Those of you who know me may know that I like to plan for
things. I like to know what’s going to happen. Surprises, while they have their place, usually don’t get me
very excited. You may be wondering and
maybe even laughing to yourself, “Then why did you choose to go on a year-long
mission trip where you didn’t know anything about anything sometimes until the
moment it happens?� My response to that
question is pretty simple.
I didn’t choose to.
God
is the one taking me on this journey… possibly to get me to start relying on
Him and His plans more often. It’s a tough habit to break but I know I’ve been relying on my own plans for far too long.
The process of transferring my trust from myself into Him has been really frustraing–even though I know that His will is perfect. Now, it’s more of an issue with just not
having a clue of what He’s going to do than it is having to trust that whatever it is will be
good. Where I’ll work, where I’ll live,
even who I’ll be with… not knowing the details that I once thought I did is
really hard for me to be OK with.
We spent three days of last week in Hamba Hamba village (about as far out in the bush as you can get in Malawi) for a
crusade. Some of us decided to bring our
hammocks instead of tents–partially to give a little more space in the truck to the 21
people who made the 4 hour trip and partially because hammock sleep is
more comfortable than tent sleep anyway. The
space part was still a nightmare because we only had two vehicles: a
10-passenger safari SUV and a small pick-up.
With 10 in the SUV, that left 11 in the truck, which had space up front
for 3. Guess who was among the 8 cramped
in the bed (along with two huge speakers, a generator, cooking pots and several
bags)! That’d be yours truly…
The hammock, while comfortable, turned into a bit of an
adventure the first night when the village dogs started going crazy 15 feet away from where I was hanging at about 2 am. When morning came,
we found out that the most probable cause for the dogs midnight freak-out was hyenas
prowling around the village. Considering the fact that the dogs were barking
so close to our hammocks, I think the hyenas (if there were any) must have been pretty
close to us as well. As much as I hated those dogs at 2am, I love them now.
The first full day, I did a
little workout that involved a traditional African grinding bowl (looked almost
like a butter churner), the grinding pole that went with it and a seriously sturdy tree. Now, not only have I preached in six
countries but I’ve done a workout in them as well.
Anyway, the whole point of this blog was to talk about a
mango… so here it goes.
I’ve been feeling
extremely stressed out about what is waiting for me when I get home. We’re only half-way through the race and here
I am worried about what’s going to happen six months from now. It was getting to the point where I
recognized that it was a huge distraction from what God was doing right now and I’d had enough. So in order
to pray for more trust and against the distraction, I took myself to a place
away from everyone (which happened to be under an enormous mango tree in the middle of Hamba Hamba).
My prayer wasn’t too far out of my mouth when I heard a THUD
next to me. When I looked over, I saw a large mango about 10 feet away from where I was sitting. I felt God telling me in a calm-but-slightly-frustrated
tone, “Go get the mango…� (Yes, I know that sounds crazy). I love mangos, though, so He didn’t have to tell me
twice. I dug right in and was soon distracted by how good it tasted.
Before I knew it, I was
left with nothing but a hairy seed and some seriously sticky hands and I felt God
speaking to me again, still in that frustrated tone. “Now go wash your hands and be done with all
of this. You know I’m going to take care
of you. You know I’m going to go above and beyond what you
would ever expect of me.�
That’s when I remembered what Jesus said in Matthew 6:30-34,
“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers–most of which are
never even seen–don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his
best for you? What I’m trying to do here
is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting so you can
respond to God’s giving. People who
don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both
God and how he works. Steep your life in
God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.
Don’t worry about missing out.
You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is
doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen
tomorrow. God will help you deal with
whatever hard things come up when the time comes� (The Message).
It’s funny. God taught me this lesson simply by making a piece of fruit fall out of a tree. I didn’t ask for it but He knew I would appreciate it. I think that was the whole point. God loves taking care of us… and giving us blessings we don’t even ask for. Us knowing or not knowing that they’re coming doesn’t affect anything. All He wants us to do is to be thankful and acknowledge the blessings when they do come.
Armed with that lesson, I preached today. The underlying theme of the entire sermon was
that our chaos is where God’s order is found. And what a perfect order it is 🙂
