Dr. Beth Elness-Hanson
When my late husband and I were discerning an invitation to serve with the ELCA at the invitation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, I was studying part-time in seminary, working to support my studies and family. Providentially, this portion from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was my text to study for my Matthew course. So, when the stipended ELCA position posting that we responded to shifted to a volunteer position when we showed up in Chicago to interview, it became a matter of serious prayerful discernment as well as existentially wrestling with this text. Could we really leave two paying jobs and take our toddler daughter to Africa as volunteers? Could I really not worry about the resources and the stuff? I am a pragmatist! Yet, I also grew up in a family that was influenced by Hudson Taylor’s model of mission, that “God’s work done in God’s way never lacks God’s supply.” Providentially, a handful of churches and donors stepped up—without even asking—and our needs were met! The journey deepened my faith and changed my life!
When a missionary friend was heading to Wuhan, China (before the pandemic—a city now everyone knows), she commented that this journey kept her dependent upon Jesus. The Lenten exercises and faith journey steps that nurture my dependence upon Jesus are the ones that are most amazing and transformative, but often they are the ones that challenge the core of my trusting. What am I trusting? My professional competence? My bank account? A known future? I am continuing on this journey of trusting Jesus, a path I have far from mastered, but drawn into by faith—and renewed by faith in a faithful God.
