A Peace of Chaos

Monday the 21 of September, was the day that Taiwan was reminded of a great earthquake that happened on 9-21-1999. This was the second biggest earthquake in Taiwan, killing up to 2,415 people and 11,305 people were injured.  This earthquake was at the heart of Taiwan, causing up to 10 billion dollars  of damages. Wives becoming widows, sons becoming orphans, and hope being disarrayed by grief. 

I think that it might be safe to say that everyone has experienced loss in their life, no matter how big or small it was. We were made to love, to dream, to hope, and to have family that loves us and cares about us. But we find that our family and our dreams slip though our hands as if trying to grasp flowing water. Were we then made to lose the things which we love? Did God create so that He could take away? Is God good, or evil? Is He a giver, or a taker?

Often we focus so much on the negative of this life, that we can only see what we are losing, never what we are getting or never seeing what we have been given. God created us to have eternal life. To live forever with him. To experience life in such away that is unexplainable. But sin came into the world, death greeted mankind  with a deadly grasp, and stole the life that we had. No longer to live forever, no longer breathing in the Spirit of God, it was taken away, by sin. 

Mankind lost on that dreaded day and we are still suffering from it. Sin did not only effect Mankind, but God; not in a way that made God unholy, but that He could no longer dwell within man because of sin. Also, mankind would not only suffer but God would join in on the suffering. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

 God sent His son to become a man, to die, to experience what we experience. He knows what it’s like to lose a friend, to be betrayed, to be beaten, to be cursed, and rejected by the world. He was a man of Sorrows according to Isaiah 53, and He embraced it, He did not try to run from it. 

Often that is the case for us, we try to avoid pain and suffering. We won’t let people into our lives because we know that they can hurt us. So we build up walls of excuses that turn into dungeons, a trap of loneliness we find ourselves in, and believing that if we don’t share our heart we will not get hurt. This may have some truth to it, because you may feel safer by not letting anyone in, but its wrong. Its not living. God made us to have relationships with people and made us to do things, to experience life. 

If we realize that we will all suffer in this life, we will all experience loss, then why be surprised when it comes our way? Why try to avoid it? If Jesus said that we will suffer in this life, then it will happen, therefore don’t fear it. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1John 4:18 

Perfect love cast out fear and true love learns to die, because, in order to truly live, you must die daily. This is painful; you have to throw yourself out there for others, knowing that they might not care about you at all. Sounds like something Jesus did. He died for the world knowing that many would reject His sacrificial love.

At the beginning of October, I was on my way to go shopping and I made a small mistake that would cost a lot of money and pain. I made a left turn ignoring a blind spot on the road, I did not see a car and was hit on the passenger side. If you have ever been hit by a car, it’s quite exciting, and jarring. It happens so fast that you find yourself siting in the dust wondering what happened. It was my fault, which is annoying. The fun part of the matter is that I wasn’t even driving legally. Although I have an international license, it has to be registered within the first month of living in Taiwan, which I didn’t know. To make a long story not as long, I was driving illegally and the insurance company will not cover the wreck. This puts us in a rough place. Causing us to cover all of the car expenses, which will not be cheap. But through all of this chaos and confusion, God has been so amazing. His hand has been in the mist of the storm and He has shown me that I can’t trust circumstances to make me feel secure. I can’t trust in insurance companies to provide, I must trust Him and Him alone.

Be praying for us my friends, pray that we would only trust in Him, and though He slay me, I will trust Him.  

 Praise and Glory to our Heavenly Father only who gives us all that we need. 

   Amen   

Suprised by a Second Chance

Our God is full of amazing surprises and often we are too scared to experience those surprises. I personally do not like surprises; I like to get what I expect and if I don’t get that result then I am disappointed or surprised.
     Having a perfectly planned and well lined up life is the key to success, right? It’s like having an intricate puzzle flawlessly matched. But what if God wants to take those plans and pieces and make a completely different kind of picture. One that might not connect perfectly in my perspective, but creates something entirely different. Is God not able to do the unexpected? To work beyond my understanding, which would make it into a surprise.
    God has been leading me through endless surprises lately. One of the most recent surprises is being back in Taiwan. I had no plans to return so soon, and I had no plans of becoming an English teacher again. I definitely did not write this down on my five year planing list, if I even had one of those. Some people may have heard me talk about teaching in Taiwan and how I really didn’t enjoy it. This is true, it was difficult, its was in a  foreign country, with a foreign language, with people who did not quite understand where I was coming from. I felt alone and felt like I had failed as a teacher and a follower of Christ, and I think I was right to feel that way. My failures lead me to believe that being an English teacher was not for me in anyway.
This sounds reasonable, why should I keep doing the things that I fail at? So I left Taiwan to never be an English teacher again, and now one year later I find myself embarking on another exciting year of teaching. Why? Why would I dare come back? I’m glad you asked.
In my mind, this year was the year of seriousness, time to grow up, be a man, and all that good stuff. It was time to get a real job and quit acting like a child. Now I’m not saying that I wasn’t being serious before this new mind set, but I did feel like I was not trying to grow up. I was trying to avoid the calling that the LORD had placed on my life. 
    From a young age, being a missionary had always been a dream and a calling on my life, I grew up knowing that a missionary life was the life for me. During my last semester of high school, I decided to go to a Bible college, one that my dad had always wanted me to go. It was amazing and I found the LORD reaffirming the Call upon my life. After I had graduated, I decided to become an English teacher in Taiwan, but after that year of hardship, I really didn’t want to go back. Being a missionary in Taiwan was still a good idea but not teaching English, and if I was not teaching English then I needed to have another degree or something else. In May of this year, I stumbled over the opportunity to attend graduate school. Going there would help me get set up in the ministry, put me in a Church, and hopefully into the mission field.
I started to fill out the application, writing all of my wonderful essays, and when I had just finished diligently writing them, I was invited to go back to Taiwan to teach English. To go back to Taiwan, in my mind, was not an option at this time.  I knew for sure that God would not call me back to a place where I once resisted to trust in Him or a place that I knew would be exhausting to live.
 So I ignored the offer, but I could not shake the fact that God was speaking to me and calling me to go back. I felt like Jonah, when he was called to Nineveh, except I didn’t get the fun adventure of running away and meeting a great fish for lunch.
In the time that I was praying about going, and trying to think of all of the great excuses to not go, I felt the LORD, “David you want to go back to school because you think you will find security in that degree, but I want you to find your security in Me.” So now the question is, do I trust God?
This was an extremely difficult decision for me to make, because I knew that if I left for Taiwan I would have to fully depend on Him for everything. But is this not the Christian life, to fully depend on the Lord in everything I do. Why do I want to be secure without Him? Why do I want to be good enough, so that one day I do not need Him? My pride was keeping me back, back from following Him wholely. It was time to let go of David Lukachick and get a hold of Jesus Christ.  I have said many times that I have been crucified with Christ, but do I live that way? Did I really die? It was time to find out, to do what I feared, to follow God to the ends of the earth, to go to a certain land that He was showing me. It was time to quit pretending that I trusted in God and really trust Him, to follow Him where I didn’t want to go.