I threw a pen away today

Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I lose a lot of pens. I used to be a nerd. I was attending nuclear power school while I was in the Navy. Back then, I kept all the pens I needed in a pocket protector in my shirt pocket. On my belt I carried a calculator in a holster. I was a super-nerd.

Since then (which was over 40 years ago) I still have not found a good way to carry a pen. I usually carry them in my right pants pocket, but they go flying every time I reach for my keys.

Knowing this about myself, I tend to collect a lot of pens. If someone is giving away a pen to promote their business, I always take one. Two if they say, “Here! Take two!” However, it never fails that when Loring asks me for a pen, I have to go searching for one.

This is why throwing away a perfectly good pen is difficult for me. Well, at least it was a perfectly good pen eighteen years ago when we moved into our house. It had a value, and it probably still does.

The challenge we have right now is that God is calling on us to leave behind many things that hold value. The pen is just a symbol of it. This time in our lives is full of letting go of valuable things and only keeping what we really need to define our home.

As I was contemplating this today it made me think of Gideon. God was calling Gideon to lead an army against the Midianites to save Israel. To give you the story in a nutshell, Gideon had an army of 32,000 men. God told him, “You have too many men.” So all the people who were afraid were allowed to go home. That was 22,000. Now Gideon has an army of 10,000. It is still too many, and God pares it down again to only 300.

I hope you realize that my pens are just a symbol of what God is asking us to leave behind. We have so many close relationships, so many things that we, as people who live in the USA, take for granted. However, we know what God is calling us to do, and we know that it means setting aside many things we have collected over the years that still have value. From the simple, like a few pens, to the extremely difficult, like people and relationships.

Please pray for us as we begin our journey.

We love you and covet your prayers.