Bolivia. What a sweet month already. Our hosts – Jaun & Ann – welcomed us with a hot breakfast, local coffee & a casita {little house} that we get to call our own. We have spent the mornings cleaning & painting. In the afternoons we have had the incredible opportunity to host a VBS for some local kiddos {I’ll post another blog about this later}.
Do you remember how each month we try to find lessons in the little things? Well I want to share with you what some of my teammates & I learned from scraping paint off of windows.
Sometimes the stuff stuck on the window is hard to clean off. We were given paint thinner, rags & very tiny razors to try to scrape off the junk on the glass. Sometimes it came right off, other times we spent several minutes on one window pane. It takes time & it is tedious work. I imagine this is often how God feels when He is trying to work with us to mold us more into the people he designed us to be. Certain things about us are glaringly obvious – our hurt, our pain – these are things people see & often know impact how we relate to those around us. God works with us gently to remove the spots, the hurts, the things that are stuck to us like glue – like pride, anger, envy, etc. God doesn’t intend for us to live with crap bound to our hearts or our lives. He intends for us to live in freedom.
The junk on the window prevents you from seeing the reflection. When we have junk in our lives that hasn’t been worked through, it gets in the way of us living out our potential. We can’t live the lives God intended for us to live if we are covered things that don’t belong there {this includes shame, sin, your past hurts, etc.}.
When the window is clean, I can see my reflection – similar to how God sees me – after all, I am his beautiful creation. Just like scraping these windows, becoming who God designed me to be takes work!
We are like moths in a world full of pretty lights. We fly closer & closer to the thing that is so appetizing or appealing, failing to realize that this is likely not all the Lord has for us. Soon we find ourselves top close to the things of this world & we end up being harmed by the once-enticing light. In reality, the lights & things of our world are what get in way – the stuff that murks up our reflection.
I’ll give you an example in my own life. For probably a dozen or so years I held school, education, & my own knowledge in the highest esteem – it was my idol. School was something I was always good at & I pushed myself to do more & more because I found my entire worth in what I could accomplish. Two summers before I left for the race, I was through, finished. I was ready to drop out of my second master’s program because of how frustrated I felt with the continual discontentment I was running into.
School was the gunk stuck on my window.
Reluctantly, I spoke to a dear friend & she encouraged me that there was so much more freedom than I was experiencing. I was being limited by the thing I was holding onto so tightly; I was gripping so tight to something I didn’t even enjoy anymore. What I thought gave me freedom in the world was actually the very thing that was limiting me in God’s kingdom. Soon after I surrendered the plans I had for my life, I began to wholeheartedly pursue the WorldRace. At the time the WorldRace felt like an out, but I am beginning to realize it was God’s way of bringing me back to the ultimate light – which is Him.
When the window is clean, it does its job – protects, seals, & separates the outside from the inside. Likewise, is the same with our lives. When We have Jesus, he protects us & just like it says in Ephesians 1, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. By living our lives to glorify God, the outside world literally gets a window into {pun intended} our lives & I hope that they see Jesus. After the Holy Spirit has sealed our hearts, we are separated from the world. Our eyes are set on eternity & His Kingdom becomes our priority, instead of the kingdom of this world.
