If you know me (or if you just read my last blog), you know that it’s been a hard transition time for me. I’ll be blunt when I say that no part of Casey Cappa was ready or excited to leave Birmingham. (Not to mention, fitting my house, bed, closet and bathroom into a 65 liter pack was quite the task.) To be honest, I wanted to back out. The night before I left, I cried and said to God (and out loud, multiple times – sorry Mom!) that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I wasn’t scared. I just straight up didn’t want to do it. Starting over every month with these people that I hardly know in these countries that most people can’t locate on a map…anddd why did I want to do this again?
BOY how I’m glad that God’s character doesn’t change because of me! And as He has a habit of doing, He’s met me right where I’m at, faithfully drawing me closer to Him in this time of change.
When we arrived in Indonesia, I took a moment alone with God. What am I doing here? I thought. I prayed and asked Him for a word of what He was wanting to do in my heart here this first month.
Comfort, He said.
Uh, comfort? I thought. Surely that was from the brain of Casey Cappa and not the Holy Spirit. Isn’t the Race all about stepping out of your comfort zone and being uncomfortable?
But here’s the thing.
He doesn’t call us into His comfort to be comfortable. He calls us into His comfort to be comforted. He calls us into His comfort to extend that comfort to others.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
In this season, God is graciously and gently calling me into His comfort. As I adapt to a new place, as I work through lies of the world that I’ve believed, as I adjust in a time of hard transition, His comfort meets me where I’m at.
“..so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
So that.
He meets me where I’m at so that I can meet other people where they’re at, too. Whether it’s at the Islamic boarding school where we’re staying, or at Super English Camp for elementary students, or singing karaoke with the team, or while messaging with my friends and family back home – God gives me comfort amidst the uncomfortable SO THAT I can give comfort to others in their discomfort, in their trials, in the midst of their messy, beautiful God-given lives.
The Lord used these verses in 2 Corinthians to inspire this picture for me:
In one huge pile, I’ve stacked up everything that I own. I linger by the pile for a while, admiring all my favorite things, piece by piece. I take a final look, and a deep breath, and step away. As I walk away from my things, I walk closer to a familiar face, my Friend. When I get to Him, He puts His arm around me. What I feel is peace, trust, love. Suddenly there is a child in front of us, and my immediate reaction is to point to my pile of things a few feet over. Look at all the things that I left over there! I say and she looks, without much emotion. Then, my Friend waves them over, and makes room for her under His arms.
And that’s when I got it.
People don’t need to see my sacrifice. They need to see His – and that it’s His blood that made the way for our means of comfort, peace, hope, purpose and life.
The comfort I give has to come from the comfort that I receive.
Muslim, Christian, male, female, whatever – what joins us together as humans is the fact that we’re a bunch of imperfect people trying to figure out how to live in this imperfect world.
And only when I allow Him to move in and comfort my heart, can I share the Comfort that brings hope, meaning and love with the people of this world.
“These things I have told you that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation; but take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.
