Seven years ago I came to Wagner Hills and enrolled in the discipleship program because I believed Jesus told me to do it. I did not want to do it, but eventually by God's grace I found the strength to get over myself and obey him. I just wanted to post something here quickly about the odd way that most of us at Wagner Hills have come to serve him and to end up blessed with the blessings of heaven, all in spite of ourselves.
Lately in the classes I teach at Wagner Hills we have discussed Genesis 11 and the builders of the tower of Babel. We talked about how all of us had our own "towers" that we were trying to build before coming to Wagner Hills, and more importantly, before we really surrendered to Jesus. Just like the people on the plains of Shinar in that ancient story, we were trying to have heaven on earth, but without God. We were also trying to "make a name for ourselves" instead of humbling ourselves and allowing God to make his name great. When we had this conversation we agreed that if we had had success in our past endeavours, we would not have come to the place of being open to Jesus.
I don't know anyone who grew up with the ambition to come to Wagner Hills as a resident someday. To come to Wagner Hills is to admit to some areas of defeat in our lives. The wonderful thing is though, all of us who heard the Lord's call to come here ended up hitting a kind of jackpot in disguise. I will finish off here (I told you this would be quick) by mentioning Psalm 73 as a comparison to the lives of the men at Wagner Hills:
In Psalm 73, Asaph, the psalmist, speaks about how he envied people who were not following God. In verse 17 though he says that he went into the sanctuary of God and had a change of heart. He basically said that his eyes were opened to how useless it is to build your own tower, and how real life is only found with the Lord.
I believe that Wagner Hills is one of those sanctuaries of the Lord where people come to have this revelation. Some of the revelation comes in quick downloads, and some of it only penetrates into the heart through testing, but one way or another God continues to teach all of us here about his true riches - the riches of knowing Jesus. At one time none of us wanted to come here to submit to his discipleship, just as Jesus did not want to go to the cross. He asked the Father if there was any other way he could go. In the end though, our Father has known best, and many of us can testify of how our lives are blessed far beyond what we ever dreamed to be possible.
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