If the Lord Wills

I don't have much time tonight as I'm preparing to leave for Uganda tomorrow (technically today) as well as thinking about dorm chapel in the morning.  But I wanted to post one last time before the two-week pause.

As I leave, I am reminded of James 4:13-15:  "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'  Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.  You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'"

I plan to be back in twelve days.  But I might not be.  I plan to write another post and study for more seminary classes and help guys in the dorm and see my beloved Cindi again.  But I might not.  And this is not just because I'll be on three flights for twenty hours from Los Angeles to London to Nairobi to Uganda, or because I'll be in a far more disease-ridden place than I'm used to, or because I'll meet people with AIDS.

It's because I am a vapor.

This makes each day so precious, each breath so valuable, each decision so serious.  Life was not given to us as a game to be played but as a mission to be accomplished.  That mission is to glorify God in the world and to advance His kingdom at all personal cost, with the weapons of love and truth.  And we may not have tomorrow to do it.

Live today.  I may get to do it in Africa for the next twelve days, but think about what you get to do.  Touch a life.  Speak the truth.  Study hard.  Think about the cross.  Visit a widow.  Pray for people.  Dream of causes bigger than yourself and then live Christ in the details and the mundane.  You have two options every day when you wake up.  You can do whatever your hand finds to do with all your might or you can coast.  Remembering that your life is like dew on the grass on a summer morning will help you to choose the former.  And forgetting it will always lead to the latter.

You may not have tomorrow, and that means something for today.

It is entirely possible that when the wheels of my plane lift off the runway at Los Angeles Intenational Airport at 5:15pm on Friday, January 27, I will have touched the ground of my homeland for the final time.  I do not mean to be morbid - I don't expect to die.  But I only expect to live if the Lord wills.

There is no day like today, whether you're departing soon for a place that you have always dreamed of visiting or you're putting one foot in front of the other in the grind of daily faithfulness.  You do not have yesterday and you do not have tomorrow.  You only have today.  Live today.  And by the grace of God, I'll be living with you.

I'll see you when I get back – if the Lord wills.

Taste and See

Tomorrow I'm getting all my immunization shots and pills for my trip to Uganda.  I didn't know there were so many serious diseases that were so easy to get in Africa.  I guess I've wanted to go for so long and have thought so much about the needs and opportunities there that I never thought in detail about the manifold health hazards.  It's striking to realize that I'm getting around ten shots and seventeen pills to spend nine days in a country where millions of people live.

I just finished filling out a patient questionnaire that I'm supposed to bring to my appointment tomorrow.  On page two, it has two large columns of questions with "Please check yes or no" at the top of both.  There are approximately one hundred health issues in these two columns.  I answered "yes" to two of them.  I'm allergic to one uncommon medicine and I once had a bad headache when hiking at an altitude above 6,000 feet.

I am so blessed.

I don't believe in a health-and-wealth gospel, but I do believe in Christian gratitude for thousands of earthly blessings.  The shield that God has been to me throughout life in terms of my health is amazing.  As in, I am amazed.  You can't circle "no" on a medical form as many times as I did without pausing and considering the greatness of God's mercy.  And it has been mercy.  I have done enough to deserve ten thousand diseases, but I have received ten thousand days of life.  This is not reasonable, friends.  This is not a fair deal.  God is not fair.  God is merciful.  I know what fair is, and it's not what I've received.  There is an unfairness in God that is wonderful.

There are days when we remember our blessings, and there are days when we forget.  Sadly, when weighed in the scales, the latter prove to be far heavier.  Sinners have short-term memories of grace, and I am a sinner.

You may not have experienced health like I have; I am certain that most of the Ugandans that I will meet next week haven't.  You may not feel blessed on any given day, whether that be because you had to go to bed late and get up early, are frustrated with your job, are watching a loved one die, have been forgotten by friends, are battling seemingly undefeatable sin in your life, or simply feel overwhelmed by a chaotic week.

But whether you woke up today with a happy sense of the goodness of God or not, it may do you well to take your soul by its shoulders, look it in the eye, and say:

     Bless the Lord, O my soul,
     And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
     Bless the Lord, O my soul,
     And forget none of His benefits;
     Who pardons all your iniquities,
     Who heals all your diseases;
     Who redeems your life from the pit,
     Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
     Who satisfies your years with good things,
     So that your youth is renewed like the eagle (Psalm 103:1-5).

The Lord is good, always.  Remembering that — really remembering it — makes for happy and fruitful Christians.

So look at the roses.  Watch the clouds as you walk down the sidewalk instead of watching your feet.  Or watch your feet and marvel that you can walk.  Put your hand over your heart and feel it beating.  Have a good laugh.  Look at your syllabus and consider what you get to learn instead of what you have to do.  Open a book, scan your eyes across the words on the page, and marvel at the gift of language and literacy.  And next time it rains, walk outside, look at the grass and the trees and the neighborhood, and be astonished that God makes the rain fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).

Every day we go through a buffet line of the Lord's goodness.  Sometimes in our rush to enjoy everything before us, we gorge ourselves without noticing how good it is and how good He is.  So stop and survey the feast in front of you today before you dig in and enjoy.  Notice the colors and the variety and the presentation and the aroma.  Then taste and see that the Lord is good.

Fundraiser for Missions & Adoption

Speaking of Uganda, Cindi (my wife) has organized a great fundraiser to support a TMC summer missions team headed to Uganda this summer as well as our African adoption (which we are planning to be from Uganda).  Every penny earned will support the cause of Christ in Africa, either short-term or long-term (and in the end, it's all long-term, isn't it?).

She's selling a Salt Sea Scrub for $30.  It's an exfoliant, which means that it removes dead skin cells and dirt from your skin and makes it really soft (that definition is for you guys who, like me, don't immediately know what an "exfoliant" is). 

You can buy for yourself, your wife, your fiance, your girlfriend, your current interest, your mom, your dad, your relatives, your grandparents, and any hairless mammals you might own.  Even some rough-and-tumble guys I know have tried it and liked it.  From what I know, the stuff is great.  I haven't actually used it, but Cindi has, and she doesn't sell things that she doesn't wholeheartedly believe in.

So, for the sake of Africa, email Cindi (cindi8d@hotmail.com) if you're interested.

Africa: Finally!

For a long time, I have longed to visit Africa.  I love Africa, as much as one can love a place he's never been and a people he's never seen.  It's like the love I had for Israel before I went this past summer (a love which only increased and was proven to be a sensible and well-placed love).

Great news:  The Lord has richly blessed me with a surprising opportunity to go to Uganda!  I'll be part of a team teaching at a church leaders' conference (I preach three times).  I'll be in Uganda from January 29 through February 7.  The conference runs from January 30 to February 3.  I also plan to visit orphanages (including the one that Cindi and I are trying to adopt from) and see as much of Africa as I possibly can.  We're also interested in missions work in Africa, so I trust that the Lord will reveal needs and opportunities in that sphere, too.

I say all of this to ask for prayer, especially for the next three weeks with all the sermon preparation, the start of seminary classes, the beginning of the spring semester ministry in the dorm, the exciting new adoption process, and the Uganda trip.  I may be more absent than usual from the blog, although I'm going to try not to be — as long as I have something edifying to say.

To all who pray, thank you in advance.  I can promise that your prayers will be answered because my promise is only an echo of one whose love and faithfulness and answering ability is infinitely greater than my own.

May the Lord's grace and favor shine on Africa.