“For God is at work within you…” December 10, 2010

I decided to start class with a devotion last Friday; so I wrote my very first devotion. I'm not sure if there's a method to writing a devotion....without an Internet connection, I couldn't Google to find out. Here's what I came up with:

Just less than two years ago, my Book Club read the book “Half of a Yellow Sun”, about Biafra in the 1970s, and my friend Deborah loaned me an audiobook,”A Long Way Gone” about child soldiers in Sierra Leone. And then a third Africa related event occurred, and I had the sudden thought that I would someday go to Africa and teach. This was surprising to me, as I had never planned or even though about going to Africa. I had long suspected that I would someday teach again, and had captured that thought in an image on a special PowerPoint slide I call my visionary diagram. This diagram is very special to me, as it has captured certain images and visions and words which I have felt were God-given. Since about 2008, I have made ongoing changes to it, and so, prompted by the recent unexpected appearance of an African theme, I added a small picture of Africa to my PowerPoint. I gave no further thought to it. I imagined that in the far distant future, I would have some connection to teaching in Africa, possibly after I retired from work.

I also, around that time, turned down an invitation to join a mission team from our church, which was going to Belize. “I am absolutely not interested in doing any kind of mission work.” I assured one of my friends, Myrna, “It’s just not something I could ever see myself doing. But thanks for thinking of me.”

Mission work wasn’t in my life plan, as far as I could see. I certainly didn’t connect teaching in Africa with any kind of Christian activity.

“For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants.” Philippians 2:13

Consequently, it came as a shock to me last May, when I found myself applying to become an IT Trainer in Malawi, through the Christian Reformed World Relief Mission organization. Malawi, which I thought was somewhere relatively close by, in South America, was actually in Africa.

I read once, if you want to hear God laugh, come up with a plan. I understand, as I look back over my life, that even before I was an active Christian, God’s plan was unfolding.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, thank you that it is your plan for our lives, and your purpose that give meaning to our lives, and not our own. Your plans for us are so much more purposeful than anything we could conceive of ourselves. Help us to be patient and to listen to your promptings, especially during those times when our own plans seem to fail, and our own dreams seem to be lost. And help us to accept your plan for our lives, even when it does not seem to answer the needs of our minds, but instead to trust that it answers the needs of our hearts. Amen

December 10 is also my dad's birthday - as I have been experiencing Africa, I have often reflected on how nice it would have been if both my mother and father had been alive to hear about my travels. Both of them did a fair bit of travel in their younger days. Dad especially liked to talk about his experiences overseas - I'm not sure if he ended up in Africa or not. He was born in 1931, so I think he would have been 79 on Friday.