It Looks Like it May Clear Up

It’s a little overcast today. Kind of dreary, grey sky, looks a little cool. It’s one of those kinds of days that it’s maybe a good day to just stay in and relax in sweats with an extra cup of coffee. But as I sit looking out the kitchen window, I can pretty much see that it’s just fog. It’s grey, but there’s a little orangy light filtering through. It looks like it may clear up.

It reminds me of an old Peanuts cartoon. Charlie Brown is standing on his pitcher’s mound in the pouring rain, talking to Linus. He’s trying to convince Linus that the weather is going to clear. Linus begins ranting, telling Charlie Brown that – in effect – he’s a moron. The sky is dark, it’s raining even harder than it was just a few minutes ago, and it’s cold. Only a blockhead would stand in the pouring rain waiting for a baseball game that’s never going to start. He turns toward the pitcher’s mound waiting for a response, but Charlie Brown is gone. He gave up waiting and went home. The last frame shows Linus looking upward and saying that Charlie Brown should have stayed; it looks like it may clear up.

We’ve spent about a year and a half standing on our pitcher’s mound. We’ve had people telling us that only a blockhead would try to raise financial support in this economy, only a blockhead would pull up stakes and go overseas now. (Okay, nobody has called us “blockheads”, but they have questioned our sanity. We’ve questioned our sanity.) And all along, we’ve been trying to convince people – trying to convince ourselves – that it’s going to clear up.

At one point in his ministry, Jesus is talking about weather. He’s telling the religious leaders that somehow they can look at the sky and determine what the weather will do, but they can’t look at the history of God’s blessings and see what God will do.

In 25 days, we are scheduled to fly out of Seattle on our way to a little more than a week in Thailand, spending time getting to know the team we hope to join. We’re anticipating coming back with stories of people we’ve met; stories of hope, stories of need, concrete things that we can share with people who have invested – and others who might invest – in our ministry calling. It’s exciting to see a break in our weather.

It’s funny. As I’ve been sitting here writing, I’ve watched the sky get brighter, then darker, then brighter again. It’s still overcast, and every so often I wonder if it is really going to burn off. But then it brightens again and I think it might. But the fog is not going to keep us from going outside. It may stay overcast all day, it might clear up, it might move back and forth between the two. That’s how it’s been with our preparations for overseas ministry. Patches of clearing, patches of fog, driving rain, bright sun, and everything in between. But so far, we haven’t left our pitcher’s mound. We’re not planning to either. After all, it looks like it may finally clear up.

Counting the Days

Forty-three days from today we will be leaving for Thailand. God willing. A year and a half we’ve been trying to put this trip together. Even though we’ve purchased the airline tickets and reserved the hotel for the first night in Bangkok it doesn’t feel real yet. We still look at the calendar and wonder if it’s really true.

We really need to knuckle down and work on our Thai language lessons.

We still have friends and family asking us if this is a wise time to be doing this. We’re reminded frequently of the economy and the fact that people don’t have a lot of money to support this kind of thing. Our only response is to ask if that means this might be a bad time to trust God.

A couple of weeks ago, the pastor talked about how easy it is to let our circumstances dictate our faith. We look at what’s going on around us and think we might need to play it safe. What he was saying was that we should look not so much at what’s in front of us, but rather look closely at what’s behind us. We need to remember what God has done for us and believe that God is going to do the same thing now.

I can look back over several of these blogs and see the journey that God has brought us on. Every time we have begun to doubt or wonder or worry, God has brought us some new blessing. Even getting us to start thinking about this course of action was the hand of God at work. And even though this is the third time we’ve tried to take our Survey Trip, and even though it hasn’t happened just yet; we’re believing for this to happen. Because throughout this journey, God hasn’t given us a reason to doubt.

We were in Seattle a few weekends ago and we spoke at a church. A small congregation that is struggling to pay their own bills. But the pastor was insistent that we come and talk anyway. He told us that he was going to ask for a special offering in spite of their financial situation. Not because he wanted to put the church into dire financial straits, but because he believed in God’s promise that if we give, we will receive. If we bless, we will be blessed.

We were blessed. And it was a wonderful showing of God’s faithfulness to this group of folks and to our family as well. It was a wonderful confirmation that indeed, this is what we’re supposed to be doing. This is truly where God is leading us.

It’s going to happen, exactly when God wants it to happen. Nothing can keep us from believing.