Please continue to pray for Sally as she is continuing to battle weakness and infection after her recent cancer surgery. She wrote these thoughts a few months ago.

 “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Adventures

In a “season”—or journey—like I’m walking through, there is lots of time to think. I have thought back through all the years of our lives—from meeting at a YWAM Easter outreach in Las Vegas, to being married when we were SO young, to having our first home in Afghanistan, to living on a houseboat in Amsterdam with a toddler and a puppy while expecting baby number two, to raising our children in the red light district in Amsterdam, to training leaders in the Colorado mountains while caring for our daughter who was sick for a number of years, to pastoring a church in the middle of America, to starting over and pioneering in a new country when we were just about to hit the age that everyone retires. There have been very few “dull” moments!

We were speaking in a church in Canada one time that was pastored by some friends. As Floyd was introducing me, he made the statement that “I’m not very adventurous.” The pastor and his wife burst out laughing! The list above speaks for itself I think. And that doesn’t include some “adventures” I had before we married!

I heard the statement recently: “Usually is the enemy of adventure.” My first thought was that Floyd and I haven’t followed the “usually” in life—and we have certainly had lots of adventures! Sometimes it has scared me to death, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Growing up in Galveston, Texas, I knew God had a plan for my life. I knew that it was going to be “different” (not what everyone usually did), but I had no idea of how it would unfold into the life I’ve had.

It’s made me realize how grateful I am that God is in control! We’d make a mess of things otherwise. But when He’s in control, He has so many wonderful things in store for us. Even what we’re walking through now isn’t “usual”—battling cancer over and over while my husband is lying in a hospital bed unable to speak or move—well, even this has been an “adventure.” Not one I would want necessarily, but certainly one where I’ve seen God’s goodness and faithfulness. I would hate to have missed all the beautiful lessons He’s brought into my life during this time!

As I look back over our life together while I’ve had this time to think, I can see how God has grown us, prepared us, strengthened us, and gotten us ready to face perhaps the biggest adventure of our lives. It fills my heart with gratitude to Him for how He’s had His hand on us all these years. And it makes me love Him for His care. I wouldn’t want to have missed out on any of the adventures He’s had for us. We can relax when we’re in His sovereign hands.

I guess what I’m also saying is that it’s important to “embrace” the adventures that come—both the good ones and the hard ones. We may not like them, but if we’ll embrace them and trust the Lord in them, there will be good in the hardest situations. No, I’m not saying that God brings the hard things. We live in a fallen world and hard things will happen to all of us. But we have the opportunity to trust God in the hard things, and allow Him to bring good through them.

There is much I could say about embracing what comes our way. There is a sweet adventure in walking with Him through everything that comes our way!

Lord, help us embrace what You allow in our lives.