Today I stood in my kitchen and cried . . .

“And now, compelled by the Holy Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. . .   Acts 20:22

After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.  Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, “In this way the Jewish leaders inJerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.”  When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.  Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? . . . “  Acts 21:10 - 13

Today I stood in my kitchen and cried . . .

She walked in and on the dining room table was a fax from the Federated States of Micronesia, Office of Legislative Counsel.  “. . . the moving company will be calling you to set a time for them to come and survey your household effects for packing and shipping to Pohnpei within the next two weeks . . .”  Picking up the fax she walked to the back of the house where I was humming and calmly inquired, “Is there something we need to talk about?”

“Oh yeah honey, that job overseas in Pohnpei, I accepted it this morning and we will be moving in 3 weeks to the other side of the world.”

Most wives would have turned around and walked out the door to the nearest divorce attorney’s office.  But not mine.  Inquiring of the Lord is what she did. Of course she made it clear to me that WE had not finished talking about the POSSIBILITY of moving; how could I accept a position without our finishing the conversation?  Her job? The kids awards at schools?  I had done a Murphy . . . a unilateral decision that would change all of our lives ever more.  All because I said this is what I believed the Lord was saying.

She knew it was going to be hard.  And she told me so.  It was a third world country where everything needed to be shipped in.  No, 30k in salary was not going to feel like a million where others lived on 5k a year,  . . . or some amount like that.  Well it would . . . if we were willing to live like many of them did . . . in a leafed roofed, open air hut, cooking in the ground, and getting our food from the sea and land.  But we were Americans.  Americans live in houses, with electricity and phones.  Americans live in house with walls and floors and a proper roof . . . oh, and lest I forget  . . . with INDOOR plumbing and running water. 

She saw it was going to be hard.  She saw it was going to be difficult for all of us.  And looking beyond my failure as a husband in not talking about this before, she turned to the Lord.  Who confirmed all that she knew and one thing that she didn’t.

We were supposed to go.  And even if I was getting the timing wrong, she was supposed to go with me; her and our precious twins.

Then she did something the people in the passage didn’t. 

She shed no tears before me.  She did not plead with me to stay.  She did not plead with God to stay.  Instead she applied wisdom to the task and the move.  She advised me to take certain steps which protect our family in many ways.  She embraced me and the vision knowing it was going to lead into pains unknown. 

In short she loved me in deed and action, standing by me, walking with me, encouraging and supporting me and the direction I believed we were to go.  She loved first and primarily as in obedience to God. 

Today I stood in my kitchen and cried tears of thanksgiving.  Tears of thanksgiving for a wife who seeks the Lord, and has often put herself behind to obey Him in love to me and our family.  Her obedience has often been through wilderness experiences.  Yes she is human and does not always do as He says, and who of us does.  That said, her heart is truly after His, and it is this heart and faith which causes her to be obedient to God in spite of her own wishes and desire’s.

I wonder how Paul would have felt if they had not cried but encouraged him in his journey?

Well, actually I do not have to wonder . . . I know somewhat for myself.

Today I stood in my kitchen and cried tears of thanksgiving - tears of thanksgiving for my wife of 28 years.  I think Paul would have done likewise if they had done as Mama P did then, and encouraged him into the wilderness that he was headed into.

Pardon me for a moment . . . I love you my dear.  May His blessings always abound to you, and may he give me the opportunity to be one of the vessels by which they are delivered.

There is a wilderness that God calls each of us to.  Be encouraged.  God is in control.  Obey.  Believe.  Be encouraged.

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