This time in India has been one of the most challenging times in my life in putting my hope and faith in what I know to be true, rather than just what the circumstances around me would cause me to feel. This has been a bootcamp of “taking every thought captive” rather than allowing myself to be tossed around by every emotion to freak out, get depressed, get anxious…or whatever the invitation of the hour may be. 

Feelings are certainly important. I don’t mean to downplay the role and value of emotions. But you just can’t always base your whole reality on them…at least I can’t. And sometimes it seems your soul just has seasons where it is strengthened more by the anchors beneath the ship than the joy of the wind in your hair and dreams of conquered seas.

So this is a list of some of the truths I’ve come to find as anchors in those moments where the feelings seem to fizzle. There is nothing profound about them really; they are just simple Gospel truths. But learning to abide in the truth of the Gospel, and choose it for yourself in the moment of despair, is powerful. 

So whether your circumstances are a stint on the foreign mission field or just that it’s Monday morning, I hope maybe they will be encouraging to you:

• Believe that God is sovereign. He brought me here. He knows where I am. I am not here by mistake or at random.

• Believe that God speaks to me…through His word, in my heart and conscious, and in my circumstances. Don’t believe the lie that you can’t hear God…His sheep hear His voice. 

• Believe that all that was needed to make me right with God was accomplished for me in the Cross of Jesus. Ministry is not the road to intimacy with Jesus; the Gospel is. God is just as accessible to me when I’m hanging out clothes as He is when I’m preaching a sermon.

• Believe that there is joy to be found in seemingly small things….like warm sunshine and clear nostrils, soaring snow-capped mountains, and different cultures. Ask for the ability to see the sheer wonder of the things all around you.

• Worship is not just an expression of joy in God, but also a means to it. Taste and see for yourself.