What
does Jesus mean when He talks about having “ears to hear?” Sure, He wants us to
listen to His words, but don’t we all have ears to hear? Isn’t that what ears
do? Perhaps He’s talking about ensuring that our ears can actually “hear” His
words, His voice, not just that they can receive the sound waves. Maybe this is
a desperately needed reminder to turn down the volumes of distractions in our
lives so that our ears can fully hear Jesus.
Being
so blessed with comforts and an easy lifestyle here in San Juan, we have failed
to truly experience the lifestyle and inherent struggles of the people with
whom we are building relationships. Drawing on my experience from past mission
trips, where living more simply, like the people of the community, had a major impact
on our ability to engage them in love and compassion, I quickly realized we
were unknowingly creating a block to our ministry with these people.
Thankfully,
God gave me a positive venue to present this discovery to the two teams with
whom I am working. Now, obviously we know that God can work in people’s lives
no matter what the circumstances are. Nevertheless, our greatest growth always seems
to happen when we are not operating within our normal conditions, doesn’t it?
When we choose to live at our limits, God just seems to show up in ways unbeknownst
to us. Whenever we cut something out of our regular routine, this inevitably
pushes us to pay more attention to God. American culture is dominated by
immediate gratification and availability. To deny ourselves of such extravagant
convenience then, even if only in part, greatly heightens our ears’ ability to
hear God. It’s just like when you run or play a sport barefoot. You pay a lot
more attention to where you step and how use your feet so that you don’t hurt
them. Without shoes, you have a heightened awareness of your surroundings. The
same thing happens when you take off your “shoes” of comfort and convenience.
My
team and the one with whom we are working agreed to see what God would do if we
took these “shoes” off for 48 hours. The challenge was to not use personal money
or eat food that we had purchased with it, so as to eat only on our team
budget. In addition, we agreed to cut our 4 hour siesta (afternoon break time)
in half, since it had become easy for people to “hide” in the house and not engage
with the people of San Juan.
On
the first day, God totally made the most of my choice to spend more time in the
community, as our friend in Guatchtupita (our ministry neighborhood) invited my
man Robby and I for lunch after ministry was finished and the rest of our teams
had left. It was a blessed time in which God humbled us in our perspective on
food, as we were well fed by a poor woman who had enough trouble putting food
on her own plate. In addition, the joy that encased her face as she performed
such a service of love for us attested that it was not simply a nice gesture.
This was a moment when the boundaries of age, culture, language, and social
class were dispelled and the Spirit of God united us around the table, a place of
universal significance. Such experiences allow you to taste the reality that,
in the presence of God, nothing can hinder true fellowship and unity between
human beings. This is when ministry and just pure, God-intended interactions
happen. Obviously, God was responding with blessing to our decision to live at
our limits for this time.
Amongst
other blessings in our ministry and community time, God also opened new doors
for my team during this time of living in uncharted territory. During our feedback
and reflection time as a group on the second day, we reached unprecedented
levels of sharing and wholehearted communication. We talked more than we ever
had about our thoughts, frustrations, and insights from our ministry, a conversation
that sparked our gradual realization of our collective purpose in ministry in
San Juan. New emotional connections were established and the line between team
and family finally began to blur; a process which has rapidly increased in the
past 2 weeks.
These
examples may not be groundbreaking, but their occurrence and the impact they
have had demonstrates that God exposes more of the kingdom and its truths when
we live at our limits.
