I mean, it is as if we are living a completely different life since January 12!
Which leads me to ask the question, "What do you do when life changes?"
After re-reading my last two posts, I am (but shouldn't be) astonished at how God puts to test what you say.
For example, 5 days after my post about giving God the glory no matter what happens, our vehicle was stolen. Yeah, so God really put me to the test and I had to live out my own words. I don't believe in the "name it, claim it" philosophy. But I do believe what the Word of God says, in Prov. 18:21…"Death and life are in the power of the tongue…" How was I going to respond to a situation that I had to walk the talk? I had said it, but was I willing to live it?
Recently, I was talking to Micah about his dreams of playing soccer professionally and I told him that God wants him to give all of his dreams to Him, lay them at His feet and put Jesus first. If God chooses to give those dreams back to him, then he can know that God is going to use those dreams for His glory in and through Micah's life. But God wants Micah (and all of us) to want Him first. What I stressed to him is that it is easy to SAY that we are giving everything to God, but LIVING out what we say is another thing altogether.
When I look back at my January 12 post, I see someone who was in the midst of a huge stress moment, yet hesitantly willing to give it all back for the better. It reminds me of the picture below…
I love this picture because it perfectly describes our lives and our unwillingness to part with our little for the bigger and better that Jesus has for us, only because we can't see it yet.
Stepping into the unknown of missions life is hard, the not-knowing is not my favorite thing. The struggles along the way...the giving up of tangible things, the letting-go of hurts, the loneliness, the doubts, the fears and all that can't be named...are all very real and can't always be explained.
But Jesus has something so much greater in store. I wrote this on January 5...
But what I want most is to remember that…
whatever comes our way this year…
whether our plans work out the way we planned or not…
in the midst of the hard and the easy…
if we don't know what is next…
FROM Him are ALL things
TO Him are ALL things
He Deserves the Glory!
Because there is no way that I could have known that…
...our vehicle would be stolen 5 days later,
...we would have to leave Venezuela 4 months early because of new Visa regulations,
…our lives would be in limbo as we wait for answers concerning many things, one of which is the granting of our Visas.
We recently shared this in our July monthly update…
Moriah introduced us to the song, "Trust In You" by Lauren Daigle. You can listen here.
The words of the song spoke volumes to our family and the ups and downs of missionary life.
God doesn't always work things out like we want Him to,
yet we trust Him.
He doesn't always allow us to follow the dreams we originally planned for ourselves,
yet we trust Him.
And just like the lyrics to the song say...
Even when He doesn't move the mountains we need Him to move...
Even when He doesn't part the waters we wish we could have walked through...
Even when He doesn't give the answers as we cry out to Him...
We will trust...We will trust...We will trust in Him!!
Because there is not a day ahead, that He has not seen
or a place where we will go, that He has not already stood!
And He obviously has a lot to teach us this year. Just like the fireworks they shoot off all over the city of Caracas on New Year's, He started our year out with a bang! ;D
Whatever God has in mind for my life and yours, He is teaching us valuable lessons along the way.
TRUST is one of the hardest, but one of the most rewarding, if we are willing to give Him our desires, dreams and plans for His bigger and better ones.
Oh, and if you are wondering, Jesus did give us a bigger and better vehicle in less than a month after the first one was stolen! :D
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