Books
Excerpt

Those God Sends, He First Humbles

Isaiah 6 filled me with world-changing zeal. But I needed to reckon with the whole passage.

Illustration by Abigail Erickson / Source Images: Unsplash

I am of the “Don’t waste your life!” generation, a generation of young people in the church who believed their greatest call was to not settle for mediocrity in their Christian life.

Curious Faith

Curious Faith

Brazos Press

192 pages

$8.98

I will never forget going to a young adult conference in my early 20s where we heard Isaiah 6 preached with such a fervor that even if we were saved already, we got saved again. Passion was the proof of salvation, zeal was the evidence of our faith, “Send me!” was our mantra, and “world changers” was our identity. We all wanted to be used by God, but none of us wanted to fold up the chairs afterward.

By the time I reached my late 20s, I was so worn out from trying so darn hard to be used by God that I felt, literally, used by God. Used up by him, so emptied out by him that I had nothing left to give anyone, including my own self. I beat my fists against my steering wheel, shouting expletives at him on my drive to work at a church. I sobbed on my bedroom floor at night and showed up to serve at our college ministry. I penciled question after question to him in my notebooks and then pretended to have the answers at Bible studies. I was the definition of the whitewashed tombs Jesus spoke about in Matthew 23:27: pretending to be clean on the outside but rotting to death on the inside.

We love the “Here am I. Send me!” part of Isaiah 6 (v. 8). We even love the vision of the throne room, the cherubim and seraphim flying back and forth, eternally singing the praises of the Holy One. Of course we want to serve the Lord God Almighty. Of course we want to be sent out by him. Of course we wouldn’t dare say anything else in the sight of that holiness.

Except Isaiah does. And if we miss what Isaiah says before he answers the Lord’s question, then we miss everything. He stands before glory and becomes undone. “Woe to me! … I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (v. 5).

When we come to the end of ourselves, we begin to see that a faith built upon our skills, gifts, charisma, or good deeds for God is a house of cards. Otherwise, I just don’t know how we can have the “Send me!” moment. Not really. Not sustainably.

Somewhere along the way, we’re going to come smacking against a wall in our faith where our questions and doubts are insurmountable because the work we do stops seeming so grand or rewarding.

That’s when we see that the glory we were trying to capture was mostly for ourselves. And we discover that serving the Lord is more like carrying a cross than standing on a stage.

Lore Ferguson Wilbert, A Curious Faith, Brazos, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2022. Used by permission of the publisher. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com.

Also in this issue

Our cover story this month argues that Christians have a unique opportunity, in our difficult housing market, to model for the watching world better kinds of community—not only inside our homes, but also out in the towns and cities where we live. Also in this issue: Dallas Willard's worries, enforcing abortion bans, and Afghanistan refugees a year after the pullout.

Cover Story

There Are Many Mansions in Heaven, but We’d Like Something Sooner

Reply All

The Grain of Truth Grows Slowly

Revelation Is Good News for Today, not a Game Plan for the Future

Echoes of Greatness

Testimony

Police Work Nearly Broke Me

If God Is Your Father, You Have Seven Mothers

Stopping Abuse Is Sexual Ethics 101

News

The Curious Case of Coronavirus Contagion in Church

News

Something Old, Something New. Something Borrowed, Something Pew.

News

Christian Nonprofit Buys Luxury Yacht

New & Noteworthy Books

Our September Issue: Modeling Home

How Americans Got Away with Abortion Before ‘Roe v. Wade’

Why Shamelessness Is a Superpower

News

Back to Bolsonaro? Evangelicals Hesitate Ahead of October Election

Americans Forgot How Long Refugee Resettlement Takes

News

Four Out of Five Victims Don’t Report Sexual Assault. Can Christian Colleges Do Better?

Dallas Willard’s 3 Fears About the Spiritual Formation Movement

Playing the Cultural Long Game

Review

The Unsung Heroes of the Underground Railroad

Review

There Is No One Fully Optimized, Not Even One

View issue

Our Latest

Amazon’s New Streaming Channel Has Both ‘House of David’ and ‘Sherlock’

Major networks have invested in faith-based programming like Wonder Project before. This time seems different.

News Release

Marvin Olasky Officially Named Editor in Chief

Russell Moore becomes editor at-large and columnist.

Wonderology

Wonderology Trailer

Check out a preview of Christianity Today’s newest podcast about the intersection of science and faith.

News

As Shutdown Strains Incomes, Church Ramps Up to Feed the Hungry

In suburban Detroit, a $50,000 ministry grant helps families keep food on the tables during furloughs.

Review

‘Roe v. Wade’ Eroded the Church’s Historic Pro-Life Consensus

It was already unraveling by 1973. Repairing it today won’t be easy.

News

Kenyan Churches Struggle to Support Childless Couples

One Christian woman hopes to destigmatize infertility.

The Just Life with Benjamin Watson

Lecrae Moore: Why Lecrae Won’t Be Silent

Exploring faith that acts, how the gospel grounds justice, why silence wounds, and what hopeful, everyday courage looks like.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube