Where is God Leading You?

Sean and Hannah Gastonguay were fed up.

They were fed up with governmental intrusion in their lives.  Fed up with moral state of America.  Fed up with unfair taxation.   Hannah said as Christians they don’t believe in ‘‘abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church.”  U.S. ‘‘churches aren’t their own,’’ Gastonguay said, suggesting that government regulation interfered with religious independence.

So the northern Arizona family decided to do something about it.

In November they moved from Ash Fork, Ariz., to San Diego and  bought a small boat where they lived as they prepared to sail off to the island nation of Kiribati.  The 26-year-old mother said they wanted to go to Kiribati because ‘‘we didn’t want to go anywhere big.’’ She said they understood the island to be ‘‘one of the least developed countries in the world.’’ And she added, “We wanted to see where God led us.”

They left in May.  Hannah.  Sean.  His father, Mike.  And the couple’s 3-year old daughter Ardith.  And baby Rahab, who was born on the boat.  It would be 91 days before they would touch land again.

The first couple weeks of their journey Hannah said, “We were cruising.”  But  soon they would be hit with one storm after another. It was “squall after, squall, after squall,” Hannah told the associated Press by telephone.

Finally running low on supplies, their badly battered boat was floating aimlessly in the middle of the Ocean, when they were spotted by a Helicopter from a Venezuelan fishing vessel.  The boat picked up them and five days later transferred them to a Japanese cargo ship, where they stayed for three weeks until it docked in Chile last Friday.

The US Embassy has intervened and provided the Gastonguays plane tickets back to San   Diego on Sunday. Hannah told the AP that the family will now ‘‘go back to Arizona’’ and ‘‘come up with a new plan.

I can sympathize with the Gastonguays.  Sometimes you get sick and tired of seeing the corruption in our country.  Of living in the midst of moral putridity.  Of feeling that your faith is being marginalized.  Of knowing your hard-earned tax money is being wasted.  Of listening to leaders who proudly and smugly advocate and glorify ungodly actions.  Immoral choices.  And sinful lifestyles.

But is the answer to abandon our community, setting sail for a remote island?

Christ came to a world that was wicked.  Politically corrupt. Religiously misguided.   And morally depraved.  As He prayed prior to the cross for his disciples, it was not for them to become isolated from their culture.  He petitioned the Father.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as  am not of it.  Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

Hannah Gastonguay said  they are “going to come up with a new plan.”  Let me suggest one for Hannah.  And for the rest of us who are also fed up.

Follow Jesus.  Listen to His Word.  Live like He taught.  Be the “salt of the earth.  “The light of the world.”  “The unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth.”  In other words, be a positive example.  Be an influence for good.  For God.  For the gospel.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”  And yes we do live in moral darkness!  But the solution is not to hide our light under a basket.  Escapism won’t work.  Isolation isn’t the answer.

Until Christ comes and brings this old world to an end, let us be His voice to speak Truth.  His hands to do good.  And His feet to go and share the Good News of the Gospel.  You can do that whoever you are.  Wherever you live.  And with what you have.

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman