Then Igor From Moldova Said...

Igor with Selah...2008

"We've never had security."

We were eating BBQ chicken sandwiches and talking about the economy in the United States and how it has affected support for their ministry in Moldova. 
Their children were running wild with ours--
Russian and English quite compatible in the language of Nerf gun battles.

Here--we call him Igor from Moldova--because that is what he says (in his unmistakable Russian accent) when he calls.

"This is Igor, from Moldova."

Igor and Aliona--his wife--are from Moldova and they still live in Moldova, but they are under the umbrella of an American ministry.

And lately--with our economy--it has been difficult to raise financial support.  We were discussing what might explain the recent decline...

Watching the news, we hear about unemployment and rising costs and...
Terrorism and politics.
Tornadoes and corruption.

And...how an older generation remembers these times in our country's past.
And...how a younger generation is facing national insecurity for the first time.
And...how in times of insecurity, people are less likely to support missions.
And then Igor from Moldova said:

"But if you have security...then why do you need to trust God?

I think we are more blessed.

We have never had security."

His words reminded me of Chapter 15 in John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life:

Why is there such a thing as risk?  Because there is such a thing as ignorance.  If there were no ignorance, there would be no risk.  Risk is possible because we don't know how things will turn out.  That means that God can take no risks.  He knows the outcome of all His choices before they happen.


One of my aims is to explode the myth of safety and to somehow deliver you from the enchantment of security.  Because it's a mirage.  It doesn't exist...The tragic hypocrisy is that the enchantment of security lets us take risks every day for ourselves but paralyzes us from taking risks for others on the Calvary road of love.


On the far side of every risk--even if it results in death--the love of God triumphs.  This is the faith that frees us to risk for the cause of God.  It is not heroism, or lust for adventure, or courageous self-reliance, or efforts to earn God's favor.  It is childlike faith in the triumph of God's love--that on the other side of our risks, for the sake of righteousness, God will still be holding us.  We will be eternally satisfied in Him.  Nothing will have been wasted.

 
We read these words the year before we adopted Selah.
We knew there was some risk involved, but that adoption was God's plan for our family.
We wrote these verses in the frame that we hoped would someday hold her photo.
We didn't know that Selah would be born with the disease Pompe.
We didn't know she'd rest in Jesus' arms the following April.
But we saw the faithful love of God...and His people... in the midst of all the pain.
And we knew security, back then, when life seemed very insecure.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,

nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

~Romans 8: 38 and 39

And talking with Igor made me wonder.

About things that are good to wonder about...

Who is really most secure? 

 Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating

that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing.

We imagine that we have to reach some end,

but that is not the nature of spiritual life.

The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty.

~Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest)


I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
~Psalm 16:8

So thankful for our true security in Him.

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