Go before me...loose the chains

So, I have to make a little confession...giving this blog a title was a really painstaking process...trying to come up with something meaningful, but not cliché... You can ask my friends Caitlin and Jaynie...I agonized for a good long time about it. Thankfully, as I was bouncing around ideas, the words, "go before me" came to mind. It was like someone tapped me on the shoulder and whispered it in my ear and my only response was, yyyyeeessss...I do need God to go before me... So I went to Scripture and looked for the words "go before." The title and url I finally chose are inspired by the following passage from the book of Isaiah:

Is this not the fasting that I have chosen? To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked to clothe him and not to turn away your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help and he will say: Here am I. "If you will do away with the yoke of oppression, and with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58:6-11)

As the practical details of planning this trip start to wane (well, except for that whole packing part), and the reality sinks in that I'll be in India in 12 days, I can't help but be struck by the fact that I am in waaaaay over my head. It's not the first time, which is kind of how I know that it's true. I can spend (and have spent) a lot of time imagining what it's going to be like...thinking about the kiddos I'll meet and love on, the friends I'll make, the injustices I'll be exposed to, the pain, the joy, the evil, the love...but the reality is that I can't really prepare myself for this adventure. I don't know what lies ahead. I only know that God has called me to go. So, I am asking him to go before me. I'm trusting that the Lord will guide me always. I'm expecting for his righteousness to go before me and the Lord will be my rear guard. Simply put, I need Him.

Truthfully, I'm pretty glad that I can't count on my clumsy human self to prepare for this trip. Relying fully on the Creator of the Universe to go before me pretty much guarantees an outstanding result. I mean, seriously Creator...of the UNIVERSE. Loose the chains of injustice? I don't want to attempt that task relying on my strength...

Go before me, Lord.