Hope is like a seed. If a heart has been hardened by disappointment, the seeds of hope may fall but fail to take root. In Proverbs it reads “a hope deferred makes the heart sick”. It’s unfortunately all too easy for me to lose hope for people.
My first adventure in ministry in the Dominican was the Lord healing and cultivating hope in my heart. God wanted me to pray with excitement and hope for the teen camp instead of timidness shrouded in “the land of the probable” where I was dwelling.
On the second to last day of camp we were reviewing some of the lessons of the camp. We asked our team of about 15 kids a rather deep, philosophical question: “why do we work hard?” Some of them answered “you have to work hard to be someone in the world”, “because God said so”, and other vague, enslaving perspectives.
Finally, one boy named Riquier pipes up “because God loves us!” YES! But the rest of the kids weren’t on the same page. So I climbed onto my soap box and was thrilled to expand, telling them how I work hard in response to God’s great love for me.
God has redeemed and transformed me, and with the knowledge that he has also empowered me to bring this same transforming love into dark places motivates me to keep at the work. It’s my absolute privilege to labor under such a King and to be a part of the Kingdom of restoration. This question reveals much about who you believe you are. We don’t work hard so that we can be transformed into someone else. We work hard because we have already been transformed. I topped it off by reading them Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved”.
Worship at the camp was incredible. I even volunteered to learn several songs in Spanish and for the first time I sang up front with the worship team. I’m especially glad that I did for the night that 15 or 20 kids came to the front requesting prayer for chains to be broken in their lives.
Of course I had a lot of fun at camp choreographing dance routines with my team, organizing a skit and playing lots of games but as the camp drew to a close it was these times of intimate worship, testimony and prayer that I treasure. Many kids at first did not trust the overflowing grace and love we poured out on them. The entire camp was free and the kids came from a variety of backgrounds. I understand that many had been burned, abandoned or abused before. But towards the end of the camp I saw many kids begin to open up and respond. We told them and showed them over and over that they were immensely valuable – worth dying for. They were crafted individually to be used for great purpose. God made no mistake with them and would continue to love and pursue them even as they went home from camp back to their homes.
All die, but few truly live. To truly live is to be consumed by a purpose greater than yourself. For me there is no greater purpose than moments like those with the kids. This was why I bought a big ole backpack at REI. This is why I keep asking you for money and why I jumped on a plane to the Dominican Republic. This is why I got vaccinated, rode a crowded bus, slept in a tent, got bit by mosquitoes, carried buckets and buckets of dirt….the list goes on and on. I didn’t do those things for the sake of doing them. I did them for moments like those with people God intended me to encounter.
Isaiah 61:3b-4 prophesies the redemption promised by Jesus in our lives today.
“…they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.”
And so I continue to water the seed of hope in my heart that our God will not relent in his efforts to save and pursue relationship with every single one of these kids. He will count each of their tears and he will treasure their hearts. And through them he will repair and rebuild the brokenness of generations of violence and abuse.
