pakistan.
I pray this for you too. That you will not choose the comfortable route because you think you deserve the blessings you have received. I pray you acknowledge God’s goodness and your unworthiness, and because you want to be a conduit of blessing, you move toward brokenness.
Someone asked me this week, “Is Jenni nervous that you are traveling to Pakistan?” I said, not only is she not stressed but supportive, but the truth is, I get home on 23 April, and then next day I take her to the airport to fly to Poland to teach at the seminary in Lviv, Ukraine for her fourth trip during the war.
Going to places riddle with desolation is not dangerous. It is life-giving diligent service. Dangerous would be to experience the goodness and mercy of God, to understand and know His love, and not share it with others as God opens doors.
As I serve in Pakistan, upon arrival I anticipate some unanticipated expenses, upwards of a few thousand dollars. I am opening some exciting new partnerships for Kairos to make context based theological education available to people who need it. I am also mentoring workers to have locally sustained ministries.
And another fruit of this trip will be a new and improved Generosity Monk website. I hope to roll it out by 25 June 2026 which will mark 17 years of Daily Meditations. Click here if you would like to give to help. Thank you.