Preparation

Breakfast this morning around 9 (a ham and cheese omlet and fixin's). Watched the news and checked email before heading outside. Since my last post it has been snowing consistently, so I donned my father's XL snowpants and headed outside to snowblow the driveway, shovel the walk, and go for a snowmobile ride. It is certainly going to be quite a juxtaposition to move briskly from this weather to the U.K. to Tanzania all in less than a week!

This week has been a difficult transition period (a bit anticlimactic), going from seeing many friends at Houghton, to home, where, though I am blessed to spend time with my parents at night, I spend hours during the day in solitude. It was only this morning that it occured to me: What a blessing to have time to prepare my heart for what is to come! I must redeem these days by finding joy in them. This time of preparation is what I often wish I had taken more of when I look back on chapters in my life.

My obedience to God's desires is not out of obligation, but joy! The desires of God's heart are not burdensome, but freeing:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

~Matthew 11:28-30

My service should never be burdensome.