PART 2: CHAPTER 4: 

 

There are moments in your life where things just get out of control.  This was one of them. 

 

Tom looked forward and felt the nose of the plane take a steep dive.  He looked at Paul.  His eyes were closed, deep in prayer.  The service cart rolled past their aisle and made a beeline for the first class section.  A baby was crying in the back somewhere.  If there were dogs on this plane...they would be barking.

 

Tom closed his eyes, thought of Sarah, his children.  All that's happened over the past few days. About how life was just getting good. How life was just getting to a place where he thought he was in control a little bit. His mind takes him back to the day when he first started this second chapter of his life.  To the waitress who said that there's a love that holds it all together.  He was still trying to understand that completely but he felt he was getting closer.  This past week in Haiti showed him a new kind of love that he didn't know existed.  Let alone existed in his heart.  His mind showed him his deep love for his kids, his deep love for his wife and his deep love for the new life that he's found.  

 

Two nights ago in Haiti, Evens, was talking to Tom about love.  About how the love that we have for our kids, our families is dwarfed in comparison to the love that God has for us.  It's a love that we can't even begin to comprehend.  Tom needed that, he heard it and needed it deep in his soul.  His life was still changing.

 

He was startled out of this daydream to the sound of the captain coming on saying that they are going to have to make an emergency landing in Tamaulipas, Mexico.   There's an abandoned airport there that will have to suffice.  

 

Tom and Paul both put their heads between their knees and prayed.  The wheels hit the dirt runway hard and the plane shook.  The pit of Tom's stomach lurched the way it would on a steep drop in a roller coaster.  The plane slows down and suddenly there's silence.  Everyone is stunned.  Then cheering and laughter.  Tom smiles to Paul and they make their way slowly off the plane.

 

After a night in a local hotel, they find a rental car and decide to drive the rest of the way home.  The journey continues says Tom to Paul.  Yes it does, he replies.

 

The drive is long, but gives Tom the time he needs to think and think more.  He gets into quite a few deep conversations with Paul about how this week has changed him and how he is feeling like the last 8 months has been so different from the time before.  Paul speaks on the redeeming love of Jesus and Tom feels like he's found that love in a way that he never knew existed. Paul talks about how we need to be a reflection of Jesus here and how he and Tom for the past few days were exactly that.  Changing things that need to be changed.  Taking the focus off of ourselves and putting it on others.  Being the me that God made us to be. 

 

The white lines flash by and Tom's life will never be the same again.

 

 

Today is a day to think.  When you've had a near death experience it leads you to think more about life.  About how you live your life and how you spend your time.  Our main character here is in the midst of that thought right now for sure.  

 

How about you?  How are you spending your time?  Your work time?  Your time with your family?  Are you present when they are with you or are you distracted?  For years, I was distracted.  It was hard for me to not look at my phone, my computer.  To not have thoughts racing through my head about work, about ministry, about everything except what I was supposed to be focusing on.  My God, my family, myself.  

 

Today.  Think about how you spend your time.  How you can be the you that God has made you to be.  We've all been designed in an incredibly beautiful way.  In a way that only God could orchestrate.  Be the YOU that God wants you to be.  

 

Pray today that God would reveal Himself to you. That God would reveal the plans that He has for you.  That God would reveal to you that you are an incredibly beautiful person and that there is only one you who can do what you do.

 

God, in the midst of it all, be with us.  Let us be a reflection of who You are in our lives.

 

 

 

There's something about the morning on a desolate highway in Arizona. The way the colors bounce off the mountains and paint these beautiful strokes of pink and orange. The way the skyline makes this black uneven border around it all. There are no easy edges to paint inside of, no straight lines to coast along. Kind of like life. It's a kind of beautiful that can't be truly described without seeing it or experiencing it. 

 

Tom looks over in the passengers seat. Paul is sleeping. They've been driving for 2 hours, leaving early to try and make it home in time for lunch.

 

The road passes silently beneath the car.  

 

Tom is still trying to piece together the past few days. It's been a whirlwind like nothing he had ever experienced before. Life has changed in these days. He was speaking to Sarah last night. She listened. Tom could hear her softly crying as he talked through all of the details. "God sometimes takes us down paths we don't think we would ever travel," she was saying. "These are the things that define us and shape our lives. Shape our character and our future."

 

They pulled into the driveway at around 1pm. Tom's kids ran out to greet him and they hugged for a long time. Sarah smiled as she saw them.  She came over to join the family. Paul smiled. He knew things were changing in an amazing way.  

 

In the days and weeks that followed, Tom and Sarah's life changed. Tom started working for a non-profit that built clean water wells in Haiti and beyond. He was amazed at the change he could make in the lives of so many others with so little. Paul continued to check in. He and Tom stayed very good friends in the years ahead.

 

He remembers one night a few days after he and Paul arrived home from Haiti. He was sitting on the back porch swing with Sarah. They were talking softly about change. About how things could and would change. He sat quietly and then said, "I am ready now. I'm ready to take the leap, take that step and move forward with it. God is in control here, God is in control here." 

 

They held hands as the crickets sang a chorus to the heavens and the stars blinked softly in the night sky.

 

 

Are you ready?  

 

It's a question that all of us face or will face at one time or many times in our lives.  

 

This whole journey has been about faith. About how we need to lean deeper and deeper into God. Into the plans that He has for us and into our relationship with Him.

 

Being ready. Being willing to change a few things in our lives in order to change a few things in others peoples lives is a sacrifice. Jesus knows about sacrifice. We live because He lives.

 

A few words on faith and planning.

 

 

 

It tells us right in the scriptures that God has plans for us. That God will equip us. That God will be there with us. Inspire us. Guide us. Make us ready. Use us.  

 

I don't know about you but I want to be used by God. Used to make a change in this world and make a change in the small community of influence that I have.

 

Are you ready?  Are you ready for what's next?  God has so much in store for you.  For me. We just need to lean deeper and deeper into Him and His word so that we can be ready to act when He puts His plan into motion. Scary?  Yes.  Uncertain?  Yes.  Fulfilling?  Absolutely.  

 

So.  Thank you for being here.  Thanks for being a part of this journey.  I hope it changed things a little for you.  I hope it made you think more and decide to do some things differently.  

 

Enjoy the album.  Thanks for your support and for being a part of this ministry.  We couldn't do it without you.