“I can’t believe how good the Lord is” – the words to a song that my team and I started singing back in Albania. Man how true it is!! I’m currently in Johannesburg, South Africa with my team and 2 months later from when we first started singing that song, here we are singing it all over again.
Every year on my birthday I will write out a little journal entry about the past year and also some prayers/dreams/visions for the next year. On August 5 I wrote about how I felt like my life was at the pinnacle of fullness and couldn’t see how it could get any better (currently laughing a little at my own small perspective). I sat there writing and just reflecting on all that the Lord had done in the past year and how He had literally changed my heart and mind into something I could never even imagine. At the end of that journal entry I asked the Lord to make this “fullness” or this “mountain top” feeling of my life only the beginning. That He would take what I thought was the top and make it the foundation for what my next year of life would look like. And dang! He has done just that!!
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
Exactly 2 months later, on October 5, I sat in a coffee shop in Durres, Albania during our week of debrief. I journaled about how good the Lord is and remembered how I had thought on my birthday that I had reached the top of God’s goodness. But here I was again, journaling and reflecting about the past 2 months and how the Lord had shown up with his goodness in abundance every single day since then. And it’s not because things were easy and full of fluff. Honestly, the past two months have had some really hard moments. Everything in my flesh wanted to label those moments and this season as “bad.” But God! He’s way too good to leave me thinking that and instead would do something through his Spirit to transform my mind and perspective. It caused me to be able to sit in the coffee shop and only see the Lord’s goodness in every single moment over the past 2 months. To be able to truly say “you are good and what you do is good” Psalm 119:68.
But oh how soon I forget! Just days later before leaving Albania, I sat in a room with my friends listening to worship music while one of my friends packed. I started tearing up thinking how this seemed like it was once again the “top” and couldn’t get any better. I didn’t want the season to end because I was scared that the next season in South Africa wouldn’t be as good and I would end up disappointed. But time can’t be stopped like that. Something that I’m learning is the importance of ending a season well so that I am able to enter into the next season fully present. I find the Lord reminding me in really gentle ways that just like He was with me in one season, He will be with me in the next. That He walks with me through each season of life leading and guiding me to the next one He already has prepared for me. It’s just a matter of me trusting Him.
Less than 24 hours later after arriving to South Africa and the Lord, once again!!!!, had more in store for me and my team than we could even imagine! The family that is hosting us while we are in Johannesburg is amazing. I have already learned so much from them and just the way they live their life! The house we are staying in is such a holy space with a “Jesus story” as they would say. The way this family invites the Lord into every aspect of their day and life through prayer and praise is inspiring. The way they steward the blessings that the Lord has given them by blessing my team and I and everyone they encounter is such an example. And not only them but also the people we are doing ministry with- the way Jesus just flows right in and through them makes for some of the sweetest conversations and encounters.
All of this to say, I love it here. This new season has only started and it is so so sweet. I said it back in Albania and how true it is again – I am so glad that the Lord’s faithfulness isn’t based off of my ability to trust that He is faithful in all that He does. But how kind of Him to gently remind me that this is just who He is, faithful and good!! And it’s His faithfulness that can allow me to walk in security and confidence because of his unchanging character of who He is.
“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” Psalm 23:6
Love, MK
