Dear one,
Without question, my expectations were clear: I would mow the lawn; I would prepare two sermons for Uganda; I would vacuum; I would greet Mary and Reid at the airport; I would send several emails; and then Mary and I would have an evening of quiet
Of course, as you might now rightly perceive, I gave too much credence to my ability to accomplish what I expected:
Typically delighting in yard work, yesterday’s effort took twice as long as I had allotted, and by then I knew that Mary and Reid’s flight had been delayed. I did move forward with the sermons, the one requiring more than I had anticipated, even as I learned that Mary’s return flight had been re-routed and delayed … and delayed further. The quiet evening I had imagined became my driving to the airport, where, as I waited, I composed and sent several emails. By 11pm, after a flurry of texts, we knew: Mary and Reid would spend the night in Flushing, New York.
Africans have the expression: “Man plans and God laughs”,[1]which indicates much about African life—but clearly not unrelated to American life, where we routinely expect on-time departures and arrivals; and yet, life occurs, sometimes counter and often in between our expectations. We expect and life occursFor some years I have pondered and felt the grave concern of John the Baptist: as he sat in prison, a trophy in Herod’s collection, he knew that his death was imminent. This he expected, but what he did not expect were the reports he heard: as Messiah, Jesus was not fulfilling John’s expectations. Some asserted that He was demonically possessed; others smirked, labeling Him “[a] glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19). Fearing that he had been wrong, John sent a message to Jesus: “Are you the Coming One or might we expect another?” (Matthew 11:3). John had to know: Was he wrong? And yet, to his great credit, his expectation that God would send Someone had not dimmed. In John’s question, I think, we gain insight into the nature of faith: believing that God will fulfill His promise, although our expectations remain unfulfilled or even shattered.
A week today I expect to be heading to the airport: for the next 48 hours in transit to Lira, Uganda, in order to encourage 50-60 pastors. This I expect.
Please pray with me,
Stan
[1]In my experience, Africans typically laugh with God.