Preparation is good. The only problem with preparation is, you can only prepare for what you expect to happen. When the unexpected occurs all of your preparation gets thrown out of the window. Well, maybe not all of it - but when what you prepared for doesn't happen then your ability to improvise is vital to success. At that point, I was ready to come back to the good ol' USA. Commitment..... Wow, what a term that has been thrown to the wayside so much in life. "Yea sure, I'll be there", "I can do it tomorrow", "I know the contract says that, but....", anything but what I committed to. Marriage commitments - dropped, work commitments - dropped, family commitments - dropped, church commitments - dropped. Dropped! It is like the song, Drop It Likes It's Hot, runs through our minds constantly! We get to a point where we have to sacrifice and commitment gets thrown out the window. All of the sudden the situation is no longer to our convenience and we don't want anything to do with it anymore. Honestly, ALL of us are guilty of that one. But it seems like we see more and more commitments being dropped everyday. We'll call it "Flakey Disorder". The Church is no exception to this widespread epidemic. It's like we all went to Flakefest and never came back. You know, it would have been easy to say we couldn't raise the support so we had to come home. Reality - God you can't provide for our needs.... Or the context changed when we got here. Reality - We are single-minded and not willing to go with God, but instead, telling God to go with us. We could have made excuses, and justifiable ones at that. Reality - I am incapable of completing the task laid before me and unable to overcome the obstacles in front of me. Yea, we could have been kicking back in the air conditioning, sipping a nice cold Mountain Dew, making money at our nice jobs, but we would have been asking God to go with us. We wouldn't be where God wants us. Commitment. Noah was committed to completing a task that seemed impossible and completely unnecessary - called an Ark. Moses was committed to giving up his seat around the royal table in Egypt to go on an impossible journey with the people of Israel. Jesus stuck to His commitment to dying on a cross. John the Baptist committed his life to Honey and Locust and camel hair clothes to Prepare The Way For The Lord! It is not always fun here, actually a lot of times it is tough, but when you shake the hand of a man who has sought Truth his whole life and God used you to help him find It then..... or when a little girl gives you her necklace, and that is about all she has, because you came to her and shared the Kingdom of God with her people, then..... or when the wife of a pastor comes to you and lets you know God used your ministry to work in her life, then..... All the sudden that commitment you made in the beginning was absolutely worth it. And that sacrifice becomes no sacrifice at all. And those supporters and prayer warriors make it possible through their commitment and sacrifice.....
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