The Week Before…

The week before a trip is notoriously a challenging week. A team member called to remind me to pray, spend time in the word, and cling to truth during this week. I felt like I was doing pretty good. Then today hit. Shew… Today hit hard. Nothing earth shattering happened, nothing that should have been devastating, nothing that should have affected me. But you know when you can just tell your mood is not pleasant and people should just stay away, far away. That was today.

Nothing went quite right.

I got frustrated quickly.

I was close to tears for no reason.

I was discouraged.

I was feeling unprepared (yet I’m probably the most prepared for a trip, I’ve ever been).

Maybe it was PMS… but I know it was a little enemy who would love for me to be knocked off my course and not take these pastors to Bolivia to see the incredible work the church is doing to raise up healthy, happy, and whole families!

So today I clung to this verse: Romans 4:18 “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told.” That little phrase in there. Hope against hope. It’s a perplexing one, but it’s so often how I feel.

So when you feel brought down — hope against hope

When you feel at your end — hope against hope

When you look around and can’t see a way — hope against hope

When you don’t have the answers — hope against hope

When lies are louder than the truth — hope against hope

• Hope against hope

A Beautiful Tapestry

“It will be very interesting one day to follow the pattern of our life as it is spread out like a beautiful tapestry. As long as we live here we see only the reverse side of the weaving, and very often the pattern, with its threads running wildly, doesn’t seem to make sense. Some day, however, we shall understand. In looking back over the years we can discover how a red thread goes through the pattern of our life: the Will of God.” || Maria Von Trapp.

The twists and turns of life are hard to explain sometimes, are hard to live wholeheartedly, but it’s with each new thread, each new dip of the needle that God is creating a masterpiece that he calls good. This is surrender. This is trust. This is faith.