Here We Go Again...

Its that time of year again...tickets are being booked, visas are being applied for, details are carefully being arranged for summer service trips.

One of the things that I learned early on in my missions work - and which, as a recovering A-type personality has been one of my greatest opportunities for growth - is that we are to plan to the best of our abilities and then know and expect that these plans will change.  It is not unusual that our conversations at the start of the day about what we will do sound very different from our day-end debriefing reviewing how we served.  Most of the time, though, it ends up a lot better than expected.

But that really isn't too different from every day life, is it?  We have a plan, an agenda, of how we are going to live our life.  Of the job that we'll have, the person we will spend our life with, the home in which we will live.  If we are honest, we want it our way, and we want it now.  But how often does that really happen?  Probably a lot less than we desire.  But even though it is different, when we take a moment to pause and honestly reflect, it, too, is usually better  isn't it?   Especially when we open ourselves to be used as God's instrument to advance His Kingdom.  (You can read about how my life has been impacted here.)

 

Tomorrow, on May 1, Into the Field will celebrate its 6th birthday.  This amazes me.  Much of how we are serving was not on our agenda when we filed those incorporation papers.  May 1, 2008 was the National Day of Prayer and then, as now, my prayer was that we would be open to God's leading and be faithful enough to keep stepping forward.    His plans are definitely better than any we could have made on our own.