Today is the first day of the rest of your month

I know ... I do this every month. You're saying to yourself, "Why? What is the deal with her?"

But, I am forced to say it again -- where does the time go? August. It is August. I have no idea how I got from mid-March to here and now. No idea. Turn back the clock.

We headed back to Port for the second team shopping trip and another stop into General Hospital today. For the latest on where things are - regarding a possible surgery for Mme Felius, see the last couple of comments on Troy's post called "Part Two." That has the most recent information.

For those of you keeping good track of the folks we're following and praying for, please pray that Emmanuel might become adoptable. Licia (Cazale Rescue Center & Clinic) and I have been trading emails trying to figure out exactly what the best thing to do is. The two family members we met back in May, before he went to Cazale in June, are both M.I.A. We need them to clarify their intentions for this little boy. Pray they show up soon so he does not need to be in limbo. Licia says he is getting to be quite a charmer. His HIV tests came back negative and he is getting bigger and stronger each week. He is one tough little man to have fought back from 3+ pounds.

There are 8 million groceries to unpack and sort - so I better pop an iron pill and get to work.

MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST "After Obedience - What?" Mark 6:45-52

We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him,He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God's purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not.

The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end. What is my dream of God's purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process - that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea.

It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God. God's training is for now. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end. God's end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present: if we realize that obedience is the end,then each moment as it comes is precious.