There is undoubtedly scepticism regarding the notion of a 'call' in many Christian circles today. Instead of looking for specific guidance, many would advocate using the Bible to discern if something is sinful (in which case, don't do it), commanded (in which case, do it), and if it is neither, then use wisdom and try it, and if it's not right, the door will shut. I have to confess I am one of the first to get uncomfortable when people start talking about 'prophecies' and 'words' they have, which have directly impacted their decisions. And yet, when we were praying about moving to Garndiffaith, God did clearly confirm it was the right decision through Scripture for us. Since being here, nothing has really turned out as we expected -- in fact I'm not even sure what our expectations were to begin with anyway-- and yet we know this is the right place to be. If we were judging things on human results and circumstances, we'd have probably put our house on the market again and tried to jump ship!
The key illustration in the book for me is on p57:
'A seed which receives no water will only survive if it sends its root deep underground trying to find the water. The eventual tree that results is strong and fully able to use the rains when they come. God needs to ensure that we will be able to manage what he has for us.'
There are times when, from a human perspective, things don't make sense. They don't look good. It seems as if you are banging your head against a brick wall. But the fact is, God often brings His people to those kind of places in order to grow a deeper trust and faith in His power and provision. Just thinking through the heroes of faith in Scripture: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua... The list goes on! They all went through times of great testing, times where nothing was happening, times where they had nothing else to do except hold on to the promise God had made them. What would it have been like building the ark before the rains came? What about believing that God would give you a son when you were a hundred years old? And how about the burden of leading a people who were continually rebellious, ungrateful and critical of everything you did?
The way God works is not the way we work. He often allows things to happen that we would not, if we were the ones in control. He does let things get bad sometimes, from the uncomfortable to the heart-rending, grief stricken circumstances you just want to get out of as soon as you can. I worry sometimes that the rationalisation of the Christian life (to 'just do something') has eroded the very meaning of faith and what it means to live expecting God to speak and lead your life, even when He takes you into unexpected and not-very-nice places.
The danger is, that if we leave everything up to 'wisdom', then we will never take risks for the kingdom. We can all too easily find excuses why we shouldn't give up our job / move to that estate / give that money away / get more involved with that difficult person... I know my own propensity to kid myself that I am making a decision for the 'right' reasons when actually I'm just justifying staying in a more comfortable situation.
The stuff which inspires me in John Kirkby's story is the same which inspires me about the lives of the great pioneers, missionaries and preachers of the past (Muller, Whitefield, Taylor etc), and ultimately which I see in the men and women of faith in the Old and New Testament. They don't look at their circumstances and then draw their conclusions: this mission has failed, God is not with us, I should give up and go home. No! They look at their God, and they say, "we don't know exactly what's happening, we don't know when things will change, but we know You and we believe and trust that You are good and what You do is right. We will obey You in what You've called us to do." That's the kind of faith I want.
