The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord
Proverbs 16:1
Our present-day society conditions us to expect that life should follow a straight path. We begin asking children at a very young age what career paths they want to pursue. Advances in technology such as Google Maps create ways for us to be efficient and to pick the fastest route to our destination. And, some of us begin the day by creating very elaborate to-do lists comprising everything we intend to do during that day.
If you have been alive long enough, you know that life doesn’t follow a script. Often, there are pending tasks on the to-do list at the end of the day. Sometimes life circumstances pose significant threats to achieving our childhood dreams and at at other times those dreams change and we begin to dream new dreams.
I’ve had my fair share of unexpected twists and turns – detours that have been monumental in shaping my view of God and my identity as His child. One such detour is what is slowly shaping into ‘My Mercy Ships Adventure.’ And while this season is leading me down paths I never imagined, I rest in the assurance that God is at work in my life.
My Mercy Ships Adventure #1
My Mercy Ships Adventure began as a restlessness within me – a desire to pour out and participate in a cause that didn’t have me at the centre. This restlessness had been building up for a few years and I didn’t know what to do with it. But in 2022 I knew that something had to give. Although I had been actively praying, I didn’t have the slightest conception of what that would look like.
I hadn’t heard about Mercy Ships before January 2022 when it was mentioned in a program that I was listening to. As I listened and later researched about it, the mission of ‘Bringing Hope and Healing to the Forgotten Poor’ and the philosophy of ‘Following the 2000-year-old model of Jesus’ tagged at my heart.
The angst that had been building up in me was relentless. Moreover, the work God had been doing in my heart around this time led me to prayerfully examine my life. What is important to me? What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind if Jesus tarries when He calls me home? What does impact look like?
As I wrestled with these questions, C.T. Studd’s poem, ‘Only one Life, Twill soon be past” reverberated. He wrote, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” These words stayed with me long after I had read them. I kept thinking, “Is what I am doing going to outlive me? When I come to the end of my life on this side of eternity, will I be proud of the woman that I was and the life I lived? Will I look back and see a life lived for Christ?
I eventually sent an application to volunteer with Mercy Ships and I was scared to hope that anything would come out of it. Daring to hope exposes a vulnerability that can be frightening – in hoping we acknowledge our desires and dreams while holding tension that they may not be fulfilled. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” (Proverbs 13:12) and oh how I know that to be true.
I think it is no wonder that Paul wrote in Romans 4:18 “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.” All the arguments of sense, reason, and experience that would beget and support hope were against him. Both Abraham and his wife were old and their bodies were as good as dead on matters child bearing. And when you’ve done everything you know to be right but you do not get the desired outcome, your ability to hope can become as good as dead.
When you are afraid, you can take all your fears and steward them towards truth. L. B. Cowman writes in Streams in the Desert, “Nothing that is not God’s will can come into the life of one who trusts and obeys God.” And as I have walked with the Lord over the years, I have come to believe that ‘In the centre of the circle of the will of God I stand; there can come no second causes, all must come from His dear hand.’ These words have been a reliable anchor for my soul and a tool that God has used to point me back to His all-sufficiency.
And so my Mercy Ships Adventure began. I didn’t hear from the team for months and I assumed that maybe Mercy Ships was not where the author of my life and keeper of my dreams was leading. But God was on His own timeline – one that was completely different from mine. I am writing this on board the Global Mercy where I have been for the past 16 weeks.
There is a Place for You
Peter, in his letter to the believers, wrote, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10) If God calls you to come and serve alongside us, you can find your place on board here. Or maybe you cannot come but you would want to support the mission – you can do that here. God may altogether be leading you elsewhere.
Whatever that looks like, I pray that as you follow the snippets of my Mercy Ships adventure you will be inspired to step out of the boat and to follow the Lord wherever He leads you.
Beautiful writing.
Thank you