In Latvia I have met a lot of these people but instead of thinking “I can’t even imagine..” it’s now the Lord speaking to me:
“Stop imagining and just do”.
See, right when all 48 of us stepped into this country, we have been blessed by the people here. A churchheard about how we have been traveling for 9 months prior throughout Asia and Africa. They heard about how most of us had only sandals, tank tops and shorts/skirts. They heard we didn’t have anything to do for Easter and barely a budget for food. So, they changed their Easter plans with their families and fed all 48 of us a home cooked meal (including dessert). Afterwards they sent us upstairs to a room full of pants, jackets/sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves and shoes then told us we could have whatever we chose. Later, we had worship with them. That sort of love we honestly hadn’t felt in a long time.
That moment will forever be ingrained in my memory.
Stop imagining and just do.
We later split up to separate cities throughout the country to do ministry. My team, along with 2 other teams, went to Liepaja. The very next day, I met a woman who would later challenge me in such amazing ways. Not because of anything she told me to do or not to do but just because of how she lives her life. In fact, she impacted my whole team by just her love for the Father. Her name is Andra and she is only a little bit older than myself. I remember sitting at a small children’s table at a youth home that she works out for street kids. It was my team and I, Andra and the founder of the home, Tanya, talking while drinking coffee and eating chocolate (yeah, snacks in Europe are great). While Andra was talking, she started getting giddy as if she was a lovesick girl talking about a boy she was head over heels for and then she said “Sorry, I just love Jesus so much!” Her testimony is a beautiful one and I have yet to hear all of it! She’s been chased out of the Middle East, hitch-hiked across a country with nothing just to see how the Lord provides, and lives minimally so nothing hinders her from doing the Lord’s work. The conversations I’ve had with her have shaped my life more than I think she realizes but what the Lord is teaching me, she already has down; Stop imagining and just do.
What these people have in common is that they get what the Father’s love looks like and they live it.
What kind of life do I want to have after the Race?
I can’t go home the same way I left.
Physically that’s impossible already; I have plenty of new scars and possibly a new tattoo and piercing (sorry mom).
Father, change this heart completely. Make me so uncomfortable that I have to live a lifestyle that is fully Yours.
