This month in Ghana my team and I are blessed with a cute, little guest house in the outskirts of the city. Our home is hall of rooms that wraps around to a bigger room called the restaurant & bar. However, there is no restaurant or bar inside…just some tables we eat our meals at that are brought in by a wonderful woman, Hamdia, from the church. There is also a little table outside that has been deemed our card game, hang out, worship and catch-all spot. We have made this quaint place our home.
Next to the non-existent restaurant is a staircase seemingly not leading to anywhere. Letting curiosity get the best of me, I decided to explore a bit one afternoon. I snuck up the dusty stairs and wriggled the rusted latch that held the wooden blockade to the unknown. I don’t know why but this little venture got my heart beating faster and my mind spinning with crazy ideas of what I would find…maybe a rooftop garden with vines, flowers and a perfect bench for my future quiet times. Maybe it’s a secret passage to the real restaurant making it a speakeasy! The possibilities made me giddy with excitement as I scurried up the cement stairs.
I took a second look around to make sure I wouldn’t get caught as the rickety gate squeaked opened. I peaked out to a pile of dusty, mismatched wooden beams, iron rods and dirt. I couldn’t even advance because of the cluttered mess on the rooftop of the house. Bummer. My wild imagination suddenly halted and all my dreams of my own secret hideout were stomped on. I quickly secured the latch back again shutting out the stream of light and scampered down the stairs.
I quickly got over my disappointment after I realized the potential for those stairs. This little guest house is prepared for the bigger and better. It is equipped for future prosperity and has a foundation for growth. In the future these stairs could lead to more than just a dusty rooftop full of odds and ends. Just like our future has potential to be bigger and better. God has given all of us the ability to dream and dream big. He has given us imagination and wants us to use it to create dreams that seem unreachable.
I have been learning not to put God in a box; that is doubting His power and goodness for my life. I need to dream big and ask Him for these things. I need to prepare the stairs in my life so He can provide that rooftop garden or oasis I desire. I need to keep my foundation strong and keep building up in expectation of Him fulfilling my desires and dreams.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened…
Matthew 7:7-11
Have you built stairs in your heart preparing the way for God’s provision? What are your dreams (think big!)? Ask God for them and see what happens; He is waiting to wriggle the latch.
Fun Fact: No part of the animal is wasted…chickens, beef, pork, goat, dog, woodchucks, huge rodents…tongues, skin, intestine…all of it is cooked and eaten in some way. Hamdia gave us the chance to try cow intestine with this maize-type grits, called trissert. So chewy I couldn’t swallow; Ryan was a champ and loved it while the rest of the team resorted to the chicken lol
Walking home in the African Sunset 🙂 The dust makes it bearable to stare right at it without blinding you.
