The Reflection

I went to England because I knew I had to; that is, I felt overwhelmingly compelled by God Himself to take two weeks of my life and follow Him across the Atlantic.

So I did.

And I am not quite sure if I'll ever be the same.

My trip to England was simply the next step of obedience my Father asked me to take; for over a year and a half He was slowly unfolding for me His plans for my future, and I went to England and it unfolded a bit more.

Now I want to go back, and to go back for a lot longer than two weeks.

In short, I bumped into my future. I say often that we are on a need-to-know basis with God, and that everything we need to know at any given moment, we know. But occasionally, God allows us to see just a little further down the path than we normally would unaided. You finally crest the hill you have been walking for quite some time, and see what features lie ahead. I crested a hill in a town called Formby.

I can't exactly place my finger on what it is that compels me to go back there. There has been no flash of lightning, no sudden burst of insight. As I said, it's been a slow unfolding: England caught my attention in October of 2007, and it took me well over a year to finally get there and see exactly what, if anything, there was to see.

But there were plenty of things to see:

I saw people who are on fire for God in the midst of one of the most overt post-Christian cultures of our generation: A small church by the M&S on Furness Avenue; A ragtag band of teenagers who meet in a classroom on their college campus each morning for devotions and weekly for Bible study; A few teenagers who regularly ask the question, 'What does it mean to follow God?'

I saw the Family of God working in a functional, healthy way: People who love one another and mean it; People who open their homes and practice the discipline of hospitality in ways I had pretty much decided doesn't happen any more; People who wake up each morning and decide to take part in our call to Reconciliation; People who love God and, believe it or not, love each other.

But I also saw a generation hungry for God, starving on the sparkling street corners of post-modernity; I saw a lost generation wandering through the shadows of hundred-year-old churches, crying out 'There is no God!'

I saw a generation in need of the Gospel. I looked into the eyes of people who need love and have abandoned their Lover; I looked into the eyes of people who were hurt but had left their Healer; I saw people who were lost and fatherless who daily suppress the presence and reality of their Father.

Indeed, I bumped into my future in Formby. When I was younger and I first felt God's call to ministry those six-odd years ago, I knelt on the floor of that arena in Phoenix, praying as I was swept away in the blinding light of God's revelation. I told God that I would go anywhere, that I would do anything, to serve Him.

Now I think I have an idea of how God has responded to that prayer.

He responded with a place called Formby.