I heard a quacking noise and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. I turned over in my sweat drenched bunk and realized it was my alarm clock. Is this a joke? A duck sounding alarm? I rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. I finagled my contacts into each eye and reached for my tooth brush. Shoot, not again. I forgot to cover my brush and my posse of ants never fails to follow me. They're the worst kind of groupies. I flicked each one off as they marched across my tooth brush again. I rinsed it off and began cleaning my teeth.
Time to start another day on the island of Roaton.
Later I perched on my small mountain and put in my headphones. God and I started chatting, there was so much on my heart. When we talk, I journal, I read, I listen.
6:30 AM approaches quickly- breakfast time.
Breakfast consists of something hearty. The coffee is stout and each of us greets crew members around the square tables. We sit next to the two story monkey cage—Paco, the monkey, vacated the premises many months before our arrival.
We report to the garden chief and follow him around like the army of ants that are constantly on our heels. Sweat and manual labor is as common as breathing and the mornings pass quickly. Time for the second meal of the day. We rinse and repeat until its dinner time which is followed by team time then bed. I looked at my watch earlier and realized I would be going to bed late tonight. It was 7:58pm.
We've fit in a round of spike ball and there has been no shortage of laughter but this month is definitely becoming a beast of its own. It refuses to be compared to Guatemala and threatens to unbraid the seams holding life together. But here’s the cool part. Sometimes the seams holding us together need to be re-stitched—creating a new aroma that’s sweeter than before.
Let’s get real. I shoot stuff straight. I’m pretty darn blunt and sometimes I forget to coat it in love. Perhaps I lack love in my responses because of past hurts. Who knows. Working through the hurt to find more freedom is good. Trusting and loving like Jesus is great. Walking that out every day is awesome. The journey from A to B is bumpy and rough. This is a freaking war and it's not easy but there's grace and there's love. There's good, bad and ugly. There's God and me and this island I can't get off of so we’re at crossroads. Me and God are going to work through the crap and it’s going to be absolutely amazing! He's going to show up like He does every day and sometimes I'm going to smile and we are going to hold hands and skip down the beach. Other days I'm going to be tired and hurting and needing my Daddy to carry me up the mountain. That's ok. Either is good. Why? Because both rely on Him. Total, sold out faith and reliance on Him is cool. It’s like that rush of sea breeze on my face right now that smells fresh and beautiful. This is a marathon, not a sprint. It's walking it out everyday- whatever that looks like and it's being constantly filled by Him. The Author, the Perfecter of our faith. I'm not perfect and never will be. Pressure released now in Jesus name. Woohoo! He doesn't expect perfection, He just wants us to love Him back so that's what I'm gonna do. His Spirit is powerful and He’s the ultimate Counselor. We are fighting for each other because we are an army, a body of Christ that makes up the church. We aren't a building or an organization; rather we are a group of people tethered together by a God who *loves us because He loves us because He loves us*. He has in instilled in each of us this desire to kick the enemy in the butt and win. We are fighting from victory. We are victors and we will come out on top. Why? Because Christ kicked death in the face and because He gives us that power and authority and you better believe I'm gonna use it, amen!?
*Thanks Andrew Shearman for the quote!
