Sacrifice

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will." 

Romans 12:1-2

I don't know if there's a verse I've heard more in the past year. It's a favorite verse of our pastor and it seemed like he tried to include it in every sermon we ever heard him give. It was painted on the wall of a random church we visited in Haiti. And it was referenced in our school during last week's teaching on sin and repentance. The more I hear this verse and reflect on what it says - the more it challenges and encourages me and the more I want my life to be a reflection of this verse.

We aren't really sure why God led us to Burtigny. There can't be more than 300 people in this town; this is a small YWAM base; and everything is primarily French. YWAM has many other bases around the world and I don't know why God led us here instead of one of the hundreds of other bases. Yet, we made the decision to offer our lives and our time to God and trust him. We had other plans that probably would have been easier but we knew we needed to make a sacrifice. Living in Switzerland at the foot of the Alps isn't a huge sacrifice, but living on a base with 30 other people and having little independence or "alone" time has been a big adjustment. Yet, I am beginning to see the verse in Romans 12 being experienced in a practical way.

There is no conforming to the pattern of this world here. The biggest shopping we get to do is visiting the grocery store on Saturday afternoon. The only TV we watch is an occasional movie. The reading is mainly the Bible and an occasional extra book. And there is little talk about making money or buying things because none of us have any money anyway. It's easy to not conform to the pattern of the world because living in Burtigny feels like we're in a different world.

As we've been here, it feels like it has been an opportunity for God to transform our minds. We have been able to focus on reading God's word and have had many conversations and heard different points of view on who God is. And through this process, it feels like we are testing God's will for our lives - his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So as we try to figure out why we're in Burtigny, our hope is to continue to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God and he will reveal his good, pleasing, and perfect will for bringing us here.