Ariel

I've been so thankful over the last couple months to have Ariel, my sister, as an adjunct pastor at Severn River Church. She has brought some relief to my work, and been a great help to me in several projects around the church.

The reason that she is an adjunct pastor is that while she is an ordained minister, she is between ministry assignments right now. She served for many years as a foreign missionary, and has followed the Lord out of that position for now. It takes a great amount of faith to leave a career path simply because you've dedicated yourself to serve God in whatever way he leads you. Now she finds herself looking for the open door into the new field that He will lead her to.

We thought, "Why have her just sit in the seats on Sundays. Let's put her to work until she finds something else." She has interviewed for several jobs and today in fact has an interview (please pray for God's will to emerge).

But her situation has caused me to reflect on the matter of being and doing. We all do something. But God is always, abundantly more interested in our being; who we are. I received a letter this week from Missionary Jim Bennett, the director of the Center For Ministry To Muslims. It was handwritten, and included:

Dear Bro. Rainey,
Several weeks ago Ariel Rainey sent a gift ... and asked that your church receive missions credit for it...I wanted to express that she has made a wonderful impression in the places where she has served.
I was in Lyon, France not long after she had departed, and they were saddened that they were losing her. She is highly thought of - and spoken of- in the Middle East. May the Lord raise up many like her...

When I read that letter it spoke to me about a life that is lived being what God has called her to be, not caught up in doing whatever she does. We should all look to this great example to learn how we can more deeply be for God. Doing always follows being.

--Ben