View from the Mountaintop

Close to the top of the mountain sitting under a tree, I look out over the valley below in which nestles the city of Chichicastenango, Guatemala. From this viewpoint, I watch a woman and her two children use a long bamboo stick to knock down coconuts from a tree in their dirt yard close to their house. The house is made of cement blocks and has a tin roof - an upgrade from the adobe houses with tile roofs that their neighbors have higher up on the opposite side of the mountain. The sounds of dogs barking, children laughing, and people shouting to eachother take a few seconds to travel all the way to where I'm sitting, observing. From my perch I can see the winding dirt road cut into the side of the mountain in front of me and hear the slow moan of trucks' engines as they crawl up the steep ingrade. In the valley between these two mountains, on a twisting 'cobblestone' road that runs out of the crowded city, then past the gate of Monte Flor, people walk to the market in town or flag down a 'tuk-tuk' for transportation. This whole valley is filled with houses, people, families...hardly offering any place to go that blocks out the sight and sound of humanity below. As the realization that this will be my home for the next year sinks in, I wonder how many of these people I will come into contact with. Each one has a need - spiritually even more than physically. Each one has a heart that needs love and hope - two things nobody can get too much of. From my mountaintop view, it's easy to see the bigger picture - to mentally travel to houses and homes to connect with people. But it's not always that easy.
A year ago, I was in my room begging God to show me what my next step in life was. He'd placed a burden in my heart for people in need (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) from a very young age. I knew that soon I'd be stepping out to pursue the calling He'd been equipping me for. But where did He want me to go? For a long time, I've seen the needs in my own country, how family and faith are being attacked and destroyed, and I wondered if God was calling me to my own people. Yet, I love travelling and would love to visit the other continents one day. Was He calling me oversees? On a similar note, I've been coming to Guatemala with my family since I was 9 years old and this has become like a second home to me; the culture is easier for me to understand and connect with than many Americans who come down. Was it possible that He'd want me to return for longer than several months at a time? As I cried out, "God, where, when?", He reminded me of "that one time" in Mexico when I was 14 years old.
Our family had stayed in MX that winter instead of coming on down to Guate. and I was having a tough time with it emotionally, cuz it was like starting over again. I didn't know anyone and didn't have the opportunity to make very many friends my age and was wishing that we'd be in Guate. instead. At the end of my pity party - after asking for help with an attitude change - I told God that He could send me wherever He wanted me to go, even if it meant starting over a hundred times.
Last January, He reminded me of that promise. "Did you mean it?"
"God, You know I did."
 "Do you trust me?"
(hesitation) "You've proved Yourself faithful too many times to not trust You."
"So, trust me to take you where I want you to go, but until then remember..."
"Remember what, God?"
"Remember this: I've already put you where I want you. Take the time you have been given, no matter where you're at, to be my hands and feet."
Several months later, after more conversations kinda like that one, I started seriously praying about returning to Guate. for a longer period of time. It was always hard to see the big picture, but little by little over the next year, doors opened in ways that were 'so God!', directing my path down here. Plans are to go home with my family on the first Wed. of March for Joe and Bethany's wedding then come back down by myself on the last Wed. of March, Lord willing.
From my 'mountaintop' viewpoint right now, looking back over the past year, it's easy to see the hand of God, how He orchestrated all the little details. But it's only rarely that we have that kind of view ahead of us. Many times - most times - this journey of life is one step at a time, resting in the knowledge that 'He's got this'. When the questions are there, the tough spots have to be dealt with, it's hard to see what will ever come out of all of it, and when the things we're doing right now don't even make sense or fit into 'the plan' - then is when we take God at His word as "a lamp to our feet and light to our path" (Psalms 119:105). At those times we see His promises revealed in our lives; we see Him as our Shepard (Psalms 23) guiding us where He wants us to walk - each little step and around every turn. Those are the times we grow.