God had a Better Plan
"I know what I'm doing, I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, plans to give you the future you hope for. ". Jer 29:11 The Message
Working with orphans, lepers, untouchables and those living in unimaginable poverty makes the makes the verse a well used homily - offering a promise of hope given by and unchanging God.
"The way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.". Is 55:9
But... It doesn't make daily life easier. It doesn't make the mission field a picnic. God does things His way - not the American way.
Sharing the love of such an amazing God with people who have nothing the world counts as valuable is a humbling experience. We go into believer's houses, climbing into the stilted dwelling, and listen to their testimony of miracle after miracle; healings, provision, barren women who conceive, lives brought back from the brink of death - and offer a prayer of hope of even greater things to come.
If you were to look around the one room serving as kitchen, bedroom, living room, dining room, closet, and pantry, you would see the worldly goods of a family of six can be counted on two hands. Yet, the requests they ask prayer for are not for "increase" of wealth, but for boldness for their testimony, their lives, the lives of their children to bring greater glory to the King and more souls to be saved.
If this is His version of a plan, how has the American plan gone so far the other way?
When we left the village, life was all around us; children were drawing water from the well, mother's walking along the path nursed their infants, older women were weaving cloth, young boys were collecting firewood for the evening meal, various livestock searched for food,, dogs trailed alongside us, and a few bathed in the open before the sun set in the western sky.
It brought to mind the testimony of the great faith hall of fame: "...homeless, friendless, powerless - the world didn't deserve them! - making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world. Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised."
The rest of the verse brings the reality of how His way is SO different from mine:
"God had a better plan for US; that THEIR faith and our faith would come to together to make ONE completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours."
Somehow, we need THEM to make us complete, they need us -
It didn't pass by Congress
It passed by the Throne.
Working with orphans, lepers, untouchables and those living in unimaginable poverty makes the makes the verse a well used homily - offering a promise of hope given by and unchanging God.
"The way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.". Is 55:9
But... It doesn't make daily life easier. It doesn't make the mission field a picnic. God does things His way - not the American way.
Sharing the love of such an amazing God with people who have nothing the world counts as valuable is a humbling experience. We go into believer's houses, climbing into the stilted dwelling, and listen to their testimony of miracle after miracle; healings, provision, barren women who conceive, lives brought back from the brink of death - and offer a prayer of hope of even greater things to come.
If you were to look around the one room serving as kitchen, bedroom, living room, dining room, closet, and pantry, you would see the worldly goods of a family of six can be counted on two hands. Yet, the requests they ask prayer for are not for "increase" of wealth, but for boldness for their testimony, their lives, the lives of their children to bring greater glory to the King and more souls to be saved.
If this is His version of a plan, how has the American plan gone so far the other way?
When we left the village, life was all around us; children were drawing water from the well, mother's walking along the path nursed their infants, older women were weaving cloth, young boys were collecting firewood for the evening meal, various livestock searched for food,, dogs trailed alongside us, and a few bathed in the open before the sun set in the western sky.
It brought to mind the testimony of the great faith hall of fame: "...homeless, friendless, powerless - the world didn't deserve them! - making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world. Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised."
The rest of the verse brings the reality of how His way is SO different from mine:
"God had a better plan for US; that THEIR faith and our faith would come to together to make ONE completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours."
Somehow, we need THEM to make us complete, they need us -
It didn't pass by Congress
It passed by the Throne.
