While at Debrief a few weeks ago, a time of rest and refocusing for the squad, I found myself in one of those situations where you just say “Is this actually my life?”
It was 4:30AM and I was in the front seat of an Uber with a sick squamate in the back. It was a middle of the night hospital run that ended with 5 different medications for her and a slightly delirious but ready to go spirit for me. I was past the point of being tired and began conversing with the Uber driver. Only an hour of sleep the night before made me more bold and more straightforward than normal.
“Are you a Christian?” I asked, as if it was the most ordinary question in the world.
“I used to go to church, but now I work on Sundays because I need the money” was the answer.
“Oh, cool. Have you ever prayed to God here in your car?” I felt the words spill out of me.
“I wish I could go to church, I used to play the keyboard and lead worship, but now I must work,” was his answer.
This man had shame that he didn’t go to church, but I knew the Lord was telling me to encourage him that he can have a relationship with God whether he goes to church or not. That although it’s good to be encouraged by other Christians, God wasn’t demanding he go to church before allowing him to converse with him. It wasn’t a requirement to have a relationship with God.
I told him about how I believed he could pray to God no matter where he was, whether in a church building or in his own car.
He agreed and smiled at me and we continued chatting until we arrived back at our hostel.
It was one of those bizarre but clearly God-ordained moments. I’ve had a lot of them the last two years between going on my own World Race and now Squad leading. Living in other cultures tend to bring interesting moments with them, but no matter how interesting the moment is, its simply the life I am living.
I’m not living in some alternate universe, and I’m not taking a year “out of my life.” I’m living in this big, broken world that needs the Lord. Whether I’m at home in Michigan, crammed in the back of a Jeepney in the Philippines, or hugging orphans in India, this is life. My life.
Its real, its raw. Sometimes it hurts and sometimes its so full of joy and laughter that I can’t contain it. It’s messy, its beautiful, and God is intertwined in every moment. Sometimes, I’m just unaware.
As I entered the first day of the new year today, I started to think about my hopes for this year and among them is that I would have a greater passion and excitement in telling people about the Lord. Because he is so, so good and out of all the things in my life, he is the thing I want to share the most. I want to be more bold, not just at 4:30AM in an Uber in Manila, but every hour of every day.
