It never looks how we think it should look!

"Faith consumes itself not with questions but with a person, and that person is Jesus.  Simply put, we are asking too many questions that would never be issues were we in His presence.  All fear of the future would leave my young children's faces when they were in my lap.  Climb into His lap and rest in faith."                                                                                Author Michael Wells

 JESUS TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
As Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, "most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting, 
 'Praise God for the Son of David!  Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Praise God in highest heaven!'  The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.
                                                                                                   Matthew 21:8-10 

Jesus went from being praised and honored to upsetting the statuesque of the sellers in the temple.  (Matthew 21:12-17).   It must have been a temptation to stay in the admiration of the people, after-all they were acknowledging that He WAS the "Son of David"!  They knew the Messiah would come from the line of David and by giving Him this title - they were acknowledging His diety.

Jesus stayed obedient to the Father.  He didn't gloat in the glory.  He overturned tables and used a whip to drive them out!

Walking in obedience never looks like how we think it will look.
With Jesus they thought, "Trimumphant King" yet He came as a poor carpenter.
They thought the Messiah would dine with Kings yet he called poor, uneducated fishermen.
They thought the Messiah would overthrow the government, yet the government crucified Him.

David Brainerd (1718-1747) preached among Native American Indians at the age of 24.  He suffered a lot.  His diet was meager and unwholesome, His lodging a log hut, and his bed a bundle of straw spread on boards.  He describes his condition, "I am now quite alone with no friend to take sweet counsel together.  In my weak state of health, I have no bread, nor could I get any.  I am often forced to go ten or fifteen miles in stormy and severe weather for all the bread I eat, and sometimes it is moldy and sour.  I was almost outdone with the extreme fatigue and wet.  Yet, I love to live alone in my own little cottage where I can spend much time in prayer."  

Oh the sweetness of fellowship with Jesus!  When I read this I thought about how nothing is comparable to spending time with Jesus!  Even through cold and near starvation the presence of Jesus was sweet to David.  We need to stop trying to make things look like we think they should look.  I'm sure David never imagined the hard conditions working with the Indians.  He died very young, not four years later.  To the world, his life looks worthless.   Yet, his biography became a source of inspiration and encouragement to many Christians, including missionaries William Carey and Jim Elliot. Even today, his name rings from the earth and I am encouraged by his words. Hundreds of Indians were converted through David's preaching.  In heaven we will get to see the impact his life made on this earth.