Here’s my update; life sucks.

It’s so easy to get all caught up in the downs of life, the distractions- financial and emotional; when they all crowd in and nudge and yell and scream and hit for your attention- all in the hopes of taking your eyes off of our heavenly Father. But God is sovereign, he’s in COMPLETE control. So if God is in complete control, and he is intentionally driving the vehicle, which is your life, on the rumble strip, you have to ask why?  We see in the book of Job, admittedly his situation was a tad (sarcasm) worse than ours at the Johnson home right now, but Job brought glory to God. Though his earthly life was falling to pieces around him, he did not curse God. To be horribly candid, I am guilty of this.

My family has been facing ‘exile’ ( Jer 29) for the last 17 months, berated with trials and hardships, all the while seeking clarity for what God has next for their ministry.  I don’t want to dwell on the bad, but I will tell you about some of the good that has come out of this. Firstly, God started a home church through a group of people that my dad is shepherding: this church is a living organism, where questions are blurted out, candid pains are said aloud, and support is abundant. God has also done a great work in both of my parents and the change is so evident. It seems to me like he’s broken them, showed them that they really can’t rely on anything- except Him. This has turned them into more humble and faithful people- with their eyes set firmly on the Lord.

I really didn’t think I’d send out an email/blog post asking for prayer support before I reached India. But here it is, please pray for us. This morning I woke up thinking life could not possibly get any worse. I was proved wrong before noon. But I should be used to this by now… the same thing happened Friday morning.   I miss last week, where my worries were that I would not be seeing my wonderful girlfriend, Hayley, for 6 months, coupled with the ongoing pressure of our household being out of work. Now I have a car accident and a costly work scheduling error under my belt as well… to be honest my original plan was to have left for India by the start of December, and then the start of January, now it’s looking like end of January; I’m so discouraged by the constant changes; I just want to get out of here. At the same time, I’m now considering not going to India and staying home to work for the family instead.

I’m asking for two things: firstly for prayer, and secondly for 5 minutes of your time, to marvel at our great, holy and perfect God. His plan is perfect, and though I fail to see most of it right now- I know it is happening, and it’s happening to us, at the Johnson home. God has taken our life, thrown us in a blender and messed it all up. C.S. Lewis has a great illustration in "Mere Christianity"; we are a house, when we become Christians we invite Jesus into this house. He makes the changes that we expected to see, we stop lying, stealing… etc.,  but then he starts making changes that are painful and new. He adds a tower here, a new wing here.  In reality- he’s changing us into something completely different; a beautiful mansion, something that works to display the glory of our Great God. At the beginning of this day, I was lying on my bedroom floor asking God why he wouldn't just take me home. And at the beginning of this blog post I wasn't in the greatest state of mind either… but hey, I said I was going to be candid- I’m a mess, a house in a blender- but God is in control of all this. Please pray that me and my family would keep our eyes on the Lord. Pray that we are not caught up and distracted by the little stupid things, but that we keep focusing on Him.