Well, it was settled, my role was to be the trip leader for our church when we return to London the following summer. All I had to do now was recruit people to come with me. Great, sounds exciting, I just love sales; I sarcastically thought to myself. I'm comfortable being in charge, but I'm not comfortable marketing a product or service. Somehow it always seems to be about me. Well, I'm doomed from the start.
All I had to do was make a presentation to the church during our Sunday service about what we saw, learned, and what we were proposing. Since I am such a motivating speaker, I figured the entire church would be willing to give their lives away and join me.
We had our first commitment meeting and had a nice turnout of about 15. Not quite 200, but I'll take it. After talking money and deadlines, my 15 turned into 8.
I don't understand why these people just don't get it, I thought. I presented a pretty compelling story. Doing the Lord's work and spending 10 days in London, seemed like a no-brainer. By this time I still hadn't figured out, this mission was less about me and more about Him.
In the next 200 days, I would begin a journey I was not ready for. Life should've been on auto-pilot till we leave on mission, right? God is clever, and He knew I needed to be prepared as a leader before ever leaving. I heard it said, you can't expect God to do all the magical preparation on the plane ride over; it starts now.
November of that year, my new friend, who was our guide while in England, came and spoke at our "Missions Celebration" at our church.
His message was taken from Deuteronomy 32:11;
"Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his pinions."He begins to tell the story of the Sinai eagle, and how this massive bird nests high up on the side of a bluff. They do this to avoid being eaten by other predators.
When the birds build their nests, they would make the base out of thorns and vine woven together. Then they would line the inside with feathers and other soft materials. When the eggs are hatched the baby birds have a nice soft area to rest, but when they get old enough to begin developing their wings the adult eagles begin to tear away the soft lining in order to move the eaglets closer to the edge. As you can imagine, the young eaglets try an stay on the soft feathery side of the nest as long as possible. Every time they would step off, they might prick their feet on the thorny base. The adults are trying to kick the young eaglets out, and teach them to fly. As a parent, I can totally relate. I understand why my parents nagged me so much to get a job and get married, they just wanted me to fly.
By the time the young eaglets have no other option but to fall out, they've developed wings to fly, they just lack the muscle to do so. The mother kicks them out of the nest high up on that bluff and the young eagles fall at terminal velocity flapping as hard as they can. Having the ultimate freak out moment as the ground grows ever so closer, they keep trying to fly. Just at the last moment, the male adult swoops in and catches them just before the moment of impact. He carries them high up to the nest, and the process is repeated until the young eagles spread their wings with strength and catch the wind to soar.
My friend goes on to say this:
"God will stir up your nest, just to kick you out, but He won't let you hit the ground. He never misses!! God is not in to spaces we make for ourselves or comfort zones. He knows you can't learn how to fly while still in the nest. If we keep building our nests, God will just try and kick us out."If you feel a little kicked out of your nest, fear not, God never misses.
“I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” Hebrews 13:5
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