Jaimasi, (Hello, praise the Lord) friends and family! In case you missed it I passed the half way mark with the race. That’s crazy. I’m going to miss this wild journey I have been on. But I’m eager to be back home with family and friends. It’s bitersweet.
So the other day I posted a picture on social media about how lately I’ve been reminded of my physical flaws. People don’t intentional call them out to make fun. They are genuinely trying to be helpful, I know that. Fun fact: I have a gap in my front teeth, hair on my chin, and pimples on my face sometimes. Anyways, it got me thinking about how quick people are to judge or notice peoples’ physical appearance but that’s not God how works. He sees every single part of us. He sees the good, the bad, the dark stuff deep within us. He sees our sin and call us out for it. He convicts us.
So in Zambia, two months ago, I had this dream. In my dream my squad leader had given me feedback about how I had upset her by what I had said. Well I kind of forgot about that dream and the next thing I knew it we were in India. It was a challenging month. We were exposed to a very new culture. We weren’t allowed to look men in the eye, it was seen as flirting. Sounds weird but I was so used to the friendly men in Africa who were super eager to greet us wherever we went. I missed it. The common religion was Hinduism, and Muslim not Christianity.
I used humor to cope with the uncomfortableness. Often I turn to humor, I think life is too short to take it too seriously. However sometimes my jokes or quick wittedness isn’t the most uplifting. Sometimes the joke is at the expense of someone else. Well my team noticed and they called me out for it. I received feedback from multiple people on my team about how some of things I was saying wasn’t the most uplifting or encouraging. I then remembered my dream…woah God was preparing me. He was convicting me and reminding me to be careful while talking. But I had forgotten. I wasn’t really listening, opps!
I’ve been reading through the book of John and I think it is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Anyways Chapter 15 is my all time favorite. It talks about how God prunes us and wants to prune/ take away the bad fruit in our lives. He wants us to bear good fruit and represent His name well. He deserves the glory. He deserves the honor. But there’s no way we can truly love others well if we are trying on our own through our own flesh. We will fail every time. ”Apart from me you can do nothing.” 15:5.
So this month I’ve been so much better at pausing before speaking. It takes practice and discipline. We had debrief in Nepal before starting ministry and one of our squad leaders talked about our words. Okay Hi, God, I get it and yes I was listening this time! She said “your words can either bring death or life to someone. Pause and think, are my words going to help or harm the other person?“ I don’t know about you but I want my words to hold worth and value and truly encourage and lift others higher. Thankful for a God who is patient, loving and full of Grace.
