God is never nervous about our future

Last summer, before I went to Honduras, I worked myself into a nervous wreck. I'd left the United States a couple of times before, but that was for places like the Virgin and Cayman Islands - places people yearn to visit - not places people are often warned to avoid.

Too often the stories we tell ourselves at home about people we know little about can be unkind. I think the narratives we tell ourselves about anything unknown are usually harsher than necessary. All I know is as the Honduras trip dates got closer, I got less sure about going. At one point I considered bailing on the trip all together.

But I went. And I met some of the most beautiful people. Even more, albeit briefly, I entered intimately into their pains and their struggles.

Today, as we are facing challenges at home, my heart hurts knowing just how much deeper than mine are the struggles of the friends and the beautiful little faces I met there. People like me, who could once get to Honduras with life-giving provisions and love, they are having a hard time getting there now. Hondruas is a country in a military lockdown.

There's a message in that for me.

God is reminding me that Honduras trip was never about my future. It was always going to be about a right now. God is always preparing us for the here and now. My God is a God who forgets my past, and he already knows my future. Neither worry him as much as they do me. He's only concerned with the Keith in the here and now.

And his biggest concern for that Keith in the here and now? How prepared is he to love?

Too often in life we get to thinking of future experiences as some end game. All or nothing moments. The finality we imagine into those moments bring us unnecessary stress. Wasted energy.

Those experiences are never final. They are steps. They are preparation. I sit here today doing everything I can to help the people of Honduras. Less than a year ago I didn't know a soul there; today I love the people there very much. My trip there wasn't my future, it was a step toward love.

Think back at all the future moments that made you nervous. Think back and see that they were simply stepping stones to a here and now you.

God knows our future. The moments we get nervous about, he smiles over. He knows those moments are steps - like the 5th grade is a step for 6th, and 6th a step toward a diploma - God knows all of it is a step toward him.

God's only concern is when we get to him we are fully equipped to love. Honduras wasn't my future. It was a step toward love.