Same Same BUT different

        Today I’ve thought a lot about Africa. I can still picture the slum in Kenya where I played with kids and was given bags of clothes by a lady. The church in Uganda where my teammate Gina and I sang ‘oh happy day’ acapella style…dang. Or Rwanda where we taught lots of little kids the ‘hoky poky’. I think what I loved most about my team these three months is that we were so differant. True…we found lots of common ground but we were very much differant. Each of us was a piece to the puzzle that required something differant to the greater puzzle. Every country we went to in Africa had it’s uniqueness but also had it’s similarities.

    

 

        I remember walking down the street in every country and seeing mostly the same things. Everyone needed to work so they’d build a store or a restaurant. The crazy thing is, they’d all build them the same. So you have store after store that look exactly the same. Sometimes there weren’t even color differances. I think Uganda liked the color blue; Kenya ususally stuck with the classic wood slats; and Rwanda would have wood slats or just sheets. What really gets me though is that nine times out of ten they would sell the same products. How they make money, I have no idea…Grace of the Lord!

 

Where am I going with this?

 

   I’ve been asked a lot in my almost two weeks in America, ‘what’s next?’. My answer everytime has been ‘I don’t know.” Today I realized it’s hard being asked the same question over and over and still giving the same answer. I want to know…there are many times I wish I knew the plan for my life. I know that there is a plan and that I’ll know what to do next. I know that this is going to be differant. It won’t be like African shops lined down the road…all the same. We are actually all called to be differant. God calls us to a higher standard. I believe things happen in our lives for a reason and that somehow God recieves glory for it…for our lives. He has redeemed us, forgiven us, loved us, pursued us to be differant.

 

 

   So for now, this recently returned racer’s life is low key. It’s differant than what it use to be. I’m not who I use to be and I will continue to change. I will continue to yield and trust.