"I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” - Psalm 143:8
This verse is on a card hanging on our fridge, directly across from where I sit for breakfast in the morning. For the first week of looking at it, what I thought most often when looking at this verse was honestly:
“Wow, it will take forever for me to learn everything I need to know to translate that.” Look at it. You have the present perfect tense, you have a command with the word “should,” indirect and direct objects, a few vocabulary words I do not know in Albanian yet.
And while this is all true, and the language-learning process can be quite overwhelming (and humbling!), I read this verse again the other day and felt something a little different.
I read this verse and saw it as a true declaration to the Lord from the original author, but also one that I want to continually speak to the Lord.
I have put my trust in you, Lord, and I do pray that you show me the way I should go each day in all things. For to you I entrust my life, I entrust my adjustment to a new place and new culture, I entrust my involvement in life and ministry with the new community I am in, I entrust the future of my relationships - old and new, and I entrust the journey of learning a new language with the hope and joyful expectancy of being able to fully communicate with my neighbors in their heart language. I entrust all of these things to you, Lord, and I know your plans and ways are far better than my own.
So, while I have not learned all about past and future tenses, I know enough in Albanian to say: Zot, faleminderit për sot. God, thank you for today.
And that's a pretty good place to start every morning.