Expectations

Expectations. You can really get into a pickle with expectations. Emotions can run you ragged with expectations. That was my experience a couple of weeks ago. Setting and trusting in expectations can frustrate!

Our recent experience of buying a house was a huge learning experience … in not setting expectations. Even though you may be told one thing (to expect a certain thing to happen within a certain time frame) by those “in the know,” we learned that those things don’t go as we were told they would. I likened it to setting a due date for baby to be born. Well, by golly, that baby is going to come when he is ready, regardless of one’s due date!

I’m not a “laid back” kind of person. However, I think I’ve come to understand (hopefully it will stick) that it is best not to get one’s hopes up, ie: set expectations, when it comes to dealing with things in life. Relax; take things in stride. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts …!” Literally or figuratively, that “baby” is going to come when he is ready!

Our “baby”, that is, the closing on our new house, came “in the fullness of time”, so to speak! We are in the house now and slowly getting settled. Soon—sooner than we realize—this strange place will become “home” to us. We are already enjoying it

Tonight Randy and I will have a special dedication of this house. We will take a bottle of wine and make a drink offering to the Lord, pouring the wine out, dedicating this place to God. Thanking Him for His great kindnesses to us and praying for His protection and blessing on us and our children and grandchildren. Dedicating ourselves to the Lord, to loving and serving Him. To using what He gives us to do His work, furthering His Kingdom. Not ours. His. For what we have in material possessions is not for us, though we benefit from and enjoy it; it is given to us to be stewards of God’s possessions, to do with as He determines. May we never forget that truth.

Expectations. Only one thing can we stake our lives on; only one thing can we base expectations on and not be disappointed: the Word of God.  The words of man may fail, but the Word of God will never fail.

Almost Heaven

Green. Trees. Lots of trees. Refreshment to the eyes, and soul and spirit. At least for me it is. For almost twenty years I lived in green refreshment. Well, I grew up in it and then moved away from it for many years, back to it when we lived in Georgia and especially our many years in West Virginia.

Randy and I arrived back in the “Wild, Wonderful” state this week (in case you are unclear about what state that is, it’s not a state of mind, it’s West Virginia!). In the morning when I carried my mug of coffee onto the big, wide, wrap-around porch of the Manse and took in the stunning view, my eyes misted and I choked up.

“How many times, Lord, have I met with you on our front porch, coffee and Bible in hand, marveling at your greatness and creative handiwork?” What a blessing to have lived here in “Almost Heaven, West Virginia,” for nearly twenty years.

West Virginia is Almost Heaven in two ways, to my thinking. First, the sheer beauty of it, as I’ve just described, feeds the soul and refreshes the spirit. But the second is the great, crying human need. West Virginia may be “Almost,” but it is not, Heaven, therefore the strong call of God to speak forth and demonstrate by our works of mercy and kindness, the truth of God in the Good News of Jesus Christ.

It was the second Almost Heaven reality that sent Randy and me to establish Mustard Seeds and Mountains in the mountains of West Virginia over twenty years ago. And guess what, it is still Almost, but not yet, Heaven, here in West Virginia. The great human need to know Jesus Christ is ongoing. Therefore, the reaching-out,-proclaiming-the-Good-News-of-Jesus-Christ-by-word-and-deed ministry of Mustard Seeds and Mountains is ongoing as well.

Randy and I are here in West Virginia again for a short time, meeting with our WV staff and touching base with other friends in the area. We moved away over a year and a half ago, to both step-through and open new doors of ministry in central California.  

God has wonderfully answered many prayers in the last two years, one of which is bringing our new WV Director, Nate Bertram, and his family, to Mustard Seeds to take over the day to day operations here in West Virginia. Even though the Bertram’s have stepped into existing ministries at Mustard Seeds, they, too, are opening new doors of ministry in the community. It is exciting to see God continuing to reach out to the people of McDowell County through His servants in Mustard Seeds and Mountains.

On this trip to Mustard Seeds “East” Randy and I will also visit with friends and ministry partners in the greater Atlanta area. This will be a time of sharing what God has been doing in our lives over the past two years, how He has answered prayer for the ministry and opened new avenues of service through Mustard Seeds “West.”

Randy and I continue to marvel at the goodness of God and daily recommit our lives to loving and serving Him through Mustard Seeds East, Mustard Seeds West and the other avenues He has opened to us. We thank Him for the opportunity to be “back east” again to see and visit with many friends and family.

If you are interested in following the ministries of Mustard Seeds and Mountains, East and West, email me at Jacque@mustardseeds.org and you will be added to the mailing list to receive the Seeds of Hope newsletter.

There is no greater adventure than the adventure of Faith and Obedience to King Jesus.