I stepped off the bus on Thursday, grabbed my backpack from under the bus, and looked around.
My new team and I made it to Costa Rica and we were about to start month 10.
I had an instant feeling of peace fill me.
As we waited at the bus stop to be picked up, I just couldn’t shake the giddiness filling inside of me.
I could feel how good this month was about to be, but I didn’t know what I was in store for.
I was just waiting for the ball to drop because I didn’t believe the Lord would actually give me things I loved so much.
But it didn’t and He did.
Y’all, do you realize that the Lord doesn’t always just want us to go through hard things but He actually really loves to bless us?
I’m walking out of a really hard month in Panama where I had to wrestle through a lot of frustration and apathy.
I mentioned in a previous blog that I had asked the Lord for the jungle and He gave it to me, knowing it was going to be hard. Knowing that I was going to have to put my own feelings aside often to stay present in where I was rather than dream of home and comfort.
Well, way back in month 5 I started praying about learning to surf on the race and when I asked the Lord if I could be in the jungle, I also asked for a beach.
The Lord knew I needed to go through a really hard month where I would find the blessings in the simple things like listening to stories in the middle of a church in the mountains that we were helping fix up or in something like guava bread (this amazing pastry we found in San Felix that my team and I quickly became obsessed with). He knew I needed that before He placed me in a month like the one I’m now in.
He picked me up and placed me into my dream life this month.
I made the comment this morning that my day today looked a lot like a life I only ever thought would be a dream.
We woke up at the crack of dawn, packed up our boards and headed to the beach to learn to surf.
Sometimes, you ask the Lord for really hard things and He gives them to you, but then sometimes you ask the Lord for really good things and He gives them to you.
I often find it funny that sometimes I still doubt that the Lord might actually want to give me good things rather than just hard things.
Why is that? Why do we always assume Gods going to place us in places we don’t want to be?
Really though, why wouldn’t He place us somewhere we can actually thrive for His kingdom?
Does this mean we can’t do really good things for the Kingdom in those places we don’t want to be also? Nope. I think those seasons are absolutely necessary but sometimes the good places are necessary too.
This month my team, Somos Sangrias (The Bloods of Christ), and I are working with Ocean’s Edge ministry in Jaco, Costa Rica. This means we get to help with things like pouring concrete or painting a mural as the base is being renovated or helping clean trash from the beaches or even being a part of a surf club for youth.
