Creature of Habit Vs. Man of Destiny

There are so many times in my life when I can see how strong habit is.  It’s so easy to fall into familiar patterns rather than test the limits of our faith but what is faith if it’s not challenged?  A while back the prospect of going to Ghana with my whole family seemed absolutely impossible.  Even standing with my youngest near our luggage couldn’t bring the reality home to me at first.  The mounds of luggage grew as we met with our team at the airport…now Gabby is truly dwarfed by the mountains of things we needed for the trip…note the coffee…no day is complete without some coffee!  This was the first trip we started like this that wasn’t some ungodly hour of the morning.  I never would have guessed that later there would be people in Ghana that we would meet that we couldn’t imagine being without.  This is me and Hans…we intend to bring him with us on our next trip to Asia.  If we wouldn’t have stretched our faith we never would have met Hans.  Faith is like truth:  before it makes you free it makes you miserable.  Here in Montana it’s hard to imagine the fan palms of Africa.  It all takes not just faith but a leap of faith.  It took a leap of faith to wash clothes without a washing machine too let me tell ya!  I told them they should try trampling out the grapes of wrath!  Faith is like a plant that needs to be nourished with action to thrive.  Sometimes the crop that comes up from our faith can look like and alien life form far from what we were originally believing for…much like these palm nutsbut trusting God through the unexpected is what leads to reaping great benefit.  Unless you’ve experienced coconuts you can’t imagine the skill of people who can open them for you to enjoy.  Sometimes a great vision requires someone to take it and open it for others so they might partake of it.  Taste and see that the Lord is good!  Now we’ve gone from chasing lizards in the tropicsto staying in to avoid the snow and cold but still I remember all that God has done…we really were in Ghanaand now we need to push forward into the next vision that God has for us.  This is the power of faith that causes miracles to bloom!  I believe in going from gloryto glory!  For now we leave the streets of Ghanabut I know we’ll look on them again.  I expect that the next time we look down from my brother’s churchit will be finished and we’ll be ever closer to completing what God has for us to do.  For now we cling to the visionbelieving that something better is just around the corner!