These past two years have not gone as I planned. You know how they say the best laid plans can fail? They definitely did. When I stepped off the plane in December 2017 after spending 3 years in the jungles of Ecuador, I had the next year planned out. I was convinced I would be in Brazil by January 2019, if not sooner. 

January came and went, yet I was still there. 

Absolutely nothing has gone the way I imagined. The approval took longer than I thought. Fundraising took longer than I thought. My visa took longer than I thought it would. Even just getting down to Campinas took longer than I thought it would. Seriously. Everything that could be delayed was. Almost literally. It was actually ridiculous sometimes.

I wish I could tell you that I rolled with the punches with the best of them. I wish I could say that I took every delay with the grace and understanding that you would expect. But… I didn’t. I’m still human after all. I got frustrated so many times. I didn’t understand. I was so close, why was it all of a sudden so hard? I was frustrated because nothing was going according to my plan…

Oh. My plan.

That was the problem. I was looking at my plan. The easy plan. The path of least resistance. I should’ve learned by now that that’s not how this life works.

While I was in the States, I did Beth Moore’s Bible study on the life of David. As we were digging into his life, God showed me something. David was just a kid when he was anointed to be king. He didn’t just walk up to the throne the day he was anointed . He went right back to the field. He still had to grow up. He even spent a few years literally running for his life from Saul. I don’t think any of that was part of his plan to become king.

He didn’t know at the time that all of the delays and all of the struggles were preparing him to become king. All of those things made him a better man. They drew him closer to God. We tend to have a negative view of setbacks. We see delays as defeat. We become frustrated, asking God why on earth He let it happen the way it did. But here’s the thing: His plans are way better than ours will ever be.

I look back at how I got here, and I see His hand in it all. I see where He was preparing me for what He’s doing today in my life. Yes, there’s still so much I don’t understand, but I’ve been able to trust Him this far. Why would I stop now?

He already knows what’s going to happen, so even when we don’t understand, we can trust that He knows what He’s doing. He wouldn’t bring us this far just to leave us. God was using my circumstances, the good and the bad, to prepare me for what’s coming. God is using your circumstances, the good and the bad, to prepare you for what’s coming.