Hello all! We have been in Nicaragua a little over a week now and are working with REAP Granada. We are able to stay in dorm rooms with REAL beds and we have access to well water and real showers and flushing toilets! Our ministry includes things such as volunteering at the community library (basically tutoring local children and helping with cleaning/organizing as necessary), prayer walking (visiting locals houses/engaging the community in prayer and teaching), jail ministry, dump ministry, nursing home ministry, and sports ministry. I’ll post more soon on what a typical day/week looks like here!
Am I the only person who has a whole subcategory of “Christian” music that really bothers them? I mean, like it really bothers me- like change the radio station to a commercial over listening to this crud kind of songs. And it’s not just because I don’t like the melody or the singer is too pitchy or even that they get stuck in my head for ungodly periods of time. The songs that I’m talking about are the ones in which the lyrics focus on going “home” or “this isn’t where I belong” or essentially (in my mind) seem to imply that as Christians our sole purpose here on this earth is to sit around and wish for heaven. Some even make me feel as if we’re being held captive in this world and our one goal should be to escape from it.
The concept that God would put us on the earth to live un-fulfilling and dissatisfying lives while waiting around for “eternal” life to begin feels like wasted time and wasted space. I refuse to believe in a God of wasted space. I refuse to believe that we were placed here to stare at one another and talk about how good heaven is going to be someday. I refuse to believe that as followers of Christ we are just place holders for what is to come or that we are to walk around as empty shells longing for something that seems out of reach or unachievable. Yes, I believe that Jesus is coming back to set up His Kingdom and establish a new heaven and a new earth and Yes, it’ll be mind-blowing and earth-shattering and definitely something to look forward to, but I also believe we can ask for and receive mind-blowing and earth-shattering love and peace now in our day to day lives. I don’t think we need to live for something that has yet to come when we have so much to live for in the here and now.
Jesus mentions “the Kingdom of Heaven” roughly 190 times throughout the gospels. And not once (at least I’m pretty sure- I don’t currently have google to fact check. ha) does he say that the Kingdom of Heaven is something that you should welcome by waiting around for, singing about, and hating your life until it one day comes. Or that the Kingdom of Heaven is something you get to experience some day when you die.
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the idea of the Kingdom throughout training camp and the first week of the race. We’ve developed the goal to be Kingdom-minded disciples who are making Kingdom-minded disciples not only throughout our time on the race, but the rest of our lives. You see, the Kingdom isn’t something we strive for someday. The Kingdom is now. The Kingdom is here. The Kingdom is the full, abundant, fulfilling life that God calls us to live in through a daily relationship with Him and His Holy Spirit. The Kingdom is walking in God’s peace and the beauty of His grace and mercy while being rooted and established in His love. It means looking for those who are lost or hurting and loving them towards redemption and reconciliation with the Father. It means living out the calling to receive God’s love and to live out of the overflow. To give this gift that we have received freely to those around us. Not asking what they can give us in return or picking and choosing who is “deserving” of the love, but confidently stepping into our God-given commandment to love God and love others around us. To do so, we have to stop trying to earn God’s love and instead be hungry and thirsty for it, asking God daily to overwhelm us with His love so that it naturally spills out to those around us.
Be ready. Because when you ask for His love, He’s gonna give it to you, and when He gives you a double portion of His love, you better believe it’s your responsibility to go share it with others. This is Kingdom living. This is abundant life. This is fulfillment. And all of this is yours if you’re ready for it. Choose to live in the Kingdom today. Choose to bring it with you to all who are around and to share the good news with those who are searching.
