It hit me for the first time today. It hit me hard.
I’m in the choir of our wonderful church and, as today was Sunday, was looking out at the congregation from the choir loft, truly worshipping God as we focused on His worthiness. Suddenly I realized that I was going to be leaving this in exactly 2 weeks. Then I realized I was going to be leaving behind all the rest of my life here in the Charlotte area: my work, friends, home, comforts, all of it. I got very emotional in the midst of singing praise to God, initially for the wrong reason.
Had I really been excited about going to PNG until just the other day?
I think the catalyst was the fact that we’d cemented our travel plan and were committed … but maybe not emotionally.
I think there’s a difference between being scared of what’s ahead and being uncertain of what’s ahead. There are so many new experiences over the horizon in PNG that we have no idea of or know how we’d handle them even if we knew about them. That’s uncertainty.
As one who trusts God and wants to trust Him more and more, I have no reason to be afraid, though. As I said, I got very emotional when singing songs of praise and worship but now for the right reason. I realized that God has us leaving something good for something better (for His glory, for His purposes). And when we return home from PNG in 6 months, we’ll be coming back for something even better. Hallelujah!
Our pastor, teaching out of Daniel 11’s prophecy today, said that one of the lessons is that God’s Word is trustworthy. If the 135 prophecies of Daniel 11 up to verse 35 happened, then we can be certain that the remaining ones in Daniel 11 and 12 will happen.
I realized it’s also true that, if God has been trustworthy for all the past years of my life, I can just as completely trust Him in the 6 months ahead of me… starting when Julie and I board the Continental flight through Houston on August 2nd. There will be certainly some, perhaps even a gazillion, magnificent experiences we'll have in PNG that will cause me to be sad in February when we should return home.
Praise the Lord!
I’m in the choir of our wonderful church and, as today was Sunday, was looking out at the congregation from the choir loft, truly worshipping God as we focused on His worthiness. Suddenly I realized that I was going to be leaving this in exactly 2 weeks. Then I realized I was going to be leaving behind all the rest of my life here in the Charlotte area: my work, friends, home, comforts, all of it. I got very emotional in the midst of singing praise to God, initially for the wrong reason.
Had I really been excited about going to PNG until just the other day?
I think the catalyst was the fact that we’d cemented our travel plan and were committed … but maybe not emotionally.
I think there’s a difference between being scared of what’s ahead and being uncertain of what’s ahead. There are so many new experiences over the horizon in PNG that we have no idea of or know how we’d handle them even if we knew about them. That’s uncertainty.
As one who trusts God and wants to trust Him more and more, I have no reason to be afraid, though. As I said, I got very emotional when singing songs of praise and worship but now for the right reason. I realized that God has us leaving something good for something better (for His glory, for His purposes). And when we return home from PNG in 6 months, we’ll be coming back for something even better. Hallelujah!
Our pastor, teaching out of Daniel 11’s prophecy today, said that one of the lessons is that God’s Word is trustworthy. If the 135 prophecies of Daniel 11 up to verse 35 happened, then we can be certain that the remaining ones in Daniel 11 and 12 will happen.
I realized it’s also true that, if God has been trustworthy for all the past years of my life, I can just as completely trust Him in the 6 months ahead of me… starting when Julie and I board the Continental flight through Houston on August 2nd. There will be certainly some, perhaps even a gazillion, magnificent experiences we'll have in PNG that will cause me to be sad in February when we should return home.
Praise the Lord!
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