“Everything is falling apart!” My outburst came one day after a visit to the Kurasini Orphanage in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where our team of volunteers has been working with the staff to raise the children’s living standard. We had begun by improving sanitation in the kitchen and dormitories, and some progress had been made. But it seemed that there were always more things that needed to get done. As the to-do list grew, so did the list of needed materials and supplies. There was also the matter of funding. How would we find enough sponsors to help meet all of these needs?
We had been discussing the project over dinner when my mind flashed back to the state of the nursery, and I felt overwhelmed with frustration once again—hence my “Everything is falling apart!” outburst.
One of my colleagues chuckled and reminded me of the dismal condition the orphanage had been in the first time we saw it. Then he listed the many changes that we had been able to make.
How foolish I felt! Yes, there was still much to do, but taking a few minutes to consider and appreciate how far we had come helped put things in perspective. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I was overjoyed that so many changes had come to pass. Slowly but steadily, progress was being made.
Then I heard God’s voice in my mind: Who is ultimately in control?—I am! Who sees the situation more clearly and knows better how to fix it, you or Me?—I do! Who has come through for you every time you faced an ‘impossible’ situation in the past?—I have! The best thing you can do is to keep doing what you can day by day and keep praying. Trust Me, things will fall into place in My time!
That was all I needed to hear. I felt a surge of energy and renewed determination. We would move forward with the things we could, taking one thing at a time and leaving the rest in God’s hands. With God behind us, we could do this!
All of life is like that, of course. Many times the odds seem stacked against us, but if we’ll stop and step back for a moment, we’ll see once again that God is there to help. In His hands, things don’t fall apart, they fall together.