I bet Father Abraham would not believe the unfolding of his crazy covenant-life with God to include an obscure, little brown girl standing behind a grand podium on Capitol Hill…
Thirty-one years ago, I landed in the US as an immigrant from Kenya. I’ve now been here longer than I was in Kenya. As I write this, I’m enjoying a view of the Capital building less than a mile away in Washington DC. When I landed here in 1994 with one suitcase and one piece of carryon luggage, I could never have guessed that thirty-one years later, I would be standing on the auspicious stage of the Great Hall of the Robert F Kennedy, Department of Justice building on Capitol Hill.
How and why am I in the leadership capital of the greatest country on earth? Some questions I’ll never have an answer to, other than to point to the favor and mysteries of my God.
Psalm 105 says, “He remembers his covenant forever,
the promise he made, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.
10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant:
11 “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion you will inherit.”
12 When they were but few in number,
few indeed, and strangers in it…
14 He allowed no one to oppress them;
for their sake he rebuked kings:
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones;
do my prophets no harm.”
As a spiritual predecessor of Abraham, the father of my faith in Jesus of Nazareth, I continue to see God’s faithful promise to him unfold. It has little to do with me, and everything to do with God’s determination to keep His promise. He just can’t help Himself. And if you choose to be crazy enough to believe those stories; crazy enough to believe those promises; crazy enough to step into the flow of His move, who knows what He can do with you?
From bondage to sin and Egypt, I can say that in every aspect of my life: physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc., God has dealt with me as He did with his friend Abraham:
37 He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold,
and from among their tribes no one faltered.
38 Egypt was glad when they left,
because dread of Israel had fallen on them.
39 He spread out a cloud as a covering,
and a fire to give light at night.
40 They asked, and he brought them quail;
he fed them well with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it flowed like a river in the desert.
42 For he remembered his holy promise
given to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
44 he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—
45 that they might keep his precepts
and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord.
Today I bless you. You are blessed and a blessing, just like your Father Abraham. Dare to believe His stories. Dare to believe His promises. Dare to step into His river of delights and flow with Him!