Sacrificing Isaac: Report to Brookport Mission Trip, Day 3

I rarely feel I’m ever prepared for a mission trip or work camp. There’s always a tool resting back in the garage that could have saved us a half day’s work, or a personal item that magnifies some weakness. On this particular trip, I left behind my breathing machine. By Tuesday, the sleep I would have had was interrupted by my endless snoring (luckily I’m in my own room or I would have driven back the 6 hours to retrieve it) that later turned into a sore throat. I keep emptying my suitcase as if somehow it would appear, as if it were hiding under the socks and underwear waiting to be found.

On Monday night, a bed fairy surprised me by supplying me with a pillow and a quilt that has kept me warm all week (yes I forgot my pillow and the two blankets I left in the dryer). It’s been that kind of trip. The first full day working at Miss Lucille’s home, she arrived in the afternoon with coffee mugs filled with assorted candies. She asked us if we liked blueberry cheesecake and sure enough it was on the menu for lunch the next day. And lunch? A local church down the road from our site has been providing meals for us all week. It’s blessings upon blessings. Here we are working to help someone else and we are the ones that have gone without any needs.

Each night we have devotional time where we tell one another where we saw Jesus in action. Among the group of volunteers who have served us meals, one particular gentleman has gone above and beyond. He provided each of us with agape forms of love, from beef jerky to pocket crosses. I’m almost certain there will be another surprise waiting for us tomorrow.

But I will admit that every form of agape and every uplifting moment has kept me from becoming weary. Every time I hike myself up into the church van, my right knee reminds me how overweight and old I am. On Tuesday, we worked well into sundown, pushing through the painting we needed to finish. We were told that Miss Lucille could move in by the end of the week. Looking at the house now, without its flooring, the cabinets and bathroom components still in boxes, it feels like a dauntless task. You wouldn’t know it from the crew. Everyone finds their job. Everyone finds their purpose. It’s a clear example of the Holy Spirit giving a person the strength persevere. No one is an expert. No one is a professional.

At devotional time, our leader Rocky presented to us the story of Abraham and his son Isaac. Abraham has been given a test from God. “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love…..and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22). Adam packs the essentials. He brings with him Isaac, a donkey, two servants and cut wood. He had to have had the knife too. The one that would be needed to slay his son. The son that was promised to him by God years ago, the son God told him would be born from Sarah, in her old age.

God could have choses Ishmael, the illegitimate son, or a goat from his own herd. Why did God choose the very son that was a miracle to begin with? Perhaps Abraham had begun to take Isaac for granted. Here was a blessing from God, and perhaps Abraham had not been thankful, perhaps he didn’t quite understand the bigger picture.

In this ongoing story of rebuilding our hearts this week, it’s been time to take a personal inventory. If God had told me to sacrifice the Isaac in my life, what would it be? What blessing was given to me from God that I essentially had nothing to do with? Where is God sending me that involves this metaphorical Isaac?

I texted my wife this week that in all the times I had been away from home, this was the one that I had missed her the most. Not because she would have reminded me to pack my bags correctly, or that she would have offered me comfort in my weakness this week, although I’m sure she would have. It was the fact that is God is pruning me towards a new heart, my wife would be the closest thing to my Isaac. Her and the family.

I wonder if Abraham had these same feelings walking with Isaac up to the mountain. Surely God will provide a substitute for this sacrifice, he must have thought (and in Genesis 22, there are clear indications that Abraham perhaps knew that God had a surprise waiting for him on that mountain altar). When I say “yes” to anything, my first no is to my family. I’m basically binding them up, having them carry the chopped wood up to the mountain, ready to be sacrificed.

I spoke to my son today. He told me he got all A’s on his report card. Back at home there has been one work day sandwiched between snow days. I miss them. While I don’t believe that God closes doors of serving, he does see a way past our own eyesight. Perhaps the first thing after I tell my wife about an upcoming trip, I’ll make sure to add the one essential request I should have known to use the first time I left. “Want to go with?” I can’t wait to see what her answer will be.