“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” –Ephesians 5:22
For months after returning home from my first trip to Northern Uganda and having seen the devastating effects of an 18-year war of terror waged against children, I absolutely could not get one reasonable night’s sleep. I was continually plagued by insomnia and riddled with night terrors. I would lie on my bed and call out to God asking Him to take these horrors from me. What do you want from me Lord? What can I do to help? Yet, I seemed to get no answer, and He would not give me rest. Having spent much time over the past decade with hurting, desperate children, I had developed a process to regain my peace upon my return home: I would do what I could to give practical help, then I would share the needs with other members of the body, and finally I would commit the needs of the children to prayer and rest peacefully in the knowledge that God is able to keep that which I have entrusted to Him.
But this time it was different.
I am not so unwise to think that I would be made responsible to fix such a situation. I certainly could not. But after several months like this had passed, I became even more desperate to hear from the Lord. Please Lord, tell me what you want from me! I believe somehow I must have humbled myself just enough to finally hear what he was probably whispering all along.
Three things He spoke to my Spirit: prayer, praise, and submission. Specifically God was calling me to pray on their behalf, to know that the power for change is found in praise to God and not in the power and plans of men, and finally to submit to my husband. OK… The great power of prayer…RIGHT! Got it! Makes sense. Praise—sure, God dwells in the praises of His people, that too makes perfect sense. But submission? I need a little more on that one, God! Super-Biblical, but not super-connected to helping the terrorized children in Northern Uganda!
Since that time I have come to realize that the rightful place of these Christian practices were lacking in my life and are painfully lacking among God’s people. Perhaps in principle they are important, but in practice we, the church, too often place them as secondary to our own human intellect, efforts, plans and desires. In particular we are prone to neglect the idea of submission to God’s ordained order! Maybe we do not like or respect our bosses, our parents exasperate us, or our spouses just don’t understand. Maybe we are simply tired of doing only little things.
Disrespect, lack of submission, and impatience in the body of Christ has wrought profound failures in the home, in the workplace, and in the church. God’s order exists to protect us from confusion, disillusionment, hurt, and disunity, yet these are the very things that too often mark the houses of God and are revealed in the outworking of our ministries. The Word teaches that where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil. Disorder is what the world authors. When God authors a work, He does so in order, and this brings about great peace, healing, unity, and success among God’s people.
Prayer, God said—so my husband and I organized a time of prayer at our home for all those whom we knew were broken-hearted over this situation. Even the Uganda Ambassador to the U.S. joined us in prayer. God spoke that night and told us that He, the Lion of Judah, is standing there with the children. Praise, He told me—so, my husband and I organized a trip for Steven Curtis Chapman, one of God’s worship leaders, to go to the land and personally sing praise with the children affected in that region of Northern Uganda. At one point Steven could not even continue to sing, for as the children sang their praises to God, we all knew, including Steven, that we were standing on holy ground. And submission, He said—well, here’s what happened. After one month of being busy at home cooking and cleaning and caring for our two children in our home in the mountains of PA, I received a call from a young man with a group that without question is having the greatest success in enlightening the world to the plight of the children in that region. The group’s leader asked me to run a retreat for their staff, and so they came to my home and we all spent four days fellowshipping together. We prayerfully gave over to God all the glory and praise that has been given to them and their ministry. For all praise and honor for man’s success is due the King of Kings.
As a result, I now can see even in a practical sense how submission in my own home can bring about great change in the lives of children in northern Uganda, and as the yokes of terror and injustice are being broken in that region of the world, I will continue to give God all the glory for this because I know by experience, through prayer, praise and submission, that the success is all His doing!
:) I am blessed to hear what God has revealed to you about prayer, praise and submission. I don't know if you remember, but you told me about the beginnings of that message in DC. Many blessings to you and your family. I pray our paths cross again soon.
Posted by: Christina Sambor | May 30, 2007 at 03:55 AM