This post should be most unlike everything I've written up to this point.
God's been teaching me alot, about Him and nothing else, giving me full length sermons to preach about Jesus + nothing = everything, the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus as our only reality.
He's been ushering me into a season of fullness in His presence, joy in His people, and zero distractions.
He's been pushing me to practice what I preach, about abandonment, dependence, reckless reliance, the Gospel.
He's been making me crazy night and day, stirring me to pray for big things, for people I'd have never thought to pray for, giving me new words for people I've been keeping in my prayers all along.
He's been gradually stripping me of things, of needing, of entitlement. He took away my computer by old age, my exteranl hard drive by disk corruption, my ipod by… well, it's somewhere. And He's left me facing these next six months with 0 access to every digital file I've ever owned. He's pushed me to give up half of what I was carrying with me, walking it with me accross the road in two bags to a low-caste block of trash pickers, a woman meeting us as if it were a scheduled drop off, a whispered 'thank you' and a nod enough for me to know that God put her there expecting us to come when we did.
He's been telling me it's time to get serious, and at the same time leading me into more lighte-hearted, unburdened joy than I've ever experienced. He's telling me to rest with everything I've got, fight with everything I've never been but will always be, speak without words, love without care, see these days come and go with every effort presently focused on an infintiely eternal perspective.
He's brought me to my knees on the side of the road, spilling out everything I've ever put in me, He's driven me crazy by restlessness and humbled me in His infinite recklessness. And He's comforted me, in verse after verse of assurance, that nothing ever has or will be outside of the realm of His sanctuary of sovereignty, and that I can, and need, to trust Him with everything.
And my only responsibility, when the delusions of entitlement cease, is something I've written on my hand to keep me focused, now in faded blue ink three days later – "Love God and make Him known, by loving people where they are"
I'll live these next six months very differently than these last five, and as we near the half way point I see a surprisingly unfamiliar road ahead of me. I'll update when I can, but sparingly. And I urge you, with everything I am, to get in the Word and come and follow us out here. We head off to our village outside of Kathmandu this afternoon, where the views are said to be spectacular, after one of the most refreshing, exhilarating 2 day entries into a country I've ever had, nothing but today and His whole life lived out in mine ahead of me, this one verse echoing in my ears, resounding off the Himalayan peaks that do nothing but magnify the glory of His grace –
"…And earth has nothing I desire besides you."
Love,
Danny
