When The Phone Rings

Pay attention to this! You're saying, "Today or tomorrow we will go into some city, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money." You don't know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears. Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans.

If you've been following this blog for even a couple of months, or if you know us, you know that when the phone rings these words from James 4: 13-15 come to life. I have probably put this scripture in a post before, and I probably will again. We literally do not know, from one day to the next, what our plans for the future, for the week ahead, sometimes even for the day, will be.

I know some people that would have a very hard time living this way. You may be saying, "I couldn't do it." Believe me, Lavonda can't either, but Christ in me can.

In the last 40 some years God has trained, taught, molded, shaped, filed, whittled, sanded, squeezed, squished, broken, and re-formed me into the still-imperfect but gettin'-there person that I am today. And through it all, I've come to pray, "God, put me where you want me TODAY. And wherever that is, I will trust you, knowing that you will keep me in Your hand. By an act of my will, I choose to be content in that place and in this hour."

The phone rang yesterday.
We won't be spending the next few month here in Baton Rouge like we thought we might. We won't be going to Houston (near Kaleena) to work, like we hoped. It looks like we will be headed to Mobile, Alabama.

The "powers that be" have decided that Rick should be back in the office for a while. It was a year ago to the day that the "powers that be" cut Rick from the office and put him back on the road and up on roofs. Go figure.

This time Rick will be working in a different department, housed in a different building in a different part of town with different responsibilities. We plan to stay in a different RV park as well. Oh, our spicy life. (Variety you know) It is supposed to be an assignment that will be "beneficial" to the overall career. His last stay in the office, which lasted 9 months, was good for the big picture, so we are hoping this time will be too.

Rick is working hard to finish up the claims he has here so we can make a mad dash through Texas to see all the kids and get my car. Just like any other place and any other assignment, we have no idea how long we will be in Mobile, but we expect (here I go making plans again) to be there a while. So, it will be nice to have an extra car so I can find and take advantage of a Bible study group, the public library, or maybe even a gym. (I'll have to think about that last one.)

We don't have a specific date to report to Mobile, just ASAP! (So what else is new?) So, ASAP we will be heading to Mobile from Baton Rouge by way of Houston and Amarillo, Texas. The scenic route for sure! But what could be more beautiful to see than the faces of our children and those most adorable granddaughters?

At least that is the plan tonight. But you never know when the phone is going to ring. "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans."