Laura vs. The Palm Tree

So here’s a funny story for you guys. After a full morning of language school, a couple of my teammates and I were biking home for some lunch. As we “cautiously” maneuvered around all the puddles and mud pits, we rode past a group of ladies I had met a few days earlier. So I smile and wave at them, and greet them in Dinka as I’m riding through….big mistake. I was suddenly forced to make a quick decision. Do I a.) splash through a huge puddle about as big as a car that I will probably get stuck in and plop over in the middle of it, or b.) try to go around it on an extremely narrow strip of dry ground that has a palm tree right on the edge of it (with a big palm obstructing the pathway). Neither of them seemed like very good ideas but in the end, I chose option B. I figured I was going pretty fast, and if I drop one shoulder and tuck my head down, I could just plow right through the cluster of palms like in football. Tragically, I was very, very wrong. Turns out the cluster of palms were more sturdy than I thought and it definitely clothes-lined me into the huge puddle I was trying to avoid. As I was laying in the middle of the mud puddle, I realized that so many times we get so wrapped up in what we are doing at that very moment that we forget about the big picture. And at that moment, all I was thinking about was I didn’t want to be late for lunch when really the sole reason for me to be here in Sudan is to build relationships with people to share the Gospel and disciple them. Sometimes, we need to be taken out by a palm tree to remember that bigger picture. Please pray that I not get distracted by my immediate tasks, but rather be completely guided by the Holy Spirit and seek his discernment.