Today I went to the Doctor to get shots and get my paperwork etc. moving along. (The A.I.M. staff members are smiling wherever they are right now and they don’t even know why.) I began to chat with my doctor and tell him about the World Race while he’s getting his arsenal of vaccines lined up. So mid sentence he stops and has totally caught me wide-eyed and staring him down while he is drawing up the shots. He turned to me and said, “Sarah, you don’t like needles, so STOP looking at them! You know they have to go in your arm and you know that you need them so that you can go do this amazing trip next year.”
***Instant light bulb: flashback->training camp…
processing…processing…***
God does not want me to focus on my worries and fears. He wants me to look at
Him and trust in what
He is going to do. God loves us
all so much that he wants us to fear only him. If we are so filled with this utmost respect of God and a sincere desire to live into his plan for our life, all the other fears and “what ifs” that creep in will just pale in comparison.
We learned at training camp that there will always be worries and concerns that could cripple us from living out God’s plan for our life. But God will
ALWAYS provide a counter attack on those worries if we let him. Because what if we faced all those worries and concerns head on, what if we let God have control, and what if he turns them into something bigger than we could dream.
“God is bigger than our experience with him.”
Here are a few tidbits from The Bible that speak to me about this idea that God wants us to trust his plan for our life, and that His plan and His abundant love for us will always overshadow our own doubts and anxieties:
Old Testament style: Jeremiah 29:11 (from The Message)
“I
will show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”
New Testament style: Paul said in Romans Chapter 8:
” I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, (**neither needles nor paperwork??), nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So yeah: what if I have to get 50 shots and I cry like a 4 year old every time I see a needle? But:
what if being vaccinated for Yellow Fever means I am equipped to go love God’s children in places a fear-led life wouldn’t take me?
*** Back to reality… who would have thought I could go through all that in 30 seconds?***
Focus on God, not on needles, I can do that….
In conclusion, my eyes still watered a little, I still wished my Mom was there holding my hand, and my arms are way sore right now… but I only have to pray my way through this 6 more times to be fully vaccinated!!
