GOD IS GREATER…
…than my worry.
$16,600 is a lot of money to raise… And the pressure of meeting the fundraising deadlines… Then there’s all the supplies I need to find, buy, or borrow… Vaccinations to get… but in order to see the doctor to get the vaccinations, I need to get medical insurance… Letters need to be sent out… Oh, and with the letters come the added costs of printing and postage… But I can’t send the letters until I get the prayer cards made… And I can’t get the cards made until I get my pictures done…
The list above is just a taste of the permanent “World Race To Do List” posted in my brain. it is constantly being added to and amended. Every item on that list is a source of worry, which is in addition to the worries of my regularly scheduled life.
But I find rest in knowing that God will provide everything I need in His perfect timing.
…than my fear.
I like to think that I have a gypsy heart and could live a nomadic life. I talk about how up and moving to wherever would be no big deal. But it’s all a front. I’m afraid to leave the comfortable and familiar. I love my church family and the bonds we have created over the years. And I like the fact that I share a state line with my family. I like knowing I can go home on a whim or in an emergency. I’m afraid to leave all of them and to have very limited communication with my technologically-challenged parents. Eleven months is a lot of life to miss out on. And the other side of the world is really far away.
But I trust that God will protect them in my absence. And I pray that my communication skills and friendships will grow deeper through this experience.
…than my limitations.
After every one of my presentations in Speech 101 at college, someone would ask if I was crying during my speech. So yeah, I’m not a very good public speaker. I am not all that comfortable praying out loud in front of people, let alone out loud when I’m by myself. And I’m not knowledgeable in biblical history or doing exegesis of scripture.
But I am willing. God will show up and do his work through me. Moses wasn’t a confident public speaker either, but God told him, “Go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak” (Exodus 4:12). So Moses went, and God freed a nation through him.
…than my love.
No matter how I may live out being the hands and feet of Christ, I am a sinful being; my humanness will get in the way.
But because of Jesus’ sacrifice at the cross, where HIS blood ran red so MY sins could be washed white, I am free.
And because of my freedom in Christ, I am compelled to love others.
