12July12
New post, finally!
I’ll be honest, today just proved that I am my father’s son.
When Dad used to work for Kodak, he would drive all over the place to fix microfilm machines. Now, I’m the field service engineer. lol.
Another thing we have in common, though, is that the time spent by ourselves in the car ends up being a great time with God and for hashing out thoughts. Josh also follows in this trait, so it’s always an interesting time to talk with one of us after a road trip.
Today, I was driving for 5 hours. It made for a lot of thinking.
And it came with some hard lessons.
My original plan for this week was to leave Jacmel on Monday to head north. Instead, I stayed in Jacmel, for various reasons. One of them was cause I lost my cell phone, which made arranging all my work for the week nearly impossible.
But, if I’m honest, I think the biggest thing was that I didn’t want to leave Jacmel. I am comfortable there. I am part of the Mangine family. I am part of church on the beach. I don’t want to miss a dance/poker night, or a trip to the beach.
However, I needed to leave today. In fact, I probably needed to leave Jacmel on Monday. If I had, I wouldn’t be looking back in hindsight recognizing a lesson to apply later.
I’m realizing that I can easily get too comfortable, and become content with that, rather than seeking each day to glorify God as much as possible. And really, that is my overall purpose for life.
I wasn’t doing anything wrong being in Jacmel. I was spending time, building relationships that I know are very important. But, I also need to honor the commitments I have made, and to show Christ to all who are around. This week is a chance to show several other organizations and many people that God is a God who provides for their needs, sometimes in weird ways, like a random U.S. ex-pat who can come try to fix an inverter.
In Haiti, as is also pretty much true in the states, people know human nature well enough to take a “I’ll believe it when I see it” type of attitude. Many things are promised, few are delivered. Therefore, to bring God glory, I must deliver when I say I am coming to help.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to leave Jacmel this morning. That’s why I left around 9:30am instead of the 7am that I had planned. It cost me a couple hours of work today.
I can’t get that back, but I can remember the motivation He has put into my life and my work.
Each day, I must rise asking the question, “How can I bring Him the most glory?”
I’m not saying I have to be a workaholic. In fact, there will be days when He will get the most glory out of a “Sabbath”. Imagine that. But even on those days, I must be intentional in my actions, to take a day of rest out of desire for Him, and not out of my own laziness, which has quite the habit of creeping in when I get comfortable.
So, for today, I ask for you to pray for me, that each day my strength and desire will be renewed to bring God as much glory as possible. And I hope you will pray the same for yourselves.
The warning, again, is that this prayer, if said in earnest, could cost you comfort. Because sometimes, like today, I would have been more comfortable to stay with my “family” in Jacmel and work on a few little projects down there, but that is not what He desires of me right now.
So, step up, pray with me, and be ready to accept whatever challenge He will throw at you. The other realization is that for Him to get the most glory, He’s gonna put you in a position where He is needed to complete a job, and you are insufficient to do it yourself. Otherwise, you can take all the glory.
So, look for his guidance, and look for his assistance. He’ll be with you.
🙂
Please pray for:
-me?
-Pertti and Heidi Soderlund, and the leadership of their organization in Uganda as they are having their annual meetings
-Josh, as he’s applying a lot of lessons God has been teaching him.
-Chris and Maria, as they are now engaged. 🙂
-Brian and Kayla, as they are too. 🙂
-Megan, as she is facing a big transistion of moving home to the U.S. from Haiti
-CCHI and Children’s Hope, as they are dealing with land issues
