Who Are We


Wayne, Hilary & Adelaide Denny. Preparing to Serve in Leadership Training in Senegal, Africa. God has called us to take advantage of a unique window of religious freedom in Muslim Senegal by equipping church leaders who have a heart for reaching their country and the Muslim world.

We should be jealous. . . for the honour of His name – troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed. And all the time anxious and determined that it shall be given the honour and glory which are due to it.” John Stott


Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I'm not no account, just ignorant



One of the main struggles right now, is feeling no account. I can no longer do many of the things I could do with a decent degree of competency back home. Back home, if asked to preach a sermon, no problem. I'm not saying it would be anything great, but I could do it. But in French, it's not possible. To express even the simplest of ideas in French right now requires a great deal of effort.

Before this experience of language learning, I don't think I realized how much I relied on my competency to feel important. I found significance in being an engineer, a good student, being able to preach/teach, etc. Now that my competency is gone, I'm needing to find significance in something else. I'm being reminded of a truth that I've known before but had not fully appreciated. The truth is that I am "in Christ." 

The Bible speaks often of the Christian being "in Christ," which is truly a loaded statement. One aspect of being "in Christ" is that my significance is now found in the fact that I'm associated with Christ. The fact that through faith I am associated with Christ and therefore a child of God, I don't need to find significance in my competency. Regardless of how my situation changes, I will always have significance because of my relationship with Christ. 

This truth has proven to be extremely encouraging as I don't see myself becoming very competent again real soon. And finally, pray that as my competency slowly increases, that my feeling of significance does not simultaneously shift back to competency and away from God.


2 comments:

Christie M said...

One of my favorite lines in a movie is from "Ants", where Woody Allen who plays the main Ant, has a breakthrough on the Ant Psychiatrists couch. He says, "I left home when I was just a larva", I feel so insignifanct!" The psychiatrist says, YES! You've had a breakthrough, YOU ARE INSIGNIFICANT! LOL

But the truth is, our "significance" IS in Christ and Christ Alone. :)

What a good lesson.
Thanks Wayne.

christina said...

Amen! "You must become like a little child..." How often I feel like a small, little child! And in the midst of that, I hear Him say, "Ahh, yes, now you are learning; let's stay here for awhile longer. It is a beautiful place!" Praying for y'all to learn the lessons quick and get out of that place fast...haha, just kidding! :)