Many Little Gratitudes

From Tirana, with love.

A meditation

Is God more concerned with the rightness with which we know Him, or the reverence with which we pursue Him?

This is a question I’ve chewed on since June, and the question at the heart of my study at L’Abri. I’ve long had a near obsessive relationship with perfection; a scrupulous attention to detail and how pieces fit together to form a whole. I know saying this might come across the same as someone admitting that their weakness is ‘being too passionate’ about what they do, but perfectionism has manifested itself as quite a detriment to my spiritual walk. A book like the Bible can’t be approached by the perfectionist without intimidation, looking more like something of a petri dish— a festering ground for the uncontrolled growth of ideas, speculations, arguments, and interpretations that somehow show a cohesive, harmonious ‘whole’ testament of a perfect, harmonious God. This is not to say I believe the Bible lacks a cohesive, harmonious narrative of the inerrant truth of God, I just wonder how apt I am at understanding the ‘whole’ for myself with my own faculties. What role does the Holy Spirit play in our discernment of truth? If there was any one essential truth of Scripture that I could know for certain, what would it be? Jesus, the God-Man, His crucifixion and resurrection?

I have found the beginnings of a spiritual peace in Jesus’ words to Israel from Matthew 11;

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The light burden that Jesus offers does not require advanced degrees in Hebrew and Greek. It is not given on the basis of merit, on your knowledge of the Biblical historical context, your ability to exegete and debunk the ‘clobber passages’ of the age. What Jesus is offering us in an easy yoke and light burden precedes knowledge. Jesus is not offering us the faculties to unearth hidden truths, He is giving us a new heart from which we are able to pursue Him. It’s from a gentle and lowly heart that we can set aside the pride we have in our arguments and recognize that what Jesus wants is our hearts, not our brains.

There is more I can say on this, and I likely will at a later date. My time at L’Abri felt like an intensive moment of studying a topic that is paramount for my generation, one that is riddled with deconstructionists and blind sheep being tossed around by a narrative equating life to a game of choose your own adventure (if you even want to play at all).

L'Abri, Huemoz, Switzerland

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An update

Since my last update, GDQ has officially moved into its new facility- our entire K12 is under the same roof! Almost, that is…

After many months of moving furniture, renovations, painting and scrubbing floors, our school is in a position to start classes in-person. Although we are ready, we are still waiting on the final green light from the Ministry of Education who needs to provide the building license for GDQ to operate in the new building. With this, students have been learning remotely for the last three weeks with a limited schedule they can accomplish from their homes. This is less than ideal- it’s pulling parents away from their ministries and children out of a full classroom experience. Typical Albanian bureaucracy, the Ministry of Education being the roadblock to children’s education. I’ll leave it at that, but I could rant on it longer.

Our work in progress :)

What this has shown, though, is just how essential GDQ School is to the missions community in our region. By offering a Christ centered, quality, in-person education we are playing a significant role in the development of the Albanian Evangelical church in our service to the families leading ministries and planting churches around Albania.

We hosted our Meet the Teachers event in the new auditorium space and gave an update on our new building, new staff, and the beginnings of our capital campaign launching later this term. Since last year I’ve added the Director of Advancement hat to my collection of jobs, and I’m playing a more prominent role in the development of the campaign we are starting to help fund the move into the new facility and purchase of the building/land to make it our forever home. The last few months have flown by, and there is still much work to be done. A majority of my work has been data collection, reading financial reports, and writing proposals. Glamorous. It’s been in the midst of this that I’ve been grateful for the support of those more experienced than I- veteran fundraisers, salesmen, and a consortium of advancement directors from other Christian international schools that have been of great encouragement in this season.

I’ll be returning to the States for a period this fall (October-December) to continue our teacher recruitment at college campuses around the country as well as begin to share about our campaign at local churches/small groups. Please be in prayer for this time, I think there’s some good potential for getting the word out about this need and asking God for my boldness in initiating those conversations.

As always, I would love to see any (and all of you) who are on my travel route! I’ll be going through Southern California (SLO, Santa Barbara, LA), Chicago, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas (Dallas), Arizona (Phoenix), and Colorado.

On one last note, I want to share a gratitude and highlight of my last few months at home. God has reaffirmed the importance and joy of hospitality with allowing us to be home for nine travelers passing through Albania. Since returning from L’Abri I think I’ve gained a heightened awareness to the significance of sharing something as vulnerable as the ups and downs of your daily life, your home, with others. God has been present around the dinner table, over cups of tea and bowls of cereal, washing dishes and reading in silence. I have seen the face of God in nine different individuals and I’m praying God brings all the more to our home! Please keep J.C., N.S., M.K., B.D., J.R., A.S., A.A., S.M., and J.R. in your prayers as they travel along with Christ.

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Thank you for your continued prayers, friendship, and support. Always eager to see what God has in store.