So Great a Cloud......

So recently (ok, more like yesterday) I spent a large chunk of time freaking out, a hobby I have been out of practice at recently, and it did not feel so good to stretch my legs and try it out again. The freak-out-age was over what most people freak out about: money. One of our best friends, Mr. Warren Sterling, also known to some as simply "G" is one of the coolest most Jesus lovin' folks you'll ever meet, and he also happens to be a missionary. He's spent the last couple of years at the Bethany College of Missions in Minnesota where my best friend Katelyn is also at school, you can find the link in my "check this out maybe" section. Anyway, Warren leaves in January for Kenya, Africa to spend the next 16 months doing in depth cultural study and mission work which rocks because this brother has been called to Uganda and it's really cool for him to get this close to his future destination. Anyway, Warren was having a rough time the last time he was here ( a couple months ago, I think) with fundraising, as every BCOM intern has to raise 44,000 big ones to go on internship. He was also selling his laptop for $500 so we told him we would buy it from him. He shipped it here and we got it the day before Christmas Eve, by which time, we as the consumer driven Christmassy people we were (also known as crappy stewards) we had run out of money. So, we just decided to pay Warren in January as long as it was before he left. The Lord threw a good ol' wrench in this plan however, as it turns out this Friday (way before we had planned on having the money) Warren, Katie, and Katie's dad Greg are all coming to town. This is fantastic news to me in one way (the four of us haven't been together in over a year)and frustrating news in another (my pride didn't want to see Warren and be like "Oh yeah, we owe you some money, but funny thing is we spent it"). So I have been praying hardcore for some days now that the Lord would somehow, someway provide the money for Warren to go to Africa, even if it didn't come from this measly little $500 that we didn't have. Well, the day comes to decide where the money will come from (as rent is due) and low and behold, we don't have enough, at least not before this Friday when we'll see Warren. Boy was my face red, I began regretting every single Christmas present I bought and resolved to super over simplify Christmas next year (i.e. Advent Conspiracy, make all my presents style). I fight with Brandon who for some crazy reason thinks it's more important to pay the rent than it is to pay Warren (which of course, he's right about, but I still felt awful). So we get in a screaming match in our apartment hallway (SO spiritual)and I wind up locking myself in my fortress of solitude (the bathroom). As soon as I lock the door, like literally, that same second, I hear Brandon's phone go off and guess who it is? Warren. Turns out, the Lord has gotten him 80% of his funding, he's not hurting for money, and he's totally fine with us paying him whenever we are able. Wow. I am a complete idiot Lord! This is a huge clump of lessons I had to learn, not the hard way, but the stupid way, maybe its just the Lord's way and I'm just plain stupid, I don't know. I learned that Christmas should be more meaningful and less expensive, stressful, and wasteful. I learned that the Lord truly is Jehovah Jireh, God Will Provide, even if it's in a way I totally don't understand (i.e. not through me or by my strength, I'm such a dunce). And I learned the sweetness of having a brother who is truly trusting in the Lord for everything. Warren is a very Godly man, and it totally edified me to know that he's trusting in the Lord like he is as he goes across the world to serve Him for His glory. We do truly have a great cloud of witnesses. That's why I love Christian biographies more than Christian theologies, we learn so much better from stories than from ideas, at least I definately do. The Psalms say "See in our history the faithful love of the Lord" that is why stories are important, they remind us that there is a very personal God of the Universe and that He has been faithful and will continue to be so.