Perspective

Fifteen days.  That’s an eternity – especially to a girl whose job is measured in seconds.  But it’s also dangerously short. 

Fifteen days until a term paper is due?  Pshh!  Plenty of time! 

Fifteen days until a mission trip to Bangladesh?  Way too close for comfort!

But fifteen days is all I’ve got until I board a plane bound for the other side of the world.  About two weeks until I fly 8,421 miles from my comfort zone: my home, my family, my friends, my life.  Put in that perspective, time is zooming by much faster than I’m comfortable with.

There is so much to do before a trip like this.  Packing : shirts, sweater, jeans, skirts (NOTE TO SELF: go buy skirts), toiletries, medicines, Bible, journal (This calls for a trip to the office supply store!  HURRAY! ), camera, music, books, what else?  

OH!  Those converter thingies!  The outlets are different over there.  Scribble that on the list.

Protein bars in case they serve food made with something I am allergic to… God, please help me to get over my picky eating – at least for the length of the trip.  Please help me to swallow whatever is put before me with grace, not a face. 

Someone suggested bringing toilet paper.  TOILET PAPER!?!  Wait - that means they might not have porcelain, flush potties! 

Oh Father, I’m getting nervous – and I’m just making a packing list!  What journey are You taking me on? 

I’ve often heard that a path that is full of adversity is exactly the one on which God has placed you.  Sounds a little counterintuitive at first, but begins to make sense once you begin to travel that road.  If I’m struggling to get the simple, yet necessary things done before the trip – the prescription that has refills available but isn’t in stock, the bizarre lack of long skirts at Goodwill, the mysterious missing backpack that was there just last week – then God MUST be up to something! 

My preparation for this trip is being hindered by the one who doesn’t want me to go.  The one who doesn’t want me to love others in the name Jesus Christ...  The one who doesn’t want me come home and tell the stories of poverty-stricken children who need to be rescued…  The one who wants me to stay in my comfort zone and never care about anyone beyond my own circle…  

The Holy Spirit in me makes me an enemy of the enemy of God.  What a profound revelation!  As I write this, I am overwhelmed with the reality that the challenges I’m facing are not designed to frustrate me – that’s just a side effect of the one who opposes Christ in me.  These obstacles are designed to stop me, to destroy the beautiful plan God has laid out for me, to frighten me into walking away from the journey and, ultimately, the destination.

Father, give me the courage to continue walking the path You’ve assigned to me. 

Change my perspective on these trials.  Use them to remind me why I’m facing them and give me the strength to persevere and to overcome.  

And, if You would, could You make 15 days seem a little longer?  J