Faith and Fruit

^{John 15: 1} “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.    ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

When Gergg and I looked into when we should go to Thailand it depended on a few very specific things. First, Gregg had to have the time off from work. Thankfully with Gregg vacation schedule he was able to get off over a moth starting the 31st of January though the end of February.  Secondly we had to have the cash. We had paid off all of our credit card debt this last year and there is no way we are putting a penny on a credit card for this. God can provide and he has! Last, my cycle had to line up with those dates. I know this is not usually something someone talks about on a blogg, but if you know me, you know that if it is an opportunity to talk about God, I will talk about most anything. So here goes. So when we looked back on my ‘iPeriod” app we were able to see that i am very regular. So we could go ahead and book flights and even Dr. Appointments even months a head of time.  So we did. We are scheduled to leave LAX on Feb 7th arriving in Bangkok on the 9th. We decided to go early so that we could enjoy Thailand before we had to start any of the medications. I was really looking forward to this. We were going to spend a few days in Bangkok and arrive in Chang Mai on the 11th. That left a few days even in Chiang Mai to do some tourist stuff there as well. You have to understand, they are going to be pumping me full of hormones starting the 2nd day of my cycle. So I wanted to get some good time in before I have to start dealing with some major desire to be selfish and tendency to cry over “nothing”. So in our human knowledge we had planned this perfectly.

Then God said to me something like “I love you, so I am going to test your faith”. How did he say this? He had my period start 4 days early. Ok, not big deal right? Wrong. This means that the whole trip with flights and hotels booked are now “wrong”. And if this one started early, what if it starts early the next one as well? I would be starting my period while we are still in Camarillo! I have to be in Chiang Mai  on the 2nd day of my period not on a plane!

But here is the cool part. God promises that if we remain in Him, He will remain in us, and that we will bear much fruit. When I realized I had started my cycle, I immediately thought; “God you are in control. You are speaking to me! I have Faith that this is what you want and that you knew we booked flights. I can rest in you. I will not be anxious.” This was such a special moment for me. Pure Joy and even happiness! God was showing me where I was. He was proving my Faith to me. He loved me enough to start my period early. I love our Father. He is so cool. Right?! Oh man! So exciting!  I could not resist sharing this with you, even if it is through an intimate and taboo subject.

Oh and we can still change our major flights for free, so just a bit more work there. We will have to see about the hotels and the flights in Thailand, but God is in control and we can rest in that. I will share with you what happens with those bookings, but again, God knows and even if we loose that cash, God is in control and is growing our faith!