I haven’t written in a while. I’m not really sure why. I have a lot of ideas and things to write about, but life keeps moving on and I keep making excuses why I don’t have time to write. I have been accomplishing a lot, just not writing. I have learned a lot over the last few months, and I decided it is time to get back to writing and sharing my journey with you again.
I don’t have a “theme” verse for my life, but for the last couple of years, I have been writing and thinking a lot about Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” I write about and talk about that verse a lot. Not because I am so good at it, but because I need the constant reminder. This one verse solves so many of life’s problems, maybe even all of life’s problems, yet it is so difficult to do.
This year has been a bit of a challenging year for me. Nothing particularly bad, but challenging in that we have set some goals and feel God is leading us to some things that are stretching our faith and getting us out of our comfort zone. It is easy to write about “seek first the kingdom of God” when I am sitting in my comfort zone and everything appears to be going well. But then God calls me to something new and I begin to try to do it all on my own. I start to trust in myself, rather than God.
There is a mission in Malawi, Africa that my family has been loosely tied to since it started in the sixties. It has been a place I have wanted to visit for a very long time. In 2019, we decided we would begin working to make this trip, visit the mission and spend a couple of weeks there. We began talking with the mission team there and made plans to visit in the summer of 2020. Well… that clearly did not work out, as all travel came to a screeching halt that year. We rescheduled for 2021, and things were not much better. We talked about 2022, but the mission staff was due for furlough that summer and we were not able to work out the schedule. Now the time has come, and we are headed to Malawi in July.
We have been working diligently to prepare for the trip. Even the kids have stepped up to help with some car washes and other things to contribute. God opened up some opportunities for some extra work for me and my wife, and everything was looking good. Then, life began to happen. Like everything else, airline prices jumped in cost to the highest they have ever been. Tickets and other expenses are now considerably more for my family than when we first started planning this trip just 3 years ago. My 3-year-old dog started limping and eventually stopped using one of her back legs. She was the fasted dog on three legs that I had ever seen. A visit to the vet and we learned that she had torn her ACL and had needed surgery to replace the ACL and reshape part of her bone to prevent further injury. So there is another significant expense, but she is now as fast as ever on all fours.
Amidst all this, I began to think I had to take care of all of this myself. Yes, I do need to have personal responsibility and do the work. But I need to remember to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you, as well.” This verse is not talking about having more stuff or nice trips. It is saying that if we trust God and put him first, He will take care of us. We will always have just what we need. If God is calling us to go do something, He will provide the way for us to do it. Sometimes he will just give us the resources we need. Sometimes he will open up opportunities to work. Sometimes a bit of both. But if we trust God, He will always take care of us.
I am excited about our upcoming trip. We still have a little bit to go to reach our goals for the trip, but God continues to provide in many ways. My focus is getting back on trusting God instead of my own strength (which is not as much as I often think it is). The dog’s surgery will be paid off in about three weeks. We leave for Africa in about four weeks. I am now a part of the mission U.S. team and have recently begun working on their website and social media and getting to support this ministry in ways I had not thought of. As always, God is good, and life is much less stressful when I seek God first… just like he says.
