Well, no tear jerker blog this week, but instead I have a story for you. It’s completely real, not fiction, 100% fact. As you are probably aware, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and as citizens of the United States of America, we can’t miss the good ole turkey and stuffing. So, Thanksgiving is coming to Guatemala! In preparation for all the cooking, Glenalyn and I got to go back to Honduras for some grocery shopping. What a day. I could have almost imagined myself back home for just a few hours inside the big Americanized stores.
After a full day of shopping, which really means attempting to buy enough food for 50 people, we were making one last stop in a minimart and I got a surprise. We had checked out and were getting ready to go when I heard a “hey” from behind me. I turned around and there stood Sarita. Sarita. WHAT?! Unbeknownst to me, the minimart was in Puerto Cortes, just down the road from Sarita’s house and church. Against all odds and the million minimarts there has to be in that city, we happened to be in the same store on the same random day at the same time. I’m here to tell you that’s not chance. That’s Jesus.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far on this trip, it’s how God likes to show off and orchestrate the most impossible things- bringing together the tiniest of pieces and details to create something against all reason and odds.
I’m still waiting to see Lourdes again, but my Father has promised me and he is faithful. Days and situations like seeing Sarita in the minimart remind me how much I don’t have to worry about “missing it.” I’m not going to stay home from a day of ministry because I’m sick and miss when God planned for me to see Lourdes again. I’m not going to make a wrong decision and end up not going where I was “supposed” to go. My God is bigger than that. And I’m pretty dang glad.
Sometimes I imagine I’m going to walk into a hotel elevator and meet someone during the trip to the lobby who will end up playing a role in the rest of my life. It’s as though the encounter is seconds away from willing itself into existence at any given moment, and had I a digital countdown, I could lean against the wallpaper and let the elevator doors open and close while I watch the second hand tick its way down to my rendezvous with destiny. […]
Twenty years from now I imagine I’m going to feel like I missed out on something profoundly heartfelt when I look back on this pivotal scenario and the way it played out. Even if I loosen my grip long enough to steal an introspective moment out on the balcony, somehow I believe I’ll catch myself thinking, “I wish I’d been more assertive!” instead of idly letting life play out scene-by-scene in front of me. Maybe that’s just preconcerted apathy but my brain tends to harbor some deep-rooted necessity to keep reminding me that this fateful meeting could happen at any moment (and of course it could) but more importantly, that I be ready and waiting in the wings to handle it the way I’ve already anticipated.
It’s annoying but I’m so glad it doesn’t work like this. The caveat is that there’s NOTHING to be ANTICIPATED, or rather, it’s not my job to worry about it. […]
But more than this, I’m deeply comforted to know that no amount of absentminded woolgathering can reconstruct “the plan” into something that I must practice or rehearse for, even if I wanted to. It will be unplanned, unpremeditated, extempore, unconstrained, unforced, and the thought becomes more beautiful the more I think about it (or perhaps the more I try not to).
Above and beyond all of this, I take great joy and comfort in knowing my Savior has it all blueprinted and planned down to the tiniest detail, and that my job isn’t to blubber and worry about the design — but to hush. To be concerned with the principles of morality, servanthood, discipleship and character, and ultimately, to trust.
For what is faith without trust?
-Adam Young, owlcityblog.com
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