“The sea was as smooth as a river and the breezes the sweetest in the world,” the record of his first voyage says. They saw a whale, a sign that they were near land, for whales always remain near land. Or maybe not, the sea birds and seaweed were supposed to be signs of land too; but still there was no sight of land.
So was the voyage across the sea of Christopher Columbus and his men. As the voyage dragged on, Columbus began keeping two sets of log books—one gave a true tally of the leagues they had traveled, the other a false set of distances to tell the crew because they worried about how far they had gone from home.
That’s the temptation on any journey involving time, distance, and sacrifice.
One time Jesus was setting out on a journey with His disciples when a man ran up and knelt before Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And after telling Jesus that he had kept the law from the time of his youth, Mark says that Jesus looked at him and loved him saying, “One thing you lack, go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor...and come and follow me.” But the man couldn’t do it. Mark says, “Disheartened...he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.”
And after some words about camels, needles, and the kingdom of God, Peter gets personal. “Lord,” he says, “See, we’ve left everything and followed you.” And Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, who will not receive a hundred fold now in this time...and in the age to come…” But oh, how often our minds and hearts tell us otherwise.
Sometimes when I think about the challenges the Lord has set before us at Hebron I think of Columbus and Peter. While many of you have not been on this ship called “Hebron” as long as I have, the length of the journey and the size of the waves can prompt us to grow weary and say, “Haven’t I given enough time and treasure to this enterprise?” For some of us there’s a temptation lurking that says, “Wouldn’t it be easier to get off this ship, or at least go below deck and take a long snooze?”
But like Christopher Columbus, to some extent, and Jesus to the fullest extent, the destination is worth all the time, distance, and sacrifice. Indeed, for Jesus the journey is as joyous as the destination, with miracles of grace showing up over every wave.
These days the volume of grace that has attended our journey together is legion. A variety of new ministries have taken shape over the last couple of years in which Hebron remains a growing catalyst like The Blessing Board, Lost and Found Pharmacy, and initiatives like the Holly Alm Camp Scholarship Fund and the Sara Wally Homeless Fund. In addition, a new vista has opened to us with the arrival of the Parsons family and their
And yet, the waves are high and the land is not quite in sight. We struggle with meeting all of the needs the Lord has set before us. We struggle knowing and assimilating all the new people who are considering making Hebron their home. We are experiencing a lag in financial support that needs to be remedied. The waves are formidable, and yet our Captain is much different than Christopher Columbus. He doesn’t keep two sets of logs; only one. In the midst of the high waves and the absence of land sighting, He simply says, “Trust me!” And when we do, there’s a calm that comes over us, a rest that leads us to say again, “I’m in Lord, all in!”
