Incline My Heart to Do Thy Will

"Because she has set her love upon Me, therefore I will deliver her; I will set her on high, because she has known My name" (Psalm 91:14, personalized).

When I want something, manipulation usually kicks into high gear. That is why, when Dad offered me a window of opportunity to return to the US with him this month, it was next to impossible for me to discern God's will. I certainly knew why I wanted to go, and I could definitely make it worth everyone's while if I went. Yet I had a nagging feeling that dozens of good reasons would not suffice. I needed divine confirmation, and so I prayed, "Incline my heart to do Thy will."

Did He answer my prayer? Yes, and here's how--

Memo of events surrounding the "big decision":

Sept 1 - "Incline my heart to do Thy will..."
Sept 2 - I receive "confirmation" to proceed with plans to go.
Sept 3 - Grandpa Ho informs us that Typhoon Sinlaku is approaching Taiwan.
Sept 6 - Dad reconsiders the trip in light of the coming typhoon
and pressing office responsibilities. We decide to cancel flight reservations.
Sept 7 - UA 844 takes off 2 hours and 50 minutes after the
scheduled departure and presumably arrives in San Fran without catastrophe.
Sept 8 - Typhoon Sinlaku veers toward China.

Someone once said, "Hold all things loosely, but hold tightly onto God." Despite my September 2 confirmation, I tried desperately to keep my hopes in check, to continue praying, "Incline my heart..." The one thing that kept us from booking our tickets and packing our bags was Typhoon Sinlaku. Throughout that week, Dad and Tim checked the position of the typhoon. When the forecast said it would hit on Thursday, the typhoon conveniently slowed its pace enough to threaten our departure date (Saturday). The winds howled, as we gathered at the conference table Friday morning. We knew God was closing the door-- it was our turn to surrender.

Was I disappointed? Yes. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick..." (Proverbs 13:12). Yet I also knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the will of my Lord and Master, who bought me with His life. I had prayed that He would incline my heart to do His will... and I was ready to surrender without a fight.

When UA 844 chose to brave the storm, when Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny without a cloud in sight, my brother muttered something about the "irony" of it all. Yes, it was definitely ironic that one of the deciding factors turned out not to be a factor at all. On the flip side, I cannot help but feel awed that the Lord of the universe orchestrated a multitude of circumstances-- even churned a storm bigger than Taiwan-- to incline my heart to do His will. If He went to such great lengths for me, how could I not surrender so small a desire to Him?

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"The way I see it, we ought to be willing to die. In the military, we were taught that to obtain our objectives we had to be willing to be expendable. Missionaries must face that same expendability." ~ Nate Saint
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Soul Lemonade, No. 1
Taipei, Taiwan

Recipe for Soul Lemonade

"As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country" (Proverbs 25:25).

"Yi, er, san, si..." I think the idea hit me in the middle of Grandpa Ho's calisthenics. Between stretches, I glanced at the sheet above the kitchen sink, trying to etch Proverbs 25 onto my long-term memory. Yesterday morning, verse twenty-five caught my eye: "As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country" (Prov 25:25). My mind drifted back seven years to the early days of "missionary life" in Taiwan. In those days, email was still a foreign concept, so I spent most of my free time writing letters, hoping that in so doing, I could procure more "cold water" for my homesick soul.

Times have changed. Technology has made correspondence as easy as hitting "Enter" on my ThinkPad. On the other hand, free time is fast becoming a foreign concept. As time continues to slip through my fingers, I've discovered that not only have some of my friendships suffered, but my walk with the Lord has also grown stale.

What to do? When I shared with the students in Taoyuan on "Loving God," I challenged them to examine their thoughts and conversation-- does anything occupy their conversation and preoccupy their minds more than Christ? This past week, the Lord turned the tables on me and challenged me to examine the basis of not only my friendships, but also of my thoughts and conversation. Does my life truly revolve around Him?

For the past year, I have sensed my love for the Lord waning. One indication is that He does not dominate my thoughts and conversation. So... I was wondering if you might be willing to help me, to hold me accountable. If you don't mind, I'd like to share some "soul lemonade"-- lessons I'm learning from the Lord-- from time to time. My prayer is that writing will help deepen my love for the Lord and sharpen my mind's eye to view life from His perspective. And perhaps-- it will also refresh your soul in the process... like a glass of ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer day.

Oh-- and thanks in advance for reading.

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Soul Lemonade, Introduction
Taipei, Taiwan