Figs in Exile: a good day, a good promise

Today is a good day. It is an important day. Today, we are officially full-time support-raisers.

From today and over the next six months, we will be logging thousands of miles and hundreds of hours talking with people who love us and who love discipleship. We'll be asking those people to join our monthly support team and be part of the community that empowers us to live out our vision of raising up whole-hearted people who wholeheartedly follow Jesus.

Yesterday, we finished packing all our belongings into 2 cars and a little trailer and left Chicago. Over the last week, we've received so much love and affirmation from our community. So many people had been genuinely touched by our time, our friendship, and our hospitality. Some talked about a lasting transformation in their lives that they linked to our investment in them. I was blown away. For someone who at times feels invisible and insignificant, this was an eye-opener: I'm beginning to live my dreams. Somehow, God is empowering me to make an impact and that's so freakin thrilling!

Today, I have a new home in Minnesota. We're with Debra's parents who are graciously hosting us while we raise our support. I've lived here before, 3 years ago. But last time I was here, I was having a faith crisis. For 6 months, I didn't know what I thought about Jesus or the bible or the power of God. I was deeply skeptical and I began to wonder if I would have to abandon the faith I grew up with along with the promises and callings God had planted in me over the years.

But today I'm in a radically different place. Over 3 years in Chicago, I've seen God do literal miracles to bring me a place where I'm watching my dreams unfold before my eyes. All the while, I've become more and more convinced of the compelling beauty of Jesus and the Fathering heart of God and the radical truthfulness of the bible. It has given me tremendous hope and excitement. I believe now (strong operatic singing voice) that "dreams really dooooo come true!"

Today, God told me to read Jeremiah 24 (no really, He did). In it, God gives a vision to the prophet comparing the exiled Isrealites to good ripe figs. Like the exiles, the Harkness family is now wandering; transients looking for a home, a place to grow roots. But as He promised those good-fig Israelites, God gave me this promise today: "My eyes will watch over them for their good...  I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.  I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD."

I like that. When I have in my heart a promise of rootedness... of home.... it frees me to travel in wider relational, emotional, and geographic circles. Because I know that I have a promise of roots, of a literal and allegorical home base.

Today is a mountain top of vision... one of those days that stands out like a punctuation mark between the long sentences of daily decision-making. I see what's behind and I see what's ahead and I like what I see.