Christmas joy and abandonment

What a good Christmas season this has been! Full to the brim of celebrations, feasting, joy, family, friends! Last week I went to Wisconsin to visit a good friend of mine, Lanita, who I met on the Africa Mercy last fall. She was getting married last Saturday, so I decided to go and spend the week before her wedding with her. I can't begin to describe how very special I felt last week. I was treated like royalty by Lanita and Shelby. What hospitality! They showed me a wonderful time in Eau Claire, but the best part was the amount of time I got to spend with them just enjoying their company. Lanita was the most relaxed bride I've ever seen! She had everything done way in advance so she had that week before the wedding to just relax and enjoy visiting the people who were important to her. How cool is that?

It was incredibly special to have time with 4 other girls I'd met on the ship as well. We are all in a similar place in our lives - we are Registered Nurses, and mostly single women who are seeking to serve God with our lives. Kelly, Denice and Rachel came from all over the States to the wedding, and Katelyn came from Saudi Arabia! Wow! How special to see these girls that I thought I wouldn't see again for many years!

Christmas has been full of fun family time playing games, baking cookies, talking, and just enjoying one another. I am so blessed by my family. We also had a refugee family from the Democratic Republic of Congo over for Christmas Eve. There are 7 children. We had such a great time with them. We sang carols, ate delicious food, opened presents, and visited. Us "kids" played games, which ended up being very lively and noisy, and SO much fun! We all agree that it was the best Christmas Eve in a long time.
On Christmas Day we went out to Auntie Carolyn and Uncle Chris' acreage - had fun playing in the snow, and more games, more food, more fun! How blessed I am by these wonderfully loving and generous relatives! God is SO good to me!

I continue to devour Christian literature. I'm currently reading another book by Elisabeth Elliot. "The Path of Loneliness". She is an amazing author and such a godly lady. I encourage anyone to read any of her books. Every page, every thought is so worthwhile. So many insights. So many lessons learned through personal difficulty and suffering. A few of the lessons I have learned this past year are reflected in her book.

I like this bit:
"If His lordship is really established over me, it makes no difference (I might even say it's "no big deal") whether I live or die. I am expendable. That knowledge is freedom. I have no care for anything, for all that I am, all that I have, all that I do, and all that I suffer have been joyfully placed at His disposal. He can do anything He wants." (p. 86-87)

She says it so well. That was exactly the lesson I began to learn last fall in Africa when I was going through some strange health issues. It was then that I really truly realized that I am mortal, and I will die someday... maybe soon, maybe years from now, but I will definitely not live forever or be young forever. I realized that I am actually okay with that fact. It really doesn't cause me to worry. I know where I'm going, and I know it's a lot better than this present world, so, yeah, death isn't scary! That is very freeing! It makes it a lot easier to be abandoned to God.

Strangely I don't have trouble with the fact that I'll die someday, even if that happens to be sooner than later, but I do have trouble with the unknown. I like to know where I'm going. I like to feel like I'm in control. This is something I have to learn more and more - how to surrender my life to Christ even when I don't know where He's taking me. It's scary to let someone else take the steering wheel of your life! I like to have my own way.

Another excerpt:
Read 2 Tim. 1:8-10. "That is a wonderfully comforting word to me. God had included the hardships of my life in His original plan. Nothing takes Him by surprise. But nothing is for nothing, either. His plan is to make me holy, and hardship is indispensable for that as long as we live in this hard old world. All I have to do is accept it." (p.101)
"Acceptance is abandonment, the great risk of great lovers, when an awesome power is given over - the power to hurt." "Acceptance of discipleship is the utter abandonment of the disciple, the surrender of all rights, to the Master. This abandonment, in all cases, will mean pain. Christ listed some of the troubles His followers could expect, so that they would not be taken by surprise and thus discard their faith in Him. he did not offer immunity. He asked for trust." (p. 102)

So true! Lord Jesus, would you help me to be abandoned to You in every way? Would you help me to give that power over to You? It is so good to remember that You have all things in Your hands. I can trust You and know my life is in the best hands in the Universe!