Hey, Is This a Setup?

I'm reading this great book right now called "Pink Boots and a Machete". It's the memoir of a lady who started out as an NFL cheerleader and went on to become a National Geographic explorer and naturalist with a focus on primates. She wears pink lip gloss into the jungle and has several times barely escaped with her life (not because of the lip gloss). I'm finding it fascinating to see how she started in an immigrant family as a tomboy hoarding bugs to a school reporter to a ballerina to an actress to becoming a combination of several of these things as the host of a Nat Geo show. It's so encouraging to me to read about someone who has had a myriad of interests, pursued each of them to their fullest, and made good on all of them, becoming something she never dreamed of.

Her story reminds me of a talk I took notes on a few years ago, one of the few I frequently look back on. The guy was speaking about faith. He said that often the beginning of faith is plain curiosity leading to expectancy and finally, to wonder. He used the story of the beggar at the gate Beautiful in the book of Acts. When Peter and John and the beggar were all there, they all used what they had and had faith, believing God in the moment. Peter and John knew their authority, and the beggar knew he had nothing to lose. Bam! Peter pulled him up and he began to walk. The beggar tried to praise them, but Peter and John immediately deflected the praise and gave the glory to God. The man summed up his thoughts on faith with this question: What if your life just happens to be a setup for something far beyond your imagination?

What if...What IF? What if these scriptures are really true?: that "all things Do work together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28); that He CAN do "exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask, think, or even imagine, according to His power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). What if??!!

Then I've been set up from the get go before I even knew God. Then all the seemingly random, disconnected things that I've wholeheartedly pursued in my life thus far will come together for His mighty purpose. Then I'm about to birth a baby that doesn't look anything like what I thought it would. But I know who its Father is...

Why We Wait

...because toast takes time to brown. There's nothing better than the smell of hot bread.
...because if you pull the plants up early all you'll get are roots.
...because it builds anticipation.
...because we are mortal creatures living in a world of time.
...because if you let the pipes warm up you'll get hot water.
...because you can only shoot so far.
...because it takes 9 months for a baby.
...because we have day and night.
...because it gives us a moment to breathe.
...because it builds a tender, aching patience.
...because we love while waiting for our call to be returned.
...because waiting increases the opportunity for hope.
...because we have something to wait FOR!
...because of the butterfly effect.
...because God is good.
...because we must.
...because.