A few nights ago, we had a wonderful opportunity to take the kids from Shalom out to the park and to McDonald’s for ice cream. It was a very big excursion, as it takes a lot of patience and planning to get ten kids plus all of us into town. Our initial plan was to catch a bus very close to the house and get into town by these means.
Once we dashed to get to the bus stop in time for the 8:30pm bus, we found out that the bus wasn’t coming until 9pm. It was a bit exasperating, as we had just gotten all the kids ready and this meant we were going to be even later getting them home for bed. However, God has plans of His own.
We walked twenty-five minutes into town to catch a cable tran that would take us close to the children’s park. Once we made sure everyone was present and accounted for, we began to wait. The tran is connected to cables that run through the median in town, with bust traffic on the left and right. It just so happened that while we were waiting, we heard a horribly loud noise. A man had been driving a car with loads of heavy boards and wood tied to the roof, and when he slowed for the stop light, it spilled out all over the road.
Immediately, my teammates, Don and Anthony, and my squad leader, Aaron, ran out to help him pick up everything. The kids and I watched the intensity of it all, as speeding cars dodged and weaved around this man’s car and all the debris in the road. It would have been a very daunting task for a single man, especially since there was a lot of things that had fallen into the road. But with the help of our guys, he had all of his boards strapped down even tighter than before and was on his way in moments.
As we watched, our youngest child at Oaza, a seven-year-old named Alex, chimed in.
“It is for this reason why God did not sending us on the bus,” he said in his personalized English, “Jesus wanted us to be here right now so the man would have help, because he is only one man and cannot do it by himself. Jesus sent us here to help him.”
Such a simple statement, and yet full of profundity.
If the old me would have been able to look into the future, such a simple thing would seem sweet, but not necessarily meaningful for me. Living each day here is teaching me so much about God’s plans versus my own.
I wanted to come on the World Race to change the world, to introduce masses of people to Jesus Christ, to change the course of history. Such a small thing as helping a Romanian man pick up a load of wood in the street couldn’t possibly be what I came here for… Could it?
Yet, this living is so much more than that. We spend every day living in intense community, pouring our hearts and souls out to the Lord in intercession and prayer, speaking life into each other and forsaking our comforts to truly meet each other where we’re at and love ’til there ‘aint much left.
When I pour my life out for God and let Him pour His into me, these tiny little interactions hold as much power in them as preaching a revival service for a thousand people. I know, it doesn’t make sense; it didn’t make sense for me before and if the old me was reading this now, I wouldn’t be able to understand. There is something about leaving it all and recklessly following God every day. Of walking in His power, of becoming His will in this world.
By stepping outside the Matrix, I’m amazed to see life how it was truly created to be. As I walked the dusty road back home today, littered with ditches and chickens, I thought to myself, “I have never felt more alive in all of my life as I do now.”
It’s not because I’m in Romania. It’s not because I’m on an adventure. It’s not because I’m loving on orphans and singing them to sleep every night. It’s not because I’m currently surrounded by seven people that I love intensely.
It’s because, for the first time in my life, I have NO distractions from living in the very center of God’s plan for my life. I wake up every morning, excited about what He’s changing and empowering in me, as well as my teammates and squadmates. Not that cell phones and computers and the fast-paced way of American life is inherently bad, but I have been stripped of every single distraction and excuse and I am hearing God’s voice every single day. I don’t know if I ever lived in consistency like this. The accountability is extreme, the community is tight, and the connection I have with God renews and refreshes my spirit every single moment.
What’s happening out here is more real than anything I’ve ever felt in my life. Living in anticipation of what God is doing in me and through me every day is the only kind of life I ever want to live. My squad leader told me the hardest part of the race is coming home, back into the mundane and repetitive routines, and wondering, “What I felt on the World Race was the most real thing I have ever felt. In the deepest part of my soul, I knew it was real. Yet, when you come back to life as you left it, everything starts to change again, and you wonder, ‘Was what I felt real, or is this?'”
And of course, as we walk in power and expectancy of what God is doing in our lives and the lives around us, it is clear to see that this is what life was made to be. I can’t believe I’ve never lived it until now.
