Beyond Our Yes

It was 1977 and I was a senior in high school. Behind the scenes there was a struggle going on at home that I knew nothing about. My dad was president of one of the local YMCA’s and they were going to be hosting a student from Switzerland. There was just one problem: at the last minute the host family pulled out. In a matter of hours, Juerg Rother’s plane would be landing and he needed a home. Moments later, my mom got a desperate call from my dad asking her thoughts about temporarily hosting this young man until another family was found. With five teenaged daughters and a live-in grandpa, she was understandably very concerned—giving my dad her laundry list of why it wasn’t a good idea. She asked for time to think about it. My dad said, “You have 20 minutes!”   

I’m not sure what transpired in my mother’s heart in those 20 minutes, but somehow she was able to say yes, even if it was a weak and reluctant one. And that yes turned into a 40-year friendship with a mop-headed guy with a funny accent that has changed all of our lives. That yes became a relationship. A family friendship. A rare gift. That yes became a pastor. That yes changed everything.  

As I recently listened to Juerg share at my parent’s church about this life-changing decision—on this 40^th anniversary of my parents’ yes—I couldn’t help but think about what if they had said no. There would have been no Juerg in our lives. There would have been no intertwining of hearts between two families, there would have been no brother the five of us girls never had, there would have been no insight into another culture, there would have been no call to God and ministry—and there certainly would have been no love for Swiss chocolate! 

How many of us say no to things God wants us to say yes to simply because it makes no sense,  and as a result we miss out not only on our own personal blessing but becoming part of the much bigger plan that God has in mind? I’m thankful every day my parents said yes despite their fears, doubts, and reservations! 

Many people in Scripture—Noah, Abraham, Mary, and Paul to name a few—faced the same struggle we do of saying yes to God. Too often, we only remember their successes, and don’t recall their struggles, their anguish, and their ensuing battles to get there. Oh, what God can do with a heart that says yes despite the questions and doubts…despite the “But, Lord, I have five teenaged daughters” concerns. That’s where obedience meets faith.

In Exodus 3:1-15, Moses got a similar call that eventually changed the course of his life. While the call didn’t come on a phone, it did come directly from God through a burning bush of all things. God told Moses, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” How would you react to a call like that? God obviously saw something in Moses’ abilities that he didn’t see in himself. And He knew that Moses would be up to the challenge if only He answered with a resounding yes.

But Moses didn’t respond with an eager yes at first. Instead, like my mom, he too gave God his laundry list of reasons why saying yes wasn’t a good idea, “I can’t do it,” “I don’t have what it takes” “I don’t know what to do” “Let someone else do it” “It’s scary”—and the excuses kept coming. It can be difficult to say yes, especially when there’s risk involved or when we only focus on the difficulties of our yes. Even if our yes’s are reluctant—even if we have to argue it out with God—and even if we only have 20 minutes to decide—He can take whatever level of willingness we have and work with it because all the power and resources of heaven are unleased when we say yes. And, there’s no telling what our yes will turn into when God gets a hold of it. Moses’ yes delivered a nation!   

That feeble yes changed not only our family, but the entire Swiss community that Juerg has been pastoring and shepherding for the last 30 years. He has been a mighty force for God there, and to think it all started with a little word that unleashed a big God “to do far beyond anything we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20, CJB). My mom later said, “Oh, that I would not frustrate the grace of God in my life and family,” when reflecting back on her yes. 

God took my parents’ yes and unfolded a plan that went far beyond what any of us could have imagined 40 years later. Where is God asking you to say yes?