God’s ways are not our own.
This statement could not be even truer in my life.
If someone had told me to 3 years ago to tell them what I would be doing this summer, I never would have told them I would be digging out wells, building mud huts, holding African children as they marveled at my “Mzungu” hair, or that I would be a social work major considering teaching abroad. I would never have considered myself capable enough, equipped, or even chosen enough.
Little did I know then, at age 16, how chosen I am.
Since I’ve been in Uganda, God has given me flashes of 16-year-old Betsy. I really hate it, because 16-year-old Betsy was hopeless. I was dark, scarred, and losing all feeling of love for myself. I did not consider myself capable, worthy, or desired to be chosen for anything.
God took my hearts leaps and bounds since then, sending me all over the place, and diving deep into my heart, into areas I never wanted to enter. He did this, however, to bring me here.
At this moment, I’m writing in Uganda about how drastically God took my life and flipped it around. He took my despair and made it hope, He took my tears and made them smiles, He took my emotional paralysis and made my feet dance, and He took my darkness and put His light in, giving me a future. Three years ago, I never would have planned I’d be here.
God, however, likes to surprise His children with just how much He has in store for them. Something I’ve learned recently is that God desires to give good gifts to His children. He loves to bless us abundantly; to shower us with love, just so we can know He loves us that much more.
God could’ve kept me in America this summer; He could’ve had me do awesome things in CT. But He made my heart for so much more than that, and He desires to romance me and tell me how special He created me, and that He has much greater things in store for me than that.
As I’ve been in Uganda, I’ve realized even how much more His plans are for me than I even thought a week ago. He brought me to Africa. Africa. Let me say that again: AFRICA. He got me here. And then, He had me do so much more than I ever thought I was emotionally, physically, or mentally capable of doing. Everyday God is reaching deeper into my heart, like in a marriage, where the couple intimately learns more and more about each other everyday. He’s touching areas, wounds, and calluses I never even knew were there, let alone wanted to go to.
And as He’s taking me through healing, He’s flashing me back to the 16-year-old Betsy; the one who didn’t think healing was possible. And through that flashback, He’s reminding me that He is capable, He is worthy, and He is able; that through Him, I am anointed and chosen, and that even now, He still has greater plans for me than I do.
