This morning we went on a prayer walk around our community. As a team, we have been spending the first hour of each day in prayer, asking Holy Spirit to show us the plans that he has for us. It has been an great learning experience and each day feels more focused because we know which direction we are heading in from the start. So today, we began walking, and as the four of us hit a split in the road, I went right, and the others went left. Not sure why, but I felt like today God really wanted to be with me in solitude. Over this month I have learned a lot about the difference between solitude and isolation. Isolation is being alone, and Satan loves to get us alone. Solitude is being alone, with God. We see all throughout Jesus’ ministry that he took the time to be alone with the Father. I think the litmus test for how we should live is seeing what Jesus’ life looked like. If we see Jesus doing something, it’s probably a good thing for us to do to. So, back to this morning. Solitude.
I began walking, silently praying over the people and houses as I was passing. Saying “Hallo” (the extent of my non food-ordering communication) and smiling at people, just asking Jesus that people would see Him in me. That I would live up to the title of Christian, the namesake of “little Christ”, that even the non-believers would be the ones saying “Wow, he looks a lot like that Jesus guy”. So I was walking, I see these kids flying a kite, and I walk up the little hill and just stand there with them. I don’t understand how God operates. I don’t get the communication that he does in the Spirit and in the heart that knows no language barriers. But I do know this, because I have seen it time and time again this month: Jesus rubs of on people simply by proximity. We don’t have to preach the gospel for people to know that there is something different about us, and for people to be encouraged and given hope simply by being with us. Does this mean we don’t need to preach the gospel to these people? As Paul says in Romans, “By no means!” What I have learned is sometimes, people just need someone to sit with them in their hardships, not trying to fix it or change the situation, but just to be present and meet them where they are. And to listen to their stories, to their hurts. And to love people for who they are, humans created in the image of God, and not just so that we can get a chance to share the gospel. Not to love at arms length, and not to love for anything other than loves sake. Those are the true in roads to the gospel. When we love people for people, then, they are willing to hear what we have to say.
Wow. Sidetracked. Back to the walk. So I stood there watching them fly the kite for another 5 minutes or so. We exchanged our goodbyes, and I continued walking. I did my best to get lost this morning, I only walked to places that I hadn’t been before. I don’t know that there was any great spiritual reality in this, but it is cool to know that God knows where I’m going, even when I don’t. So I’m walking, walking, and I stumble upon this resort, it looks really nice. So, I bounce up in that dude. There wasn’t any security guard working, and Indonesians are pretty chill anyways and its off-season for tourism here, so it seemed like a pretty safe bet. I am walking around in the bungalows and I step over to the rail and look down into the water. It was calm and I got this thought. The past day and a half have been super tough, there is a lot happening back home and I have been in “troubled waters” so to speak. The thought was this: We can only see who we are, our reflection and know our identity when the waters are calm and we are at peace with the Father. I sat there, thinking on that, continuing to stare into the waters and I looked through my reflection into the depths. Water is a cool medium, beacuse one thing is shown on the surface, but there is so much happening below. I also thought about the fact that if we don’t know who we are, if we aren’t at peace and seeing our own identity, it is almost impossible to understand what is happening in the depths of our being. We can never move into “deeper waters” so to speak, if we don’t know who we are. The more we are at peace with the Father, the more identity we can walk in. Sons of the King, joint-heirs with Jesus, ambassors, ministers of reconciliation. These are the things that are true about the identity of the children of God. And the more we walk in that identity, the greater into the deep-end of the pool we can go. With God, with other people and with ourselves. I hope this blog encourages you all to take some time to allow God to still the waters, and learn what He says about your identity. Then, when the water is right, dive in.
