Things We Can't Control

In a sense, one might look at our world and say there is little or nothing we can control. A spiritual person might also say that God is control of everything and it is really up to Him what happens each second of each day. But it is also very logical that people have free will and that God has entrusted us with different talents, gifts, responsibilities, and commitments to fulfill. Now before this gets way too philosophical or theological, I believe (at least from the way I think) that while God is in control of all in the universe, we humans get a lot of discretion in how we run our personal lives, families, businesses, and ministries. We get choices. As individuals or small organizations, we are able to have a lot more input and impact on things on the micro level. On the macro level, however, we're basically a piece of sand on the beach.

Let me digress. As CSC's missionaries and administrative staff, we are several individuals here in Cebu City, or a small organization. Micro level kind of stuff. We work in a situation where we are affected by the U.S. economy, the global economy, and fluctuating currencies. Macro level kind of stuff. One government fiscal policy pulls things one way and another government monetary policy pulls things another way - stuff we've all been affected by. But working in a dual currency ministry we are subject to things we can't control. From January 2008 until September of this year, we watched the dollar recover about 50% of the value it had lost against the Philippine peso during the two years previous to that period (from P56:$1 down toP40.2:$1 and back up to P48.7:$1. Now over the the past few weeks we have watched the dollar slide again to P46.35:$1, a 5% loss. An individual like me or a small organization like ours can't just say to all of those macroeconomic players, "Hey, how about a little more strength for our greenback?" Somebody might hear it, but nobody would listen. There are things we can't control.

And when there are things we can't control, we've only got a couple of choices. We can let it drive us crazy, or we can choose to trust God.

God entrusted this minsitry to us. God gave us the talents to do it. God gave us the great group of loyal friends and supporters to make it happen. And God knows what all of our children's needs and ministry's needs are. I'll choose to trust God. I'm crazy enough already.