Expectations

           Have you ever tried to plan something out both on paper and in your mind; everything works out perfect as things fall seamlessly into place?  Well, that basically describes how I thought our trip to Mexico would be.  I thought I had everything figured out, which is very unusual for me.  On paper, it all sounded great, a week in Mexico, two days in New Orleans, and a road trip.   However, this was not necessarily how it really played out. 

            Originally we were supposed to leave Thursday morning at 5 a.m., but do to our impulsiveness and zeal we ended up leaving at midnight the night before.  I drove through the night and made it to the bottom of Alabama before pulling into a parking lot to catch up on some sleep.  Two hours later, we were back on the road driving to Louisiana.  I made it maybe fifty miles inside of Louisiana before I became desperate for sleep again.  Oh, did I mention that I was also the only one who could drive the rental van.  Anyways, I pulled into a gas station to sleep, in the middle of the afternoon.  I couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep in the van because I couldn’t stretch out.  So, this led me to improvise.  I took my pillow, flung it up on the roof of the van and then made my way on top of the van for a quick power nap.  After a thirty minute nap on the roof of our van, we got back on the road and made our way to our campsite for the night.  The next evening we arrived in Mexico after a “no-frills” second leg of our journey.

            Our time in Mexico was great.  I was able to rekindle some old friendships and encourage the team that was already in Mexico.  It was also very encouraging to me to be able to sit back and witness the Lord using the interns to encourage and minister to the Mexico team.  The team had a little bit of division in it and my team was able to come alongside of them and serve as a buffer.  The trip as a whole was good but I did overlook part of the set-up of this trip that made things a little awkward.  When I set-up the trip I had the interns shadowing the participants of the Mexico team on all of their ministries.  This looked great on paper, but when acted out created some problems.  The biggest thing being that the interns struggled to find purpose in their visits and it was very difficult to take any sort of ownership in what they were doing when it was someone else who had built the relationship.  I guess it would be kind of like asking your friend to have one of their friends become one of your friends.  They do all the work and you have a hard time connecting with the person because you haven’t had the time to build the relationship. 

            The only other difficulty that our team encountered was that some of us had gotten sick either with colds or what I started calling the Sudden Taco Disease, (which involves going to the bathroom more often then not).  Unfortunately, because of the condition of our team, I decided to for go the stop over in New Orleans.  Instead, I drove as far as I could then stopped for a restful night in a hotel, let everyone sleep in, then drove the rest of the way home the next day.  We made it home safely and we have all for the most part gotten over our sicknesses. 

            As a whole this trip reminded me of the importance of not letting our expectations rule us or even ruin us.  That we literally die to our own needs daily and choose to serve those around us even when it isn’t always comfortable or convenient.  I also have seen how important it is to seek the Lord every step of the way no matter how miniscule the decision may seem.  He wants to be a part of our lives and he is just itching for an invitation.  I guess I could some everything up by saying that I had unrealistic expectations for this trip and had I not realized this early on; then I would have felt like a failure. Instead, I spent the much needed time in prayer and said, “Lord I set myself up for failure.  How can I make this work?”  I turned everything over to him and some how he made things work out for us.