Tomorrow

April 10, 2020

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4:13-14

These verses have never been more real to me than they were the day we moved. And they have come to mind a lot over the past few weeks. I arrived back from the jungle on March 12. We were told we could move in to our new apartment March 20 but maybe sooner. We were able to sign the contract and start moving on Saturday, March 14. I had planned in my head we would move the 21st. But Javier said we might as well start moving the 14th. We thought we would move slowly so that we could organize as we moved. These were all good plans, but sometimes our plans change in the blink of an eye!

Church was canceled that Sunday, March 15 but nothing else was really affected yet by coronavirus. We had planned for some friends to come help us around lunchtime move some things and then we would treat them for lunch. We prepared the first load of things, which included a lot of the big items but not the kitchen: stove, fridge, washer, etc. We also weren't planning on moving our bed yet. We thought we would sleep in the old apartment a few more nights. We found a guy with a truck to help us move. He is from Venezuela, and if you know anything about their past few years, you know the country went downhill quickly. We have quite a few refugees here whose lives changed very fast. We unloaded the truck and planned to go have lunch. It was almost 2 and we didn't want to keep our friends waiting to eat. We talked to the driver and he said "well we might as well move everything now." Javier and I didn't want to keep our friends waiting for lunch or push them too hard. "No we will wait until tomorrow," We told him. His response was "you never know what tomorrow will hold." We didn't listen and were confident that tomorrow we could move the rest. That was not such a good idea!

That night around 8pm, the president announced that starting at midnight the country would go into quarantine for 15 days. We had no idea what that would look like but knew things would be different. After a few minutes we remembered what the truck driver had said and that half our stuff was in the old apartment and half in the new! Would we be allowed to move things under quarantine? Our old apartment was quite dark and didn't have windows looking outside, only onto other buildings, and being stuck inside would be miserable. So we called the truck driver at 9:30 that night. Javier, joking, greeted him with "Ummm we think you are a prophet!" But at the same time we should have listened to him! Javier asked him to help us move the rest of our house. Javier also called his nephew and asked him to help. So we moved our fridge, stove, bed and other big things at 11 that night. It was crazy! But we got it done!

Since that day, I have been thinking on the above verses a lot. We are so quick to plan our lives and not think about the fact that really we are not in control. God is the one in control. He knows what is going to happen. We don't. Things can change rapidly! It has made me more aware that I need to share my faith with others. We don't know how much time each of us has left. I also need to be more willing to share my resources. Yes, it is important to save and be wise, but I also need to be generous. They aren't my resources anyway!

We are also thankful for the ways God provides in the midst of craziness. The truck driver we found randomly (or so we thought) was a superhero I am pretty sure. He carried the fridge up 3 flights of stairs by himself! I think he also carried up the washer and stove by himself. It would have taken us twice as long or longer without him. He was also willing to help us move at 11pm! We would have gone crazy in our old apartment. This one looks out over a park. Here in Peru we aren't allowed outside to walk, so having fresh air and tiny balconies is a huge blessing. We also are thankful for our neighbors who are missionary friends of ours. They are the only people we see during this time. I think I would have gone crazy without them and their kids! God knows. We can trust Him. And we can live daily trusting him, seeking to serve him that day, not just the next.