Abundant Provision

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." ~Ephesians 3:20-21

Maybe I'm too much of a realist or maybe it's my staunch stance against the prosperity gospel, but I've always struggle with the above verse. I know that God provides for us, but I guess my trust falls short of believing in the utter abundance of God's blessings for His people. Apparently today was one of those days that God felt He needed to remind me that He is God and provides everything in this life, even if we assume that we're in control.

The past couple of days I have been getting amusingly hassled by my German relatives. They couldn't understand why I was leaving the day before New Year's Eve, also known as Silvester in Germany. My aunt's fiance went so far as to hypothesize that my parents got so into their house renovations that either I wouldn't have a room to go back to or they just decided to up and move the whole house, which would still leave me with no place to go home to in America. I was rather amused by all of this and attempted to explain that the cost of flights before New Years was at least $300 cheaper than after, thus the reason I was leaving early, especially since the trip was a gift from my parents in the first place, so I was trying to save them as much money as possible.

Fast forward to today where I was sitting at my gate awaiting the boarding call for my flight to JFK. I had a nice chat with the security guy who told me he was jealous that I lived within two hours of New York City and always wanted to visit because of the atmosphere. As it turns out, my flight was overbooked and they were offering a voucher to anybody willing to bump the flight home. I'd heard about these offers, but never anticipated that they would offer a $1000 travel voucher, which was exactly what they did. I went to the desk at the gate to inquire about rebooking because if I had to fly out the next day, that would defeat the purpose of trying to enjoy New Years with the family. When I was told that the date was up to me, I jumped on the opportunity and bumped my flight. Not only was I provided with the ability to spend Silvester with my relatives without the extra expense, I was blessed with $1000 towards travel with Delta at somepoint in the next year, which is a tremendous blessing for someone who is preparing to up and move to a new city in search of a new job. I've been a bit anxious about the move, but this reminded me about how God provides and provides in abundance, which is something that I need to believe in more fervently. 

The reason I chose to write this post, though, is because of the verse I came across as I was writing about the day's events in my travel journal. There are little Bible verses at the bottom of each page and the one at the bottom of the page for today was from The Living Bible. It's Psalm 139:3, which states, "You chart the path ahead of me...Every moment You know where I am." As I reflect on my day, this verse couldn't be more true. In retrospect, God knew this would happen and that I would opt to volunteer for the voucher, which put me in a unique position to assist some travelers. 

I'll start this story off with the fact that I was in a bit of a rush and slightly annoyed at first. I had four minutes until my train to Frankfurt Bahnhof was to arrive and I needed to purchase my ticket. Except there were three people standing in front of the ticket machine looking for a stop that wasn't coming up on the screen. Instead of stepping out of the way, they stood there to discuss this fact until I finally asked if I could purchase my ticket. Once I did, the one man who had a print out with him started to inquire if I could help. Except he only spoke Portuguese and I only know English and horrible German, and maybe five words in Spanish. Luckily I knew the stop he needed because it was in the basement of Karstadt, which is where I just so happened to go shopping yesterday. I attempted to explain that every S-bahn stopped there and that he and his friend just needed to take a train towards Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof to reach their destination. They then went to buy their tickets, but the machine wouldn't accept the man's credit card. Also, because the fair was so low, he couldn't use his 20 or 50 Euro to purchase the ticket. I could sense his frustration because I've been there myself, exactly three years ago, which is how I ended up with a week long rail pass from Oberursel to Frankfurt. I rifled through my pockets for small Euros and happened to come up with enough for the fare. The man was very grateful and attempted to pay me back, but all he had was a 20, which was over twice the amount of what he paid, so I kindly declined. He then signaled that he would be right back and for me to wait where I was standing. A short while later he had a candy bar and 10 euro, which was still too much, but since he obviously had gone to the effort to make change of his 20, I graciously accepted the compensation. Since they were still a little confused about where to go, I then provided them with a map of the rail system that I had in my bag because my brother had given it to me. They used had gestures to thank me and tell me that they were going to go ask someone upstairs for clarification so that they could find the station and hostel. And guess what? This all took longer than four minutes, meaning that I missed that original train that I was hoping to catch, but there was another one arriving in five minutes, so in the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter. But God went ahead of me and wanted me to have that interaction. Maybe He knew that these guys were feeling lost in a foreign country and needed to be reminded that you don't need to know the language to communicate. I in turn was blessed by my encounter with them because I was able to provide assistance and they kindly repaid me in abundance, which was not my intention at all. The whole situation made me think of a quote I saw on Instagram last week. It's a quote that I will leave you with and strive to live by in the upcoming year: "Don't miss out on a blessing disguised as an inconvenience." 

Christmas Thoughts

Christmastime affects everyone differently. Some rejoice with the thought of being reunited with family, while others might be filled with dread. Still others celebrate by giving gifts, while others are reminded that they can't afford to buy any. Christmas can seem magical with shops decorated to the nines, while streets sparkle with all of the lights, especially here in Germany. But recently, due to events in the world, many people are given the stark reminder that true evil does exist in this world. It seems impossible to escape the headlines advertising more deaths, computer hacking, conspiracy, kidnapping, etc, making it hard to have faith in anything this time of year.  In church this morning, the pastor noted how life seems to be mirroring the words penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in "Christmas Bells." One of the verses goes as follows:

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" 

We must not despair, though, in light of all that's going on in the world. It's easy to get caught up in world news and try to drown our sorrows with the hype of Christmas, but don't lose its true meaning, which is the birth of Jesus. His birth was prophesied in Isaiah 9:6, where it is written, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Jesus is the Messiah that the Jewish people yearned for while ruled by the Roman Empire, but in their minds, they contrived a rescuer from physical, not spiritual oppression, neglecting to realize that they needed the sin within them and the whole world to be defeated. In Matthew 1:21, an angel came and spoke to Joseph and stated that as the exact purpose of Jesus' birth. It is written, "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."

At Christmas, we are called to remember that we are all sinners in need of rescuing. We cannot save ourselves from this wicked world, but there is a Savior whose name we can call on and be saved. He was born in a manger over 2000 years ago in order to walk alongside humanity, feel every sorrow known to man, resist temptation, set an example for the disciples by walking daily in God's will, and demonstrate how to love sacrificially by dying for our sins on the Cross at Calvary. 

So this year, I urge you all to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. His birth truly is a cause for celebration because without Him, we'd be destined for an awful, miserable eternity. My hope is that you'll yearn to learn more about His birth, life, and death by reading the Bible, which is God's love letter to the world. By doing so, I hope that you'll become enlightened about the true meaning of Christmas and desire to entrust Jesus with your life because your eternity depends on it.