Benin
This week’s Note was to be from Benin. But I’m not in Benin.
(If you saw my video on Facebook or Instagram, you already know that.)
After over a year of planning, I didn’t. Get. To. Benin. For those who worked with me to prepare and welcome me, again, I’m incredibly sorry that we didn’t share together as we had planned. But, I genuinely trust God’s leading in all things.
I hate it when people shoot lofty ideals at us when things go wrong. In fact, if some well-intentioned person has said something too soon to you when something shocking and painful has happened - you broke up with the one you loved, got cancer, got divorced, lost a child - I’m so sorry.
They give you a quick Bible verse. A hasty mantra. Anything too soon that’s true, almost “true,” or should be true, to fix it.
“Chin up. Get happy!” as if to say.
(And do remember, you and I have done that, too.)
Even if what’s said is true, for example, “God is in control,” don’t speak too soon! Let the sadness and shock sink in a bit before you try to lift it off by giving truth and hope.
I promise you, if you own the sadness (not wallowing in it, but realizing and owning it), the Truth and Life that God calls you to in the midst of the sadness, and well beyond, will, at surprising times, gush like water breaking through a dam!
It won’t be manufactured and artificial. It’ll come from a deep sense of what truly is, without spiritually bypassing feelings, and the reality that we live in a world that’s muddled and mysterious.
As I sat for a few minutes in the airport in Paris, France, after being told I would not get on the plane because of a clerical error on my visa for Benin, I sensed a deep Peace.
All my issues were coming up in me: I’d disappointed people, wasted time and money, was embarrassed and far away from home. All of it “tsk tsk-ed” me.
But I was not overwhelmed. I had Peace.
Right before I’d left for Benin to fly out of Washington’s Dulles International, I’d read John Chapter 1.
And here’s what stood out to me:
“Jesus found Phillip. And said to him, ‘Follow me’.” John 1:43
Jesus found Philip. He found him and called him to Himself, and told him, “stay with me.”
And he did. He followed Him everywhere.
God was with me all the way to France. Was with me as I stood dumbfounded when things didn’t go as planned.
And God is with you in your murky place and the place that seems so clear. He is always finding. Always calling. Always leading.
I’m unbelievably grateful.
Nancy
Your Calling For Today
Are you somewhere feeling lost? Feeling disrupted or alone? God is with you. He’s already found you and calls you to Himself.