I’ve never fully, officially launched The God Factor from being a nagging idea into the rhythm of a consistent newsletter-publication.
Until now.
When I’ve written blogs, LinkIn posts, and books for clients, I’ve created structure using categories.
And when I edited and wrote the monthly Global Prayer Digest magazine decades ago we used themes as a structure.
Here are the general topics I’ll use as a structure to create articles and interviews relating to God being the factor in people’s lives throughout world history and in my life, our lives, personally.
Look for a weekly (for now) article on:
1 God’s calling and leading people in the Bible.
What qualities did the people have?
How did they respond?
What was God leading them into?
How did they mess up?
What can we learn from what they did?
What happened to rulers who acted like gods? Pharoah, Herod, Nebuchadnezzar?
2 Prayer now and prayer in the Bible.
What led to the prayers, like Hannah, the mother of Samuel who prayed in anguish?
How were the prayers answered?
What should we expect?
3 Serving and staying connected to Christ during the complications that rise from what God has called us to.
How can we stay focused on God and the “riches” of his kingdom?
What can discourage us?
What difficulties do we see in the Bible like Jonah fighting God to go to Ninevah or Paul appealing to Ceasar?
How do we stay joyful and hopeful?
4 A current story, interview from someone who’s been called into their profession; how they understood God’s leading; how they’ve handled challenges; and how they’ve had to refresh their commitments or have stayed fresh in their commitment to Christ.
Underlying each category will be implicity or explicitly the belief of Christ as “the way, the truth, and the life.”
I’ll change the tabs, too.
Why The God Factor
Well-meaning friends have said over the years that Cindy and I should write a book about mentoring kids who we met through Cindy’s clinic and fostering and adopting our kids.
Since 2014, I tried writing and have written several chapters … and stopped. I kept writing the same several chapters but never continued.
Part of the reason I’ve struggled is because the early 2000s were filled with so much turmoil that I really believed at one point that God had abandoned me, and I couldn’t stand going to church because there was no way to share deeply with anyone about what I was feeling and thinking.
Church was designed for order and in our congregation a few thousand people moved onto and off the campus within a few hours on a Sunday morning.
Most pastors I’ve known in my experience aren’t equipped to handle deep needs and many of the Christians I’ve worshipped with are quite capable of solving many of their own problems.
Ever since I chose to follow Christ in 9th grade, I had read the Bible through dozens of times. But during my personal turmoil, I had stopped reading the Bible altogether.
Until late 2010 and into 2011, the only passages I read were Hebrews 2:10-18 (especially reading verses 14-18 over and over) and Hebrews 9, which I read over and over.
I won’t go into those here, but I suggest reading them carefully and studying their significance.
Those passages gave me renewed energy and I began discovering how other Christians who really loved Christ were handling their deep needs. Or they needed prayer and someone to talk to.
I’m not sure that I’ve completely healed or have rebounded from those early 2000s because the work with our family has never completely stopped but it’s taken other forms.
There’s been no fairy godmother who waved a wand and brought back my career or what I thought was my career (this taught me that fairy godmothers aren’t real, but don’t tell anyone).
God’s calling
Could God or does God really call us into tough circumstances that go beyond our control?
The answer is, “Yes.”
This isn’t a rhetorical question. It’s a searching question and one that I’ve wrestled with for years.
Part of this wrestling or searching is that there’s been a huge gap between mainline denominational and evangelical Christians living our faith in the U.S. (and Canada, Western Europe) and the rest of the world.
Going to church has been part of the receipe for a successful life:
Do well in school
Play sports or be involved in an academic club
Go to college or trade school
Get a good job
And don’t forget to go to church because, you know, God wants you to—and toss a few dollars in the offering.
Many pastors or theological leaders in the U.S. can have a celebrity status and make a good living, even if they battle culture.
Think of John MacArthur and James Dobson, both of whom recently passed. They had career success which included a type of pop culture status. That’s an observation more than a criticism.
God doesn’t lead each of us in the same way, even though we’re called to share each other’s burdens.
There are certain callings for some but not for others.
In late 1983 and 1984, I believed deeply that God was calling me to leave my first job in radio news and head to the U.S. Center for World Mission where I wrote a prayer guide.
I wondered, “Why me?”
Why not someone else? What about others?
I turned the question over as I prepared to leave Pennsylvania for Southern California, which I knew was going to be challenging.
The ending of John’s gospel came to mind as an answer: John 21:17-23.
Jesus foretold how Peter’s death would glorify God and then said, “Follow me.”
Talk about being called into tough circumstances.
When Peter turned saw John following them, Peter then asked Christ, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”
What that meant to me in my 22-year-old mind was God had a plan … for me. And I wasn’t to concern myself with his plans for others.
This was what he was calling me to do.
The Blessing of Challenges
Others have experienced God’s leading into tough but rewarding circumstances, too, and we can learn a great deal from them.
I wrote about Finnian Ebuehi in Nigeria and the work with his team today in Guinea. His early career as a mechanical engineer led to a strategic assignment.
Finnian’s Swiss Clock Adventure, Death Threats, and Schools for Children.
His belief in Christ’s truth led him into a volatile situation.
Friends who are Nepalese and pastors in Nepal are a minority where they serve and face stresses you and I will never face.
I have friends from other countries who faced persecution for their beliefs and had to settle in the U.S.
As Christians, we live in a world of numerous conflicts beginning inside our own hearts.
Our sin nature is real and our hearts are evil beginning in childhood (Genesis 6:5, Genesis 8:21).
I’ve often wanted my will versus God’s will.
Christ is truth in a world of lies.
People establish themselves as their own gods (especially dictators) and ignore or simply refuse to pay attention to God.
Redemption isn’t an easy work.
But God wants our attention and wants our skills used … for his glory … the hope for the nations.
And in doing so, he’ll lead us into a calling that goes beyond what we can control and into something much greater than ourselves.
That’s the God factor.
Subscribe to stay in touch and if what you read is beneficial, then please share. You may have story suggestions and I’ll be offering a way to submit those.
Looking forward to reading more of the God factor.