In the Passage

While involved in field orientation last week in the Hague, Holland, I had the surprising experience of turning a corner and finding myself in a restaurant in which I had eaten twice a year ago: once with a group of friends who were considering joining our church planting team; and once with my family while considering God’s leading for our lives. It gave me the opportunity to think about how God makes a complete circle out of things that sometimes seem confusing and disconnected. I wrote the following while sitting there, named after the shopping area in which the restaurant was located, called “The Passage.”

In the Passage

one year three months ago
to the day I think
I sat in this chair
across the table from my wife
in the presence of three young couples
all of us attending a special staff candidate orientation
designed just for us
would we be a church planting team from Tab church for Brussels?
to all of our surprise God said no
why and what did that mean?
for us and for them?
those couples who sat with me in the Passage

a week later
I sat in this chair
across the table from my wife
in the presence of my children
the four of us here to ask
would we be a church planting family from Tab church for Brussels?
we knew it wouldn’t be Geneva
but Norfolk? or Kazakhstan?
then in Brussels the man on a tram
an Ethiopian
reading the word of God
praying all night
for people to come and Belgium to hear
we said yes
in the middle of a hurricane
this family that sat with me in the Passage

now alone
I sit in this chair
no one here but the waitress
the same waitress
who served our team
who served our family
who reminds me of a faithful God
leading, guiding
confusing, compelling
daring, equipping
always there
God who sits with me in the Passage