Living the dream of 22 years ago

This morning at our French church, we sang a song that triggered a memory. The song is Paul Chambers' "I Will Give Thanks To Thee," which is "Je t'exalterai Seigneur" in French.

The words in English are as follows:

I will give thanks to Thee
O Lord among the people
I will sing praises to Thee
among the nations
For Thy steadfast love is great
It is great to the heavens
And Thy faithfulness,
Thy faithfulness to the clouds

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens
Let Thy glory be over all the earth
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens
Let Thy glory be over all the earth

22 years ago, I used to attend a Sunday evening meeting at Wheaton College called "World Christian Fellowship." The weekly meeting would have about half of its time in worship and half about a mission-related theme. One of the songs I remember from that is the song that we sang in French this morning.

As we sang the first couple of lines ("I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord among the people. I will sing praises to Thee among the nations."), I realized that I've gotten to live this dream during the last 20 years. Since leaving my homeland in 1988, I've gotten to live in France for 15 years and in Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa for 2 years. Even during my 3 years stateside, I had in view to return back overseas.

The call to increase the number of worshippers of Jesus among the nations is still compelling to me. That's one part I love about where we live in Paris, as it represents many of the world's nations. The Divine Creator has gifted different nations and cultures with different creative art forms that need to be harvested to worship Him. This rich diversity creates a beautiful mosaic that should honor and glorify Him.