And I’ve got to write this blog, so when I look back, I won’t forget this.
I sat down on the cement beside the young woman holding a small child against her chest. We had brought them a few loaves of bread and the eldest girl now hugged them close to her chest, holding tightly to the plastic handle of the bag in which the bread lay.
The family of four were bewildered as we settled beside them on the pavement. 10, 20, 30 people walked by as we tried to communicate a phrase, any phrase at all. All I could do was smile as they begin to understand we were simply there to simply be there.
The family are Roma Gypsies who have made home on the streets of Tirana, Albania.
Sitting there, I felt guilty. I think of the simplicity of their life. Not always are their needs met, food, water, shelter, but they are alive, they are joyful, and they are present.
And it wouldn’t take much to meet those needs. A few bucks here and there, a roof over their heads, and steady food to eat.
They have so little in comparison to me. Hell, I live out of a backpack-but I have so much.
This is a realization you’d think I would have found earlier in the Race. We’ve worked with helpless elderly, held crying babies, cooked and fed numerous children their only meal for the day. But, still I would wake up each morning and drink my cup of coffee, search my wifi, and put on a new pair of underwear without a second thought.
As we ate a meal with the Roma family in a nearby restaurant, I thought more. What if the life I am living, the consumption, is not actually the life the Lord has called me into?
Not to say that life is incorrect, I fully believe that we should enjoy to the fullest all the blessings the Lord has provided each of us, but what if there’s more than just the day-to-day?
I look around at the city and think
When did “more” become something we craved daily?
What if the life we are called to live is outside anything we could formulate for ourselves within the bounds of our possessions? What if in “Have It All” we actually meant “It All” that each and every thing we possessed, used, walked upon was never really our own at-but we surrendered it to the Lord.
What if we took ourselves out of the panic for more and found contentment in the simple act of existence. We allowed the Lord to purify our hearts in a way that makes it a land barren of expectation, fear, angst and overflowing with the simplicity of Him.
What if the life for which He created us was not hard at all, but was rather easy. It is something that’s always been a deep, yearning desire within our hearts, dreams, and thoughts. A simple place of contentment with all we have.
The Israelites spent 40 years trucking through the desert and the Lord always provided a meal to eat. The disciples had literally the shoes on their feet and the clothes on their backs.
And even when my worldly possessions are dwindling and my bank account is nearing $0 (Also Known As my College Bank Statements) I can find contentment in that.
I want to know, more than anything, the simplicity of a life the Lord wants me to live.
Hell, I don’t want to get my panties in a bundle over all that I don’t have.
I don’t want to live each day waiting hopelessly for more. Instead of saying “I want More” in reference to this earth, we should be shouting that, screaming it rather to the Lord. There is always more of Him, but there is an end to the more of this world every time.
What are we waiting for? In have it all, give it all, my friends. And perhaps we will find the “more” we have always been longing for.
Ezekiel 21:45
