40 Days in Ghana - How cool is that?

So it worked out that I'm going to be in Ghana for exactly 40 days, starting on Tuesday and running through December 11th.  When I first realized that, I started thinking "crap, that sounds too much like a really bad romantic comedy which noone watched."  Leave it to my friend Adam to point out that there was spiritual significance there too.  This of course got me reading the Gospels, particularly the sections detailing the tempting of Jesus.  The three replies Jesus has for Satan are extremely instructive:

1. Man Shall not live by bread along, but by every word of God. - That's pretty intense...we can't survive without Christ, but he feeds us and works through us and even blesses us magnificently.  It's God, not us.
2. You shall worship the Lord your GOD, and Him only you shall serve - You can't have two masters...Ellen, an elderly woman at our church, gave me a little one eyed tube.  Basically, it's a decorated paper towel roll, but it conveys the simple idea that you can only look at one thing at a time.  I can look at God, or I can look at something else, but never both.
3. You shall not tempt the Lord your God - Looking back to Dt. 6:16, where this comes from, you find that this is a commandment for diligence...constantly striving to follow what God wants every day and continually trusting Him.  He's big powerful and mighty, but there's plenty of examples of how God likes it better when we just trust Him rather than forcing a sign of some sort.

Anyways, the big flight is tomorrow.  I'm somewhat excited, but more than anything at this point I'm just content, trusting in His will and humbled by the blessings yet to come.