Pat's Paragraphs
July 2018
Dear Friends,
When my children were growing up, I often heard myself saying to them, “Just because something is hard is no reason not to do it.” Truth is, life can be grueling and it’s not only children who balk when things get tough. Us grown-ups can be tempted to quit too, when matters get difficult.
We might even be tempted to think that challenges and difficulties are a sign from God, a message, like, “Maybe this project isn’t God’s will, because surely if God wanted us to do it, He would make it go smoothly.” Right?!
Or, “We don’t have enough money, so maybe it’s not God’s will for us to do it.”
And truly, maybe God does communicate that way at times. But that has not been our experience here at LLT. Difficulties and challenges, money or the lack of money, have never been the key determiners, the makers of our decisions, on what God would have us do.
It’s not always easy, this praying, planning, waiting, watching, trusting God for everything. But only because we are so mortal and blind, so slow to perceive and believe His Word. And that’s probably what it’s all about: difficulties show us our need and we cry out to Him. He hears our prayers and answers them. We find that He can be trusted, that He is faithful and sufficient.
Sister Ellen wrote these words to one of the saints: “God has given you continual evidence of His love in that He has given you adversity time and again.” Upward Look, p.208
Adversity? Yes. The date for our shoot with Dwight Nelson was only a week off when our long-time producer/director/editor Jeff Wood sustained a nasty injury that has laid him up for several weeks and promises to keep him close to home for another 2-3 months. The canceled shoot cannot be rescheduled before the end of September.
Surely God loves us and surely He intends good from this. We are asking Him to completely heal Jeff, and in this extra time we’re working on more scripts and some video blogs for our FB page, Eternal Future: Beyond the Smoke.
It’s yet another opportunity for us all to pray and to trust that God is big enough and has everything and everyone of us in His hands. He will accomplish His will, and He will yet use us, if we’re willing.
Please, keep praying for this work and that we all will be faithful servants and bright reflectors of God’s goodness.
In Christ,
Pat Arrabito
