Expect a Delightful Surprise

Good Friday morning! When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to allow Simon the Pomeranian on your lap, not to worry. Simon is not much more than a small poof of black fuzz with a couple of ears tossed in for good measure. Walking around in this big world trying to serve our Lord, we may not feel like much more than a footnote in human history, if that. How do I affect the trends of the world with my little voice. Especially given that my two cats don't often listen to me, much less the entire world. Praise the Lord, it may not be my job to shove the world an inch out of its orbit. In fact, I'm sure that God would prefer that I follow His plan, and walk in His footsteps, as He leads me along the narrow way that He has laid out for me in this life. Do I always see the footsteps ahead? No, that is where faith comes in.

I can make a good guess about what I may do tomorrow, but the smallest thing can change those plans utterly. One day I came home from a long trip for a certain employer, and I looked forward to a bit of a rest. Alas, the water heater in the apartment had rusted through the bottom and mold up to an inch high could be seen on the carpet and walls. My apartment reminded me a lot of a swamp I had come to know back in my Marine days. My plans and guesses about the weekend suddenly changed. We don't know what may or may not happen tomorrow. As Paul says, we see as in a poor mirror. Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (NKJV) If you must see for yourself like Thomas, you are not waiting on the Lord in faith. Thus, we cannot see or feel the substance of those things we hope for in Christ. Sound difficult? Yeah, it does to me too. When God says that He will provide for me and I look around and see no evidence or substance of this in the future, I get kind of scared.

Of course, I just went over the bit about how we cannot see tomorrow, and how things can change suddenly, and what faith is... and why do I think that God is going to provide evidence and substance that I can see anyway? If God handed us the master plan for life at birth, would we need faith to walk those steps? Hardly! Instead, we thank God for today, and we walk this day in faith for we cannot even see what the next hour will bring with absolute certainty. I can make plans for the day, and ask God to lead me in the making of those plans, but He may have a delightful surprise for me too! Yes, I do mean 'delightful'. For what reason do we always seem to think the next surprise in life is going to be dreadful?

Trust in God; live in Christ!
Bucky