Exceeding My Expectations

We’re now entering the final phase of my sabbatical. We’re spending this week in New York City, staying in the Gramercy Park neighborhood. Love this place! God has blessed us so much these past couple of months.

Let me give you one example. Last week I wrote this to our congregation:

The song that has been going through my head this past week comes from the old hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness. “All I have needed, thy hands have provided…” That’s exactly how I feel. God has given us exactly what we needed during this sabbatical, and what he’s provided exceeds my expectations.

I gave a few examples. One of them was the week we were about to enjoy at Cedarly in Wisconsin (part of the  Pastors Retreat Network in Wisconsin. It was a great week, and evidence of God’s provision. But when I wrote the above paragraph, I hadn’t experienced it yet, and I didn’t even know how God was about to surprise us.

An hour before we arrived at Cedarly, I got this email from my friend Chris Brauns:

Jamie and I are at Cedarly this week…or we were until we saw the guest list.

Amazing! Chris and I had just talked a few days ago, but neither of us knew that the other would be going to Cedarly.

This email came a few minutes later:

Jamie and I were amazed!

It’s good to be a Calvinist where things can work out providentially.

I can’t tell you how good it was to spend the week with Chris and Jamie, as well as the other guests. If you wanted to pick a couple who would be a huge blessing to Charlene and me, you couldn’t do any better than picking Chris and his wife Jamie.

I had hoped for a few surprises like this when I began my sabbatical, but God keeps doing this. It’s beyond generous. God is so good.

Please pray that God will use this last month of the sabbatical to prepare me for what’s coming next. He certainly hasn’t let us down so far.