A couple of days ago, I was cruising through the city on the back of one of my new friend’s motorbikes. We were on our way to a Buddhist elderly home to spend some time with the residents there. I was soaking in the sights of buildings, hundreds of motos, and hanging on every word my friend spoke as he explained different things about the areas we were driving through, where he was from, and the home we were going to visit. Then I got distracted by another voice that was closer than the bike I was sitting on.
Do you see where you are?
I laugh to myself and look around again. Of course I see where I am, Lord. I’m in Viet Nam. I’m on the World Race. I’m surrounded by my team who, like me, are all on the backs of motorbikes being driven by people we’ve only known for a week.
We arrive at the elderly home and I was sure we were in the wrong place. In my head, I saw a home similar to elderly homes in the states, similar to the one where my best friend Hannah and I had two old lady best friends. Instead, I stood face to face with Buddha.
(photo credit: Saige)
My friend & moto driver was now becoming my translator as we walked into a room filled with beds and Buddhists. We sat down together at the foot of a bed that belonged to one of the feistiest 80-year-old women I’ve met, other than my own late great-grandmother. As we talked with each other and as she punched me in the arm 50 times (much like my great-grandmother, grandmother and even mom would do), I heard the voice of the Lord again.
Do you see where you are?
And again, I brush it off.
My friend/driver/translator is telling me that the woman is telling me that she has prayed to Buddha her entire life but still feels sadness in her heart. I look in the woman’s eyes and I see the longing for more as she pats her heart, presumably telling me again of the sadness she feels.
We eat lunch and I go home, ready for a nap. As I climbed into my bed in my lonely room (my roommates are gone for a couple of days with our Squad Leader), the Lord asks me again and this time, it breaks me:
Do you see where you are?
For the past week, I have been blissfully unaware of where I am in the eyes of the Kingdom. I’ve gotten lost in city life and in the beauty of the social atmosphere I’m a part of this month. But I haven’t truly had a clue of where I am.
And finally it seems that the blinders are being lifted and I’m seeing where I am through the Spirit and not my flesh. Now as He asks “Do you see where you are?” I at least have a bit of an answer. And it’s an answer that He reveals more of every single day.
I am in the midst of an adventure that’s not so much about the adventure as it is about the Adventurer leading me.
I’m in a country crying out for something that they don’t know: something…no, Someone that I am holding inside of me. The Kingdom is here, but people are blinded to it.
I’m in the middle of a room in a coffee shop, full of people who have lived their entire lives longing for freedom. Freedom that I know. Freedom that I live in as a beloved daughter of God.
I am halfway around the world, pretending to do great things with God, when really in the past week, I’ve only been selfish: sleep in till noon, watch a movie, buy some coffee, meet some new people, go have fun.
I asked the Lord to take me to places this year that need His love and His freedom spoken over them. He has delivered: I am in the middle of a beautiful country that is aching to know Him – but I sit in my hotel room.
The World Race hasn’t fixed my tendency toward apathy. The World Race won’t fix my tendency toward apathy. Only Jesus, sweet Jesus, as He gently reminds me to open the eyes He’s given me and asks:
Do you see where you are?
