It's barely my second month on the race, and I already got two of my precious things stolen: my kindle and my phone.
If y'all don't know me, i LOVE my kindle. It's a kindle keyboard that amazon had already stopped making so I had to buy mine off of craigslist. I searched for days to find the perfect one and I got a really good deal out of it, too. The lady was trying to sell it to me for $90, and as I got my wallet out, she said, "Oh nevermind, just pay me $70". Sweet. It had a case with it, the original amazon case with the built-in light, which itself is already $75.
I loved it. I got tons of book to read, and I would spend hours reading books by different Christian authors, meditating on different devotionals, and all the classics I could find. Okay okay, maybe a few Harry Potters and Stephen Kings here and there.
I not-very-smartly left it in my hammock my second day in Honduras underneath my sleeping bag. Lo and behold, when I got back a couple of hours later, my sleeping bag was on the ground and my kindle was gone.
My phone was my most recent loss. I was cleaning my tent out and had to take all my stuff out of it. As I took everything out, I noticed that I had put my phone on the ground next to a few ziploc bags. I decided that wasn't very smart coz I knew I was going to forget it. So I put in the little pouch my hammock and made sure it was hidden.
After I had put all my stuff back in my tent, I did forget about my phone in that little pouch. I ran back hoping I had hidden it well enough, but as I had reached my hammock my pouch was exposed and it was open. My phone was gone.
Losing my phone was more difficult than my kindle because that was my only way to call my family and friends back home, and it was gone. And also, fool me twice, shame on me. I really had to kick myself in the butt for that. I didn't like how quickly it disappeared. And it frustrated me that I couldn't feel safe in the place we were staying at. I was mad at whoever took them and I wanted justice.
But then I remembered the very verse that led me to the race in the first place. And I had to kick myself in the butt again.
They are just things. And no matter how much I want to find out how it disappeared and take the necessary actions, it's not really that important. I almost find it funny that the book I'm reading right now is Philip Yancey's What's so Amazing About Grace? Grace, as we all know, is getting what we don't deserve. And giving grace is giving another person something they don't deserve.
Is it a stolen kindle? Sure, why not. And if me losing my kindle is God's way to bring that person close to Him, then praise God. I mean, they got all the resources and books in it. Might as well put them to better use.
Is it a stolen phone? Okay. I still don't know how God is going to use that, but hey, He'll do what He's got to do, and I praise Him for his Sovereignty.
Is it forgiveness? Yes. One of the most difficult things about forgiveness, is giving it without the other person asking for it. Without the other person feeling remorse. Without the other person repenting first. Yet, that is what forgiveness is. That is grace.
If I didn't go on this trip to show grace, then I don't know why I came at all. If I lived my mission life holding on to the things of this world, and not laying up treasures in heaven, then I have failed. If I worried more about getting my stuff back, instead of showing grace and forgiveness to whoever took them, then I would never have had the opportunity to show them what grace looks like. What forgiveness looks like.
They'll never understand what it means to be given the grace of God, if they can't see it manifest in the lives of His own servants. They'll never understand what it means to be forgiven of your sins on the cross by a God who had no business forgiving them, if they don't get it from people right in front of them.
If me loving them all despite everything brings them one step closer to the love of Christ, to the path Christ intends them to be, then that's my treasure. A treasure worth more than a hundred iphones or a thousand kindles. A treasure that is of heaven. That is eternal. And that starts with grace.
I said in my last blog that Zion's Gate abounds with grace. That is true, and I had to learn about grace the hard(ish) way. But I'm glad I did.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heavin, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and streal. For where you treasure is, there your hear will be also.
-Matthew 6:19-21
