Will you indulge me a little post-Haiti-mission-trip-processing? Thanks! I recently had the privilege of spending 5 days in Haiti, making new friends, seeing the countryside, and visiting a boy our youth group has been sponsoring through Compassion International (there will be a future blog post about that trip). The experience was so much more than I can even begin to put into mere words as it involves my feelings, my thoughts, my spirit...those parts of experiences that seem to be cheapened if you try to put them into black and white sentences and phrases.
As I have begun the process of "re-entry" back into normal life and normal routines, I'm not sure I can handle "normal" any more. One of the realizations I am sure of is that we live in a land of excess. Excess clothing. Excess food. Excess media. Excess opportunities. Excess stuff. Excess. Check out Jesus' words in Luke 12:13-21. He has some pretty specific things to say to people who make "excess" their goal in life:
A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the property our father left us.” Jesus answered him, “Friend, who gave me the right to judge or to divide the property between you two?” And he went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. He began to think to himself, ‘I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’” And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God's sight.”
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| Life in Haiti |
Can I be honest? It's been difficult this past week being bombarded with all that this land of excess has to offer. So much seems like such drivel when compared to what God would have us spend our time and resources on. How can we justify spending thousands on "entertainment" when every 5 seconds somewhere in the world a child dies from hunger? We sing songs to the Lord with lines like "Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause." The reality of that is penetrating my very being in ways that it hasn't before. If my heart breaks for the same things that God's heart breaks for, then my daily life needs to look a lot different. If all of my time and resources are spent for the Lord's Kingdom's cause, then my daily life needs to look a lot different.
Some of you are probably saying, "Yep, it's obvious she's just back from a mission trip. Give it a day or two." Well, I'm determined that my five days in Haiti are not going to be a "flash in the pan." I will share this line that I believe God impressed on my heart: "I don't feel that God is calling me to move to Haiti, but I do believe He is calling me to be moved BY Haiti." May it be so, Lord.
