I am safe in Mozambique.. more info on that later. Here is a blog i wrote on the plane the other night…
‘Pressing into pain.’ I read that phrase in a book recently and it hasn’t left my mind. If you know me, you know I’m not super ‘feely’ and really don’t choose to show emotion. I think this is partly because I like to be perceived as strong (I am strong, it’s the way God created me. However, masking what is socially perceived as negative emotion does not equal strength.) and partly because I don’t —or haven’t until now— see a point in feeling pain and crying and the like. What does that accomplish anyway? Painful things happen, that’s life, keep moving. That has been my MO.
I’m so glad God doesn’t leave us in our ignorance and delusions.
I’ve lived through some pain. I’ve have firsthand experience with tragedy, loss, and heartache. But as I sit here, 33,000 feet in the air, on a flight to South Africa, pressing into my pain —because that’s what I sense God leading me to do— He gives me this verse,
Romans 8:18
I consider that our present sufferings
are not worth comparing
with the glory that will be revealed in us.
As horrible as pain feels, it’s intensity has nothing on the the intensity of the glory I have to look forward to. So, go there. Press into the pain. As you press, know that the degree to which you feel the hurt will be multiplied infinitely in the glory that His believers will know!
How amazing is it that our God can take the rotten parts of life and flip them into something good!?
It’s day 1 on the race and already we, as a team, have experienced unexpected things that hurt. Already, God is changing me. Already, I’m learning new things about the Father. I can’t begin to fathom all that is in store over the next 11 months, but I am, oh so, excited to see!
Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
