Our Story-Invited

(Me and Miss Carole Faye, the Biscuit Lady at Loveless Cafe. She invited me to eat some of her biscuits. I gladly accepted. Some invitations only have to be made once.)

Befriended, befriended by the King above all kings Surrendered, surrendered to the friend above all friends Invited, invited deep into this mystery

Imagine that you stick your hand into the abyss of your black mailbox. You’re expecting ten magazines from companies you’ve never heard of, at least five bills from companies you wish had never heard of you, but you’re not expecting this. An invitation. You thought graduations were over and everyone you knew that was getting married had already gotten married. But you now hold in your hand a thick cream envelope, with your name written in calligraphy and you know it’s an invitation. You groan slightly (You know you do…) because most invitations require something of you. Usually something that costs.

You open it, mostly because you just don’t have a clue who it from. It simply reads, “You’re invited to a journey.” No destination announced. Only promises “extreme adventure.” The catch, well, it does have a cost all right. “Everything.”
Would you go? Better yet, would you go if you had no idea who the sender was? But what if the invitation came from your father? Your best friend? Would that make a difference? Or would the fact that the journey is a mystery be enough to check “No” in the RSVP box?

Abraham got an invitation like this. An invitation by the Creator of the Universe to go to a land that he would have to trust God to discover. But if he was willing to go, not only was God going to make a great nation out of him, but God was also going to bless him and make him famous. (You want to go now don’t you!) He was also going to bless everyone who blessed him and curse everyone who cursed him.

Would that be enough for you and I? Would an invitation into something wonderful and exciting, yet unknown and expensive, be worth the risk? Well, it was enough for Abraham, because as soon as God delivers the invitation, Abraham did what we’ve learned he usually does. Scripture says simply this, “Abraham departed.”

Again, there is no dialogue. No, “I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me where we’re going. I’m not leaving here without a ten-step program for my life. I’m not moving here until we have the next five years clearly defined. I’m not taking a step until you let me know where we’re going to end up.”

And I wonder, as I did last week, what would have happened if there had been this exchange of dialogue? What would have been missed if Abraham hadn’t simply departed?

Don’t know if you realize it, but we have been invited. The Man who invented the party has invited us to the party. Yet there is one thing that remains unknown. We have no idea where that invitation will take us. When He invited His disciples all he said was “Come follow me…and I will make you fishers of men.” And every time with each invitation we’re told, “At once they left their nets and became His disciples-sided with His party and followed Him.” (Told you He invented the party!)

If you ever wondered if you were invited, you were. Before the foundations of the world, before your mother knew your sex, before you made your entrance, produced your first cry, drew your first breath, you were invited. The challenge for so many is that it is a mystery.

We have no idea what lies ahead. We have no idea what the journey will unfold. We don’t know if sacrifice will be required. We don’t know if years of waiting will be demanded. We don’t know if pain will be endured. We don’t know…and for a generation who has to be in the “know”, or think we’re in control, this is a huge sacrifice.

But the one thing I do know is that in going, Abraham became a friend of God. It was in that one step of faith that set the course for the Abraham moment we talked about two weeks ago, where God takes him into His secret counsel.

Can you imagine if the invitation in our mailbox had been from the White House? And this is your dream so you can pick the President that resides there. Just know, it’s a President you voted for and he wants you there for a special dinner. No one else. Just you and him and he wants to talk with you about your story and the plans he has to help you live it out to the fullest. Would you go? Honey, I wouldn’t just be going, I’d be going with a new dress, my nails done, my hair coiffed, my heart palpitating, my palms sweating and my expectations soaring.

Well, an invitation from one greater has come. And He invites us into this mystery of our story. And even though when I began this journey with the Lord my future was a mystery and I had no idea of the joys, the pains, the challenges, the waiting that I would endure, I also never knew the depths in which He would allow me to know Him. And truth is, there is much in this life I’m glad I didn’t know. Or, if in the knowing, I would have more than likely never made the journey. And that would have been far more tragic than my moments of tragedy.

And please know this is an invitation that costs everything. We he called the disciples for many that invitation costs them their very lives. (Another reason God wisely keeps our stories a mystery.) But I also know that He gives life more abundantly.

We also need to know we won’t be invited just once. There will be many times in the course of our stories that God will invite us to a new place, a new level, a new opportunity. Will we go? Or will fear keep us from the adventure? When God invited me to a new chapter in my story last year I went. Now, I must say I didn’t go quite as non-confrontational as Abraham. I think I bucked some, hollered some, cried some, and kept my hand over my eyes for the first couple months. But one day God invited me again, “Hey baby girl, why don’t you take your hands off of your eyes and see what I’ve got planned for you.” And I did. And I’m not even capable of writing the beauty that I’ve seen. Worth the cost? Absolutely. Paid a high price? Higher than one I would have ever wanted to. Glorious adventure? Life changing. May the mysteries of our stories continue…