Bible Verse

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? And who has ever given to God, that he should be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:33-36 (CSB)

Friday, August 14, 2020

Lockdown

Christy here.  It seems to me that the Lord wants me to write something.  I have felt His leading in this direction for some time now, but I honestly do not enjoy writing for the purpose of sharing on a somewhat "public" platform.  To me, it seems synonymous with standing on a stage and speaking into a microphone!  It is so much more comfortable to only share my thoughts in more personal settings.  But... I earnestly desire to be obedient to my King, and if He has plans to use me as His instrument in some way, I do not want to miss out.  I have no idea the direction this will go, but I am just going to share my heart and see what the Lord does!  This post will be of a personal nature... if you would like to know more about our ministry here and how we've been serving during the Covid-19 crisis, you can find up-to-date info at our website www.guate22.org or on our ministry facebook page https://www.facebook.com/guate22.  

So... this is quite an unexpected season.  Honestly, at the beginning of this, despite the presence of a nervous-knot-in-my-stomach kind of fear,  I was really ok with the lockdown.  I mean, Joseph can tell you that I am most definitely a hobbit (with the exception of the hairy feet - for some reason I feel compelled to clarify that 😂).  I am perfectly content with staying home, normal routines, and the lack of adventures..."nasty disturbing uncomfortable things... make you late for dinner!"  So staying home pleased my comfort-zone-seeking-self on a lot of levels.  However, as the reality of the long-haul we were in for started sinking in, so did the temptation to succumb to fear.  The unknown future of exactly how this virus may impact our family is scary!  I have had to wrestle with my fear and decide - do I believe God is strong enough to protect us or not?  And if He allows us to get sick, do I truly believe in His absolute goodness and promise to work all things for our good and His glory?  I absolutely do believe those things, but I am daily laying down my fears and asking God to help me KNOW what I know.  There are definitely emotional ups and downs, but He has been so faithful with me to help me trust Him more. His peace is truly guarding my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Due to the Guatemalan border closure, we had to indefinitely postpone our trip to the States that was scheduled for May.  We have lived here for the last 3 years, depending on our visits to the States every six months for refreshment from visiting family and friends.  Also, I restock on many things that are either unavailable or too expensive to buy in Guatemala.  The first thing we ran out of was zyrtec.  We have all struggled with seasonal allergies so much in the past, that 4 out of 5 of us have taken zyrtec daily for years.  I was sure that we would all be miserable as soon as our zyrtec ran out.  And it happened.  We were miserable.  Itching from head to toe.  I was asking the Lord to give us all a strength we hadn't known to endure this for who knows how many months!  However, after a couple of weeks, the symptoms stopped!  Never heard of zyrtec withdrawal before but apparently it's a thing!  I am so thankful to report that our allergies are only a minor issue on occasion but nothing like I thought they would be.  I truly believe the Lord is protecting us in this way.  Also, even when we were all miserable, I was amazed at the way He sustained our attitudes to endure it.  We have two teenage daughters (need I say more 😂) and being miserable has a way of causing emotions to take over (only for them, not for Joseph and me of course😉), but during the awful withdrawal phase, the Lord sustained them with incredible attitudes.  It was such a blessing to all joyfully decide together that we weren't going to endure this season whining and complaining.  And then we were super relieved when it passed.  This experience has reminded me that I really can trust God with EVERYTHING.  Apparently in my heart, I was still leaning a bit on my ability to keep us stocked in all the right meds.  But God is perfectly capable of sustaining our bodies with or without those things.  I am so thankful to know that I am leaning on Him a little more now than before.  He can bear the weight.  He is strong enough to be everything we need Him to be.  And we miss out on the joy of knowing how perfectly we are loved and cared for when we lean on anything other than Him!  

I think I'll leave it at that for today.  I intend to write more often as a way of sharing the things God is teaching me.  And He is always teaching me!  I hope He will use me to bring encouragement to someone who reads this.  Or maybe writing these things out is just for my own encouragement!  Either way is fine with me.  


7 comments:

  1. Great post and so true! I will be praying God keeps meeting your needs everyday. Keep posting. We need your voice in the microphone. Christy G

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    1. Thank you Christy! I so appreciate your words of encouragement!

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  2. Just spoke to Joe this morning. Lifting you all up to Him

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  3. Thanks for sharing how you are seeing Him provide. Will continue to pray for His hand over all. Thank you for sharing!

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  4. Christy, Our Lord knows all ours straggles and we have to keep praying and having faith that all things happen for good. I´ll send you a big hug.

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