From a Team Expansion worker:
I was walking home today during a call to prayer.
As I readjusted the grocery bag digging into my shoulder, silently wondering why I had bought such heavy things, I found my eyes looking up to the mosque, where a man’s voice came peeling from the speaker in vacillating tones. I recognized the voice – I have heard it many times. I even recognized some of the sounds. And yet, that was all they were to me- hollow, empty sounds.
The call to prayer blasted from the mosque.
I looked around, curious. Did anyone else hear?
A few men lingered around an auto-repair shop nearby, but they didn’t seem to notice. Three school-age friends walking on the other side of the street laughed and talked together, oblivious. Cars passed, people ambled along, and the sound of the call was irrelevant to them. Just a background sound of their lives.
It led me to pray, to open up my heart and plead with God as my feet hit the pavement in steps toward home. God, how long? How long until they hear more than a sound of religion that fades into an irrelevant, everyday din? How long until they see You for who You are?
This month came and went for me with everyday, ordinary rhythms of language learning and meetings, laughter, tears, life. But in all the commonplace of yesterday and today, the sound of our God’s voice has been calling out—to all of us. Lovingly, longingly— Come close. It isn’t far-off and cryptic, but it still requires a response. Are we listening?
This is my prayer for me, for you, and for this field.
My prayer this month for this field is also a prayer for myself, and for you, my dear brothers and sisters in Jesus—God, open our eyes to really see and ears to really hear! It’s too precious of a proclamation to become elevator music – The God of the Universe is holding out His hands and loving us immeasurably without guarantees.
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?(Isaiah 55:1-3)
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David…” (Isaiah 55:1-3)
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
