Sitting on a Jamaican Beach with Bob Marley

There comes a time in our lives when
all seems to be crumbling beneath our feet. For me, that time was
just recently when I was sitting in my living room with my teammate
Jess wondering how in the world things went from so good to so bad in
such a short amount of time. I don’t know if you have ever
experienced that moment when the only way to keep you from having a
complete mental breakdown is to laugh; but that is the best way that
I can describe my mental state. I felt strong in the hope and peace
that God had been showing me but, when my team expressed their
continued frustration with our ministry and with our living
conditions, I began to look around at the chaos of the reality that
we live in and that hope was temporarily forgotten. To put it
simply, God has stripped away our foundation of all earthly
dependencies and resources; everything from proper medical care to
reliable emergency contacts and it is, in a word, frustrating.
Confused and completely numb to all sense of reality, I felt
defeated; especially since just the day before, I had been so
confident in the work that God was doing and in His providing for us.
And it was only when I turned on my IPOD that I found myself laying
on a Jamaican with Bob Marley hearing: “don’t worry about a
thing, cause every little thing’s gonna be alright”. Listening
to that song, it sounds so silly, but I heard God saying to me “don’t
worry about a thing, cause every little thing’s gonna be alright”.
It brought me verse in Philippians that says “God’s peace, which
is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds
safe in union with Christ Jesus”.

As humans, we tend to think with a one
track mind of expectations. We expect a situation to go a certain
way or we expect God to work in a certain way and when our
expectations are not met, we often shut down and can no longer move
forward. At the end of the day, God is all we truly have but, for me
it comforts me to know that even though He is all I have, He is all I
need. Jesus says “my grace is sufficient for you”, and its true;
I am finding over and over that as the world around me slowly
crumbles, God is ever faithful and continues to protect me and
provide for me.

As we were coming to this revelation of
God’s awesome control, Jess read a passage from C.S. Lewis’ Mere
Christianity that I think is just so cool I have to share it.
It’s kind of long but bear with me because it changed my life and I
know that it can change yours too:

“We must not be surprised if we are
in for a rough time. When a man turns to Christ and seems to be
getting on pretty well he often feels that it would now be natural if
things went fairly smoothly. When trouble comes along-illnesses,
money troubles, new kinds of temptation-He is disappointed. These
things, he feels might have been necessary to rouse him and make him
repent in his bad old days, but why now? Because God is forcing him
on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he
will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving
than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all
unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest
notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us”.

We have no idea what He has in store
for us; but the one thing we do know, is that His mind is not set on
ordinary but it is set on perfection. If we leave ourselves behind
and allow God to be God, I am finding more and more that He will
always pull through for us. Even when it makes no sense whatsoever
what it is that He is up to, I trust Him and I have hope that His
plans are outside of my expectations and that everything will work
itself out in God’s time. So until He reveals to me all
understanding of the universe (which I don’t anticipate happening any
time time soon) the only thing I can do keep singing “Don’t worry
about a thing, cause every little thing’s gonna be alright”.