What to garner from a trip such as this? What to expect from this journey of journeys?
To be honest, I just wish to follow God’s call on my heart and do His will, regardless of what that entails and what perils come along. I know how to pass the ‘Bridge of Doom’ (Monty Python for the curious, lol) and so my quest cannot be deterred.
My expectations are to serve Him whole-heartedly, even while my heart is being broken and re-created through the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches I encounter. I hope to be transformed, to have the filth that lays within me to be stripped from my heart and soul in hopes of reflecting Him more, to become the man He intends me to be and to find the destiny He has for me.
He also has someone back here that I love whole-heartedly but cannot tell her about my heart by His request, because I am not ready for her love, nor that relationship, and neither is she. I think that’s been the toughest things He’s asked of me lately. Those of my family and friends who read this and know who I speak of, well don’t slip and say it nor tell her. It must wait, according to His plan. I must seek first His Kingdom!
One of my goals is to constantly seek first His Kingdom and while I am overseas I hope He shows it to me everyday through those I encounter and the beauty of His creation all around me. One of the other goals is to get into better shape. I have long-squandered His Temple (my body) by eating unhealthy and not being physically fit. I’ve started that a little, but know that on this trip He’s going to radically change me in every way…I can just sense it.
Finally, I hope to get my pen back to form. What I mean is that I am a poet, but lately I have not had the inspiration, the words, the fortitude to write for Him. Every once and awhile yes, but not on a consistent basis. I hope that by being over there in the unknown, out of my comfort zone, out of the normalcy of this life I live that He will so inspire me and fill me with His words and His heart that they will flow onto page more majestically than any wind current along the trees or any ocean’s current. My heart so longs for the words and yet I cannot grasp them.
Other things are probably going to happen, other things are planned by Him, but I do not know of them at this time. I will wait expectantly and share them. One of the greatest things about this trip I get to go on is that He actually is answering prayers. I just remembered them recently, but I had prayed quite some time ago for Him to just take me out of my comfort zone and out of my normal life for Him, because I had gotten complacent in my walk with Him and my life, especially after coming back from China with the group from my church in St. Augustine.
All things considered, I just simply need Him and He’s taking me down this path for a purpose, a strong one at that. I must follow, oh how I must follow!!!
Jeremiah 29:11 ~ “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.” My personal motto and the first Scripture I memorized outside of John 3:16. I love Him and serving Him!!
In Christ’s Loving Hands,
A.J. Wagoner
