~ Recently I saw "A" walk past "B" and swat her on the shoulder. "B" had been sitting alone with her head down, probably still grieving the loved one she had lost not too long before. "A" said, "Hey, why that face? Be happy. We [as believers] should always be happy." My knee-jerk reaction was indignation. How insensitive! Even after I calmed down, though, my mind kept going back to the incident. Do people see that we really know the Jesus who lived in our world and fully experienced both joy and sorrow - at times intertwined through the same moments? Or do we give the impression that following Jesus means a plastic mask, a fake smile, a glib Praise the Lord? Brothers and sisters, that. is. not. what people need to see. They do not need to see phony happiness. They need to see real people following the real Jesus. Let's be authentic in our joy and our sorrow.
~ Some people are self-absorbed and need to be woken up to the struggles or suffering of those around them. Other people go through life, picking up the world's troubles like a kid collecting sticks for a campfire. I tend more towards the latter. (That's not to imply that I can't be selfish, because I can.) I'm learning that as soon as I start picking up other people's troubles, I need to hand them to the Lord instead of trying to carry them around myself. He's the only one capable of handling them. My shoulders were never meant to carry the weight of the whole world, the moon, and half of Jupiter (to paraphrase one of my favorite authors). I clearly can't feed every hungry child, keep a friend from losing her job, or stop the Ebola outbreak. I need to let God be God. The letting or trusting is, of course, for my benefit not His - He will be God regardless.
~ One aspect of human love is the desire to protect. For instance, mothers love their children and so they seek to protect them from harm. I don't think this is anything but natural. I've been wondering, though, if we sometimes expect God's love to be the same way. Yes, God as a loving Heavenly Father wants only the best for His children, but...do I automatically assume that means He'll protect me from difficulties? That I'll be insulated from bad things? Much as I might like to believe that, I know it's not true. I can't act like He's obligated to "protect" me (in the sense of keeping me from situations that hurt) when I remember that He didn't protect His own Son from the pain of the cross. If He allows pain in my life, it's because of His love, not apart from it.
~ Somehow His presence was enough in spite of my fear. I read that on someone's blog a while back (I don't even remember where), and it really struck me. As we're trying to walk with the Lord, we may not always experience the complete absence of fear, but regardless of what we feel, we can know and choose to believe that He is with us and that is enough. Always. Always.
~ I've been thinking way back to 2013, when my NTM status was changed from Awaiting Assignment to En Route. The whole process had been rather drawn-out (through no fault of my own), so it felt like a momentous occasion to finally be En Route to West Africa. And then, of course, the day came when my status was changed to Serving in West Africa. Although geographically I've arrived, in a lot of ways I still feel "en route". Not quite there. On the way. The longer I'm here, the more I realize how much God has to teach me, both about living in West Africa and about following Him in general.
~ And on a more business-y note, I'd really love to feature more grace stories in the future, so if you have one you'd like to share (whether it's your salvation testimony or a particular experience through which you clearly saw God's grace), shoot me a message. Even if I already shared one of your stories back in October. :)
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