Today was one of those hard-hitting Gospel truth days.

I was able to join my church in a virtual service yesterday morning and wouldn’t you know that the sermon was on those familiar words of Luke 12? You know that passage: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing….But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.  Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” 

I expected the usual, “Don’t be part of the Prosperity Gospel crowd; don’t give into worry or fear” sermon. And that was touched on, yes. But what I didn’t expect was how the sermon also brought up other false beliefs. There was the Prosperity Gospel – God never promised that He would give us all that we want or that He would spare us from suffering.

But then there was what the speaker called the “Minimum Wage Gospel” or, “God will provide just enough for us to live.” But how can you reconcile that Gospel with the Christians who are currently living in poverty or who have died under persecution? God never promised us “just enough” to live on either.

Instead, God promised that He would provide us with enough to fulfill His purposes here on this earth….and His purposes look very different from ours. His “enough” is different from our “enough.” 

I hadn’t realized I had bought into that Minimum Wage Gospel until today. I also didn’t realize I’d be tested in that belief right away as we received our delivery order for groceries with half of our original order – including very little in the way of protein and some strange substitutions….like tuna mushroom pizza. 

I didn’t realize how much the restrictions here – which are much tighter than what the current US restrictions are – bothered me until I realized I was hesitant to go out to the store because people have been angrily posting about how expats can’t follow rules. 

I haven’t physically left my house in 13 days and am more than a little wary to do so as I don’t want to be categorized as “one of those” expats who are flouting the rules by going on walks or jogging. I don’t want to join the hundreds of people who have been arrested in Malaysia for going outside. 

I’m a bit hurt by well-meaning but somewhat cutting comments about the significance, or lack thereof, of my job as we transition to remote learning. 

I’m more homesick than I’ve been in a long time and feeling the strain of being “stuck” in a foreign country, unsure of when I’ll be able to go home.

And then I’m angry at myself because I do have “enough” – more than many of the people here:

The refugees that our school is connected to and trying to figure out how to help feed.

The people who are sharing tiny apartments and can’t leave the cramped quarters or are terrified of catching the virus from the one person who is categorized as “essential,” but may bring back the virus to the rest one day. 

I’m not trying to plan a funeral and facing the fact that I may not even be able to do that until much later. 

I’m not running out of money and wondering how I’ll support myself over the next few weeks or, more likely, months.

 I am not disconnected from my community because I don’t have internet.

There’s so much more “enough” that I have. How can I be ungrateful? Yes, it is difficult to be inside, to be half-way across the world from the people that I love, to not have access to the food that I might have otherwise had.

This does not mean God is unmoved by my difficulties and struggles, whatever they may be, for indeed, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He knows what it means to suffer and He has suffered on our behalf more than we will ever know, because that is the loving, caring God He is – seeking out and saving the lost, bringing them into His eternal family.  

What this does mean is that I have enough. And I’m still responsible for using what I have to focus on what God does want me to do, for He gives direction to His people directly after the lilies of the field verses in Luke 12:35-40:

 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

We must stay dressed for action.

We must serve.

We must love. 

And yes, that looks a little different now, but God has not been thwarted in His plans. He is on the move and His Word is living and active. Let’s be ready to do what He has called us to do. Onward and upward, my friends, for we have an imperishable Reward waiting for us and we must point others to Him while it is still called today.