A Friend Said It So Well...

Now To The Task At Hand

On the one hand life is simple and uncomplicated here in Africa compared to the complexity of life in America.  On the other hand, there are SO many details to it that it really isn't all that simple.

Short Term Mission Team of Buffalo, New York
Pam and I have been on the ground in Uganda for 11 days.  We have been busy every day, not only with unpacking and settling back into our house here, but also renewing relationships and friendships.  In just two days, a team of nine arrives from Buffalo, New York.  Pam and I held a prayer and logistics meeting this morning, with a small team who will help us serve this team, and it lasted for two and a half hours.  It was our last attempt as a group to cover all the bases and gear up for a really busy time..

Maneuvering around the unpredictable absence and presence of power is like feeling the hot breath of a competitor at my back in a long race  I keep looking over my shoulder as I feel  pressure to work as fast as I can.  Quick, quick, quick .... before we lose power and my work on the blog or the finances stops abruptly.  Unfinished, it joins the the backlog of things that I thought I should have or might have gotten accomplished by this time.  Those things are hanging out there, making me feel like a greyhound chasing a rabbit who keeps moving at the same pace I am!

Responsibilities, desires, and activities can seem like friends in this "missionary" effort, but they can end up seducing me from my First Love.  Really, what is the most important thing ... the main thing ...the only thing that should be my beginning, middle, and end?

This is a direct quote, received this morning, from one of my longtime, faithful and trusted intercessors:
Do not forsake your first love.  Spend time in God's Word everyday and remember to delight in Him.  All the work you do in Uganda will mean nothing if you do not have a real, personal relationship with Jesus.  Do not forsake spending time with Him while doing all the busy things that need to be done.  Your relationship with Him is much more important.
And that is the correct answer to my posed question.

It's fair to say that King David was must have been a busy guy.  He left the tranquility of shepherding for a life of warfare, running from traitors and the envious, and ruling the nation of Israel for 40 years.  There must have been so many responsibilities demanding his attention, but the cry of David's heart was:
I thirst for God, the living God.  When can I go and stand before Him? (Psalm 42:2)
King David was a God-conscious man who wrote:
I have set the Lord always before me. (Psalm 16:8)
A.W. Tozer described David as a God-intoxicated man.  Wow.  This was not an average guy.  This was a guy who, though he had his share of sins, failures, and mistakes, knew very well what the main thing was.  And, he pursued it.

I read recently that a friend is someone who knows the song of your heart and who will sing it back to you when you forget the words.

I'm am richly blessed with friends who not only believe in what I do, but who admonish me to stay on task; run a straight line; and keep the main thing the main thing.

I recommend the same for you.  And, I solicit your prayers that I would not get lost in all the details of our work here in Uganda, but that the cry of my heart would be:
One thing I have asked of the Lord. that will I seek after:  that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.  (Psalm 27:4) 

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