Missional Church: Intentionally Missional - Pray, Trust, Freefall

By Amy Hamlin

How was your journey this week? Did you have moments of being intentionally focused on the basics? Did you do well with loving people where they are? Did you have the chance to be intentionally missional at all this week? Did you take the challenge? Well, whether you did better this week and or failed miserably, keep practicing the mission at hand.

So, this week we are going to “freefall” a bit. Our focus is to be intentionally prayerful and completely trusting in God. Now that is a doozy!

May I regress a bit? When I was asked to write the blog articles for Reliant during the month of April, I really wanted to write about how we (as a church) and I (as an individual) could be more outreach- focused. I also decided that I wanted to explore and concentrate on a few key topics within the context of being missional. I delved into many aspects of missional churches until I came up with a topic for each week. But when it came to this week’s topic, I almost talked myself out of writing about prayer and trust. It just seemed so obvious. Right? Wrong! Obvious or not, I was very recently reminded about how important going to the Lord in prayer is. That same situation reminded that I need to "trust in the Lord with all (my) heart, and lean not on (my) own understanding; in all (my) ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct (my) paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Have I ever told you about a little game that I play with God? You have probably played it too. The game goes something like this. Here God, you can be in charge of my life and every aspect of it. Then something happens and oops, God, I was just kidding about that whole you can be in charge of every aspect. What I actually meant to say is that I think I can do a better job, so I am going to handle my life and be in charge for a while. I don’t know about you, but things NEVER seem to work out quite right when I am “in charge;” yet I struggle with leaving things in God’s hands. I am an Indian-giver if there ever was one!

Speaking of games, have you ever participated in a trust fall? For those of you that don’t know what it is; it is a trust-building game often conducted as a group exercise in which a person deliberately allows themselves to freefall, relying on the other members of the group (spotters) to catch the person. Well, it is the same thing with putting all your trust in God. For me personally, I find that I am too enamored with my own “abilities” to do things on my “own” that I forget to relax and let God be my strength and power. Needless to say, I definitely needed to be reminded that I am to be in PRAYER and put my complete TRUST in GOD (not myself) at ALL times. Many of us, me included, need to trust less in our own devices and spend more time in prayer—listening to and speaking with God. Proverbs 28:26 says, "He who trusts in his own heart is a fool...." So, we are all fools. Great! And I thought I was doing so well this morning. Another way of looking at Proverbs 28:26 would be to say that our clever devices and doing it all by ourselves are worthless unless it is put in God’s hands. I like that interpretation much better.

Ready to see how it’s done? Let’s shift the setting from the upper room to Gethsemane, to an olive grove on the outskirts of the city. The vision of a very violent death looms over Jesus. And as Jesus had done several times in the gospel, he prays. This time His prayer was in no way a heroic prayer. He prayed, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will." (Mark 14:36). Remember that Jesus was human, and as a human, he was fearful of what was to come. Let’s put this in perspective. Webster’s dictionary says that crucifixion is arguably the most painful death ever invented by man and is where we get our term "excruciating." It was so severe a punishment, that it was reserved primarily for the most vicious of criminals. If you have never read about the medical aspects of the crucifixion, I would invite you to do so at some point. You will never be the same.

It’s amazing what God can do when we relinquish our will to His will. We would be so much better off if we would just do things His way! Jesus trusted His Heavenly Father to do what was best, even though it meant He was to hang on a cross, with nails driven into his hands and feet. Because of Jesus’ willingness to pray, trust in His Father’s plan, and finally “freefall”, we were given the ultimate gift.

And the journey continues.

Your mission for this week, should you choose to accept it, is simple. Be in prayer. Trust in God for all things. Freefall.