But life happens along the way, and there are some choices that lead places we never foresee.
Psalms 5:8 "Lead me, O Jehovah, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; Make thy way straight before my face."
I'm not just squeamish about heights, I flat don't do them. So, I'm in Jamaica, and the first few days some of us are tying rebar columns for the building we're working on. Then I get the news that we will next be working on the roof of said building.
I'm thinking to myself, what a revolting development this is. I've done mission work in other countries, but I've never been asked to work on a roof—like climb a ladder and etc.
Yes, it is a flat roof, but it has edges, and then it has a drop. Since, however, I didn't travel all this way to sit and watch, I took it real slow, going up a few rungs at a time. Getting used to that and finally, I got to the top step. Some kind soul helped me make the transition onto the roof.
And we were in business. We were still tying rebar, but it went on the roof. There are several things about building in places that must be hurricane and earthquake proof. Or as close as possible to it. There is a lot of rebar and concrete in one of those structures.
I'm sure I've said this before, but we spent two weeks working there, and one of our co-laborers was a new Christian, by the name of Jerry, with a last name I wouldn't try to spell, who came from somewhere around the east coast.
Just as Jesus' apostles were a conglomeration of unlikely souls, these mission situations pull together a number of improbable cohorts. When you look at a person, you make judgements, and that isn't bad, it just isn't very often accurate.
Yes, you can come up with a close appraisal of different aspects of a person, but there are gaps. This new Christian currently was employed as a salesman of some sort. He wasn't a big bulky guy. On the contrary, he was slight of build, under six foot tall, and somewhat wiry. What you couldn't see was his character and...
"If you'd told me when I was eighteen that I'd ever be working on a roof, in a foreign country, I'd a told you, you were as crazy as a loon," I tell Jerry as he and I are spacing and tying rebar on the roof, preparing for the concrete to be poured the next morning.
He laughs and tells me, "If you'd asked me what I'd be doing at this stage of my life, I would have said I'd be working in some dive on an island somewhere in the Pacific."
Unlikely people in an unlikely spot. Life's journey isn't always the smooth path we think it will be. As my mother used to say, 'Figure long and figure wrong.' We can plan and plan, but God still rules the nations.
Psalms 27:11 "Teach me thy way, O Jehovah; And lead me in a plain path, Because of mine enemies. 12) Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries: For false witnesses are risen up against me, And such as breathe out cruelty. 13) I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah In the land of the living. 14) Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, And let thy heart take courage; Yea, wait thou for Jehovah.
Psalms 43:3 "Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, And to thy tabernacles."
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
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