At one of our “crusade” meetings the other night, where there’s more dancing than Saturday Night Fever, and more hallelujah’s than Heaven itself, the guest preacher talked about perception, reality, and the truth. It was way interesting, and it got me thinking a lot.
My perception of something is usually what I think of as the truth, but if I really thought about what’s the truth in what I’m perceiving, I think I’d find out how off I really am- like how often do we perceive people one way, and realize they’re completely different?
I perceive that now the entire squad, including me, are struggling and are burnt out. We’ve had people go home, some have lost loved ones, and some are struggling through stuff from their past. The reality is that yes, it is the middle of the race, and there are challenges, but teams are working through necessary stuff and growing through the mess. The truth is that we’re doing what God has called us to do, which doesn’t mean it will be easy, but it’s what we’ve been made to do- that there’s purpose beyond the pain and that we’re getting to see who we really are and how God really is everywhere.
Kind of cool to think about the difference between perception, reality, and the truth.
I perceive that I’m not ready to leave Rwanda- it feels like we just got here in some ways and although I’ve had a difficult month working through lots in my mind, it’s been coupled with hilariousness to the max…i.e: me falling down the hill by our house and my leader peeing her pants over my flailing self. The reality is that I leave for Uganda tomorrow, whether I’m ready or not, and that we’ve had a successful month with awesome contacts and people that have blessed us beyond anything we could ask for-this week especially we were treated to a bunch of great meals from different families. The truth is that I’m supposed to be here on the race to learn a lot, like how to work through my crap, and that month seven has specific things in store for me and my team. That each place we go is not a mistake and that it’s not by accident that I’ll be back in Uganda for a second time. The truth is that it’s not really about me anyways, but about learning how to love God and love people, which, thankfully, includes me overcoming my own hang ups.
Anyways- Uganda, here I come- I’m excited to be back in black- it should be very interesting.
Thankful to have ended Rwanda on a good note-the church we were working with came together and put a roof on their building-pretty sweet. Plus, I got to baptize my teammate Sarah in a random National Geographic-esque lake yesterday and it was seriously one of my favorite moments on the race.
