My daughter Anna has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), genetically modified Autism, and Postural Orthostatic Tacacardia Syndrome (POTS), and about another dozen physical and psychological conditions that make it necessary for her to have a service dog for her to have a shot at independence.

Late last Thursday night or Friday morning depending on how you look at it, Anna, accompanied by my wife Mandi, embarked on a whirlwind trip to Portland, Oregon to pick up a golden retriever puppy from a breeder who specializes in show dogs. While breeding show dogs is the breeder’s focus, a number of her dogs have also been trained for service dogs since show dogs are bred to be level headed with a natural tendency to cope with stressful situations, some of the most important traits you want in a service dog.

As you might imagine, such dogs are not cheap, several thousand dollars in fact, and then much more for the special training required to be a service dog. Anna has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the money needed to make this need a reality. You can find it here, along with an update from Anna herself!

In truth, we were not expecting a puppy to be available so soon. We had thought we had about a year to get the GoFundMe going. But just a few days after setting it up, we were told a puppy that the breeder felt had the potential to fit Anna’s needs was born.

I have been learning that God is not afraid to give you something to do things when you have no idea how you can accomplish it with what you see. This seemed to be one of those times. And so, we went ahead and threw what we had to cover the costs of getting the dog, trusting that God would provide the means of covering the costs of training her. I still have no idea how He is going to do it. But I trust that He will do it. Because God does not call you to do anything He does not mean to give the resources to complete.

As I said in my sermon a few weeks ago, life is about learning two lessons: I am not enough. And second, Jesus is enough. And because of Jesus, in Jesus, through Jesus, I will always have enough. The fact is that the only way you can be learning that you are not enough and that Jesus is enough is to have Jesus bring us to people, problems, and places that make it abundantly clear that we are not enough, and that if God does not come to the rescue, we are sunk!

I don’t have to worry about not being enough to handle this problem, because Jesus has promised to provide all His wisdom, strength, resources, and finances to complete what He started. And He is not short on any of those things. When I get to the other side of this challenge, people know that it wasn’t me—because I’m not that good! God gets the glory. I get the joy of seeing God show that He is enough.