It’s easy to speculate about why the Lord in His sovereignty allows certain things to happen the way they do. Day 1 of this journey was without a doubt the worst travel day any of us have ever had in terms of the sheer quantity of things that went wrong.
And here’s the thing: before we rerouted from Newark to Philadelphia, we all prayed and agreed it seemed the thing to do. Yet, when it was all said and done, we found ourselves stuck in Philadelphia and at the end of Day 2 in Toronto, neither of which seemed to have anything to do with our mission.
What is undeniably true is the Lord must sometimes allow such things to happen to position us for purposes we may not fully understand in the moment. This positioning is necessary because as humans we exist in space and time and, therefore, in one place at a time. We can’t be in Philadelphia and Dublin at the same time, and there may be reasons the Lord wants us in Philadelphia or not in Dublin at that time.
The Apostle Paul ending up on the ship that wrecked and dumped him and the crew on the shore of Malta is an example. See Acts 27-28. As he was in the midst of it, Paul might have asked the Lord why he ended up on a ship that wrecked, but I’m convinced the Lord was positioning him.
I believe Paul ended up on Malta when the father of the “chief official” of the island was sick so Paul could heal him and lead him to the Lord. As a result, tradition indicates, the chief official became a Christian, as did many on Malta. Paul had to be in a ship wreck to be in a position to share the gospel so Malta could be converted to Christianity.
In the end, you pray and try to choose wisely, and if it doesn’t seem to work out the way you thought, you accept it rationally, adapt, and stay on mission.
It’s tempting to try to figure out in real time what the Lord might be doing, but such things are best understood in retrospect. Frankly, if we understood them in the moment, we would probably have a harder time trusting God. It’s better not to overthink and just press on trusting in God’s goodness and sovereignty.
So, today we pressed on, and at the end of the day we found ourselves at the Culloden Estate and Spa in Holywood, Northern Ireland (see pic above), positioned for the St. Patrick trail tomorrow, where we hope to learn more about the Christian who changed a country for the Kingdom. GS