Sent

I maintain a theory that each person on this planet is going to be given precisely the circumstances that God has for them, and that those circumstances will be fitting for that person. Sometimes others indicate that my circumstances sound overwhelming, confirmation, of a sort, of that personal conviction. My circumstances are precisely the appropriate materials for whatever God desires to build in me, and in others, when I am in service to Him regardless of my limited ability to understand the plans.
Having recently heard the suggestion that God did not have a plan for my service right now outside of my own small world at home between the latest health issues and the reintegration of The Boy, there has been time given over to a bit of self-examination. Except that looking outside of myself often is the plan. The blue print for the finished project is incomprehensible to me, and it is only in completion that one may perhaps recognize a particular phase of building. This idea has been successfully applied to others as well, and who better to serve as an example of such a theory than one of my own offspring?

Middle Child had been in a messy place emotionally through her first half of middle school, but rather than wait for her to "get it together", I invited her to journey to Honduras to serve others. Middle Child needed to give this offering in honor of her King in order to heal what was broken within her. This is the sort of result that has led to disagreement with waiting for everything in our personal lives to reach status quo before stepping out.

That kind of waiting is reminscent of those who choose not to set foot into a church or pick up a Bible because they feel themselves too broken. It is too close to the idea that one can be too sinful to receive God's grace. Rather than drowning in her own discontent, Katie found a source of holy discontent and kindled a desire for serving those in need. The architect who designed all of Creation is in charge, and she and I are simply masons placing one stone on top of another. He will direct the project, and we will keep laying down the materials He gives us to form the design He has set.