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Dr. David Livingstone, the celebrated 19th century British missionary, anti-slavery activist, and explorer of central Africa, arrived on one occasion at the edge of a large territory that was ruled by a tribal chieftain.
He was commanded to stop at the perimeter and wait.
According to tradition, the chief would come out to meet him. Livingstone could go forward only after an exchange was made.
The chief would choose any item of Livingstone’s personal property that caught his fancy and keep it for himself, while giving the missionary something of his own in return.
Livingstone owned very few things at this point in his life, but he obediently spread them all out on the ground. It looked a bit like a yard sale.
In truth he only cared about holding on to one thing: his goat. Livingstone had a chronic stomach problem, and goat’s milk was one of the few nourishments he could handle.
Therefore he prayed, “Lord, let this man take anything of mine he wants. But don’t let him take my goat. Blind him, Lord, to my goat.”
The chief came forward, examined all of Livingstone’s property, and then solemnly chose … his goat. In exchange he gave the missionary a carved stick. Livingstone, by his own testimony, was seriously bummed – although that’s not precisely the terminology he used in his journal.
What was he going to do now? And what good was this carved stick?
Someone standing alongside him explained, “The king has honored you greatly today. In exchange for your goat, he has given you a scepter. All of this territory is now open to you.”
What looked like an unimaginable loss to David Livingstone turned out to be an incredible gain for the work to which he was ultimately committed. And from that time on, his stomach problems virtually disappeared.
Poised at the edge of our next step with God, we may be desperately thinking, “I hope God is blind.”
I hope God doesn’t ask me to give up this relationship. Or this opportunity. Or this habit. Or this deep dream that I’m still holding on to.
But the King of all the earth is not blind. And the King is profoundly wise.
What we discover is that if we’re willing to place all our situations in God’s hands, and trust the outcomes to him, we will never lose our greatest blessing – the assurance that God is always holding on to us.