Kylie and I are just a couple weeks into our squad leading journey. X squad has made it safe and sound in Costa Rica and is spread out all over the country, settling into their ministry and their teams.
For our first week and a half, we felt led to join two teams in Jaco. Jaco is a tourist town on the beach, full of surfers and blazing hot sun, coffee shops, restaurants, and ice cream parlors. During the ten days we were there, we helped the teams at a homeless ministry, bar prostitution ministry, kids’ club ministry, a couple Bible Studies, and a whole lot of moving dirt around the property (the ministry there is making some major changes to help control rain flow).
As we slowly settled into the ministry at Jaco, one thing became evident. This place can suck you in and steal the life out of you. It has most of the comforts world racers covet. Which are the very same things that can steal life out of this experience.
The group here is starting to realize that we need to be intentional about our spiritual journey. No program or season or relationship is going to magically usher in the kind of life God is calling us into. We have to choose it.
Evangelism is the transition between bad choices and good choices. Discipleship is the transition between good choices and better choices, a continual process of learning to choose the thing that inches us closer to Christ.
While we are at Jaco, there is a ton of good choices to be made. Is there extra ministry we can do, like babysitting our host’s kids? Do I need to press into my team and really get to know them? Should I do one-on-ones with individuals? Do I need to make time for just me and the Lord? Do I need to show up to ministry? Do I need to make time for my marriage? Do I need to explore the culture and adventure opportunities in Costa Rica?
It is a world full of ‘yes’ in the Kingdom of Heaven. The teams here (and us too) are dealing with an over-abundance of good choices. The challenge for each of us is to figure out which is the better choice in this moment, on this day.
For me, the hardest part has been making time out to write and memorize Scripture (the things that bring me life), because I want so badly to pour into the members of this squad and be invested in ministry. That is my default and I realize it is my default for a variety of reasons, not all of which are healthy. So, like all of us, I am fighting for balance, fighting to influence and be influenced, to hear and to be heard, to press into solitude and community.
My prayer life too often consists of me rattling off the things I want. Perhaps the key between good choices and better choices is silencing my own voice and yearning to listen for the heart of God.
Our default mode is always the path of least resistance. Without intentionality, we will act out of the-most-we-can-get-away-with rather than what-is-best. Without listening for the voice of God, we can find ourselves drifting, becoming victims of our circumstances, unaware and unable to navigate our emotions.
Kylie and I have just left Jaco and are heading for the slums of San Jose, an area of the city called La Carpio. It is a vastly different atmosphere than the one we’ve been in at the beach in Jaco.
But life is awaiting us in la Carpio. The race is just life. Seasons change and one circumstance melts into another. None of it will usher in growth and goodness apart from my conscious choice to engage in growth and goodness.
Pleas pray for us and for the squad as we try to discern the Lord’s will for our lives and for our day. Pray that we might figure out, in this moment, which is the better choice.
For a glimpse into our time at Jaco, check out the blog of one of X squad’s finest:
http://hannahpeachey.theworldrace.org/?filename=i-cannot-unsee-this
