A Prolix Post

I can't believe that I am going to be on the plane heading towards Sri Lanka in less than a week -- only 4 days left! Although I am very excited, I am pretty aware that I am totally unaware of what this journey will truly bring into my life. While I am sure that there will be great times of learning, excitement, fun, and joy, I am also sure that there will be the sharing of heartache, discouragement, and confusion. Fortunately, this reminds me of a truth that I saw played out during my last weeks of school over and over and over, and dare I say, over again, that through my weakness God's power is made perfect. This is incredibly reassuring and encouraging to me. It causes me to stop worrying about my gifts, my abilities, my power, and realize that life centers around the Almighty - His power, His glory, His attributes. With this in mind, it has caused me to want to live with a desire to view the future with expectation not trepidation (which is MUCH easier said than done).

So, with that said, I can say that I cannot wait to see what He is going to do through me and the beautiful team of women joining me. In some ways, this reminds me of an excerpt from a book I just read about what happens when one sees true greatness next to their own personal ambition. Reading it reminded me of what happens when I see my own motives next to the beautiful, grand, and awe-inspiring plan of God - God has crafted great things that I am totally unaware of and that will be accomplished all to His glory. I know there are amazing things that God is already doing in Sri Lanka that I am totally unaware of, that are on a greater scale than anything I could imagine, and I am thinking that when I am confronted with something as great as God's craftsmanship, the appropriate response is only to be amazed at God and serve. Maybe I am going off on a tangent, but it's a beautiful excerpt, I think, anyway, so enjoy!

". . . they felt the apprehension and doubt of those who have come unawares upon some awe-inspiring place where they themselves are paltry fellows of no account.  When Marco Polo came at last to Cathay, seven hundred years ago, did he not feel - and did his heart not falter as he realized - that this great and splendid capital of an empire had had its being all the years of his life and far longer, and that he had been ignorant of it?  That it was in need of nothing from him, from Venice, from Europe?  That it was full of wonders beyond his understanding?  That his arrival was a matter of no importance whatever?  We know that he felt these things, and so has many a traveler in foreign parts who did not know what he was going to find.  There is nothing that cuts you down to size like coming to some strange and marvelous place were no one even stops to notice that you stare about you."  -- Watership Down, Richard Adams