Delight yourself in the Lord

I never imagined myself loving a place so passionately. I can remember my nana coming to my Kindergarten class and talking about Uganda; but as a 5 year old, I was more excited to be able to tell all my friends about how my nana had been there and seen all those animals that we had read about, and show them all the things she brought home with her. Then in 6^th grade I did a presentation about Uganda for my Social Studies class. My teacher picked it to be in the schools Cultural Fair, so I asked my nana to help me set up a little booth about it. It was a big hit, and somewhere along the way I wondered if I would ever go to Africa to see these things for myself. I had this image in my head of what Uganda was like, and then when I went there for the first time, it was so different. That was during my 8^th grade year. Now, I’m going into my junior year, and I see things there so differently now from how I did then. As soon as the captain announces that we’ve begun our decent into Entebbe, something inside of my heart jumps. I look out my window and see the sun shining, beautiful trees and grass, Lake Victoria and the Nile River; it’s captivating. However, I see more than that. I see a land of adventure, where each new experience is one where I learn something new. I see a mass of people with welcoming hearts that are so full of love and hope, while they may be searching for those things themselves. I see a place that stole a piece of my heart from the first glance; a piece that will forever remain in Uganda. I spend so many days just thinking about that beautiful country. I wonder if the students are well, I pray for God’s hand to guide and build the school… some days I even plead with God to make the days go by faster so I can return to this wondrous land sooner. I know I must sound obsessive, but I’m really not. I don’t consider it to be obsessive, for this one simple reason- God has called me to Uganda. It’s not something I question anymore, and it’s not something I’m confused about. It’s not even something that I can explain easily. I guess that’s how I know it’s real. I used to wonder if He was calling me somewhere else to do missions. I wondered if it was really His plan for me to spend so much time there; but what made me change my way of thinking, was one extraordinary day at the school. I just looked around at my surroundings and took it all in.  It was at that moment that my entire view on God’s plan for my life changed. I knew without a shadow of doubt in my mind, that this is what I wanted to do with my life. Of course like any teenager, I have other things I think would be incredible and fun to do. However, none of them feel like they are right for me… at least not as much as Uganda does. I don’t know if I’ll grow up to be a missionary and move over to Uganda permanently, and honestly, I don’t even know how many more times God has planned for me to go. It may be that He’s using me in Uganda now to prepare me for something else later. But for now, I’m choosing to simply enjoy the time I have there, with them. I’m choosing not to worry about the future, but instead to live in the present, because it’s a gift. And this is a gift that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Psalms 34:7 says this- “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Many people think this means God will give you whatever you want if you believe in Him. I used to think that way too. Earlier this year, I heard someone explain it differently. I was at a concert, and between songs one of the guys in the band was sharing his testimony. He explained the Truth of this verse to us all. I don’t remember word for word, but he basically said this- “This doesn’t mean that God will give you a new car or a new iPhone, or any of our earthly desires. If we truly and completely delight ourselves in the Lord, our hearts desires will no longer be self-centered, but they’ll be what the Lord Himself desires for us. We delight ourselves in Him and the desires He has for us will be fulfilled, and we will be content.” His explanation of this verse has stuck with me since then, and I wish I could remember it word for word, because it sounded so wise then, and still does when I think about it. Anyway, he was right- It’s not about our desires. If we lived through our own desires, think of the road we might be taking; it’d be one of unsatisfaction and destruction. In the words of TobyMac, we’d be building our kingdoms just to watch them fade.

 

                I say all this to make this final statement; I don’t know exactly what God’s plan is for my life yet. It may include Uganda, it may not. But at the end of the day, I am sure of this one simple truth- God’s plan for my life, your life, and all of our lives are so extraordinary and so special, that we could not possibly imagine the incredible things He desires. We need only delight ourselves in Him, and let Him do his wondrous work.