Higher Wisdom

THIS WEEK was the last week of my first year of college. I have enjoyed typing to you about what God has done week by week through it, and I'm excited for what's going to happen next. Looking back on the way God has mapped everything out and kept it all together shows me something about His wisdom. It's beautiful the way He showed up every day, not so that everything would happen my way but so that I could see how much better His way is. In this midst of difficulties, big or small, we can see the way God orchestrates things. This week, I got stung in the foot by some sort of insect. I hadn't had the chance to just sit and be alone with God that day. That thing hurt like heck and made me cry, but in that moment there were two friends close by who came to help me. God blessed me with help from my sisters in Christ right then, and with some encouragement right after. I sat by a wall for over an hour waiting for it to stop hurting so much, but it was a good moment to study 2 Timothy 1. That day wasn't my favorite day ever, but at least I got to hear God talk to me out of a bad mood and a hurting foot. 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." It's not the biggest problem, but God made it so that I wouldn't have to be alone in it. It assures me that His will is not for us to be discouraged and immobilized, but to get encouragement from Him and from each other in Him. My family has also been blessed in the precise way my mom's parents have both gotten sick this year. Because Grandma needed Grandpa to be strong for her every day that she was going through her cancer treatments, and the same week that she was better the doctors found Grandpa's kidney problems just in time. His first surgery was this week, and it went really well. God is wise. For a person to be wise is for him to understand that God alone is truly wise, and for him to humble himself before Him. A wise person doesn't trust in himself, and that much takes strong faith that God is going to honor. God understands that that's hard for us. We won't always know the answer or even know His will, but if we trust that He is good and strong and wise, regardless of our circumstances, our strength will come from Him and not from ourselves. Proverbs 3:5-8 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones." This morning my pastor referred to Abraham and said that real faith comes from trusting and obeying God, even when we don't understand what He is doing. Even when we don't have all the details. The trust that He is wise, and that He has a way in store to turn the same thing that baffles us into the thing that shows us His glory. Like when Jesus told Peter to fish in the other side of the boat, after he had been fishing in vain for hours: it didn't make any sense, but when he obeyed his nets came close to breaking. Our expectations and preferences aren't necessarily wrong, but it takes faith to act on the knowledge that God's wisdom is higher than our own. My room mate Sarah is about to plunge into the depths of Panama to help establish a sustainable community there. The way God has made the opportunity possible for her despite all odds shows her His hand in it, and she is excited to become a part of it and to get her world shaken by an encounter with true need. Why Panama? Why for two and a half months? What does He have to teach her from having to live without all the comforts of home? It's a hard committment to make, and it's much easier to try to change a smaller, closer piece of the world at home. It wouldn't be bad to volunteer downtown all summer, but God is telling her to go to Panama and she is going. We will pray for her and be thankful for what she is doing every day that she is gone. Her nets are going to be close to breaking. God's wisdom is higher than ours, and I think He delights in showing us both His patience and His trustworthiness. We don't always trust, but He will always show us that we can trust Him. He likes to let us know that He knows best, and that we don't have to understand everything because He already does. That's a relief for me, for sure. His power and His dreams are bigger than we know, so let's trust Him with how He wants to make it all happen.