My team and I spend our last few days as a team in the beautiful, mountain town of Almaty. A town full of possibilities and for my team that included visiting Kazakhstan’s number one attraction, the big almaty lake.
I love a good piece of nature. To me, the lake felt like a little slice of heaven here on earth. Untouched beauty, that I get to carry in my heart. Staring at the picture perfect lake, I was puzzled by fact that I have never heard of this beautiful lake before. Why, not? Because it’s in a country only a small percentage of people can locate on a map? If this lake was located in America it would be a top visited sight. Yet, it took traveling halfway around the world to be told about this glorious view. Now that I have seen this pocket of beauty I want to share it with the world.
For any life experience, there was a time before you knew the nugget of knowledge or saw a beautiful view and there is a time after. My experience at the big almaty lake paralleled a thought provoking quote from the one & only Kanye West regarding how transformative it is to become a believer and understand the truth, that Jesus Christ is my Savior.
Kanye said, “when you go to sleep, would you agree that you are asleep, when you are asleep? And when you wake up would you agree that you are awake when you are awake? Would you agree that those are two different states? People who don’t believe are walking dead. They are asleep and this is the AWAKENING.”
Similar to the big almaty lake, I feel like nobody is talking about the best news there is. Jesus loves you & seeks a real, raw relationship with you. Does anything else matter?
I am blessed because I am awake. I have spent last four months in pursuit of sounding the metaphorical alarm for my students. I am not the alarm, God is. I have the opportunity to open a door or window to make that alarm a little louder. I am able to do so through the friendships established during english class. I will carry my alarm with me to every coffee date and hallway conversation. If the alarm I am playing is hit with a snooze, I know God will continue to pursue these kids until they too wake up.
As my time in Asia comes to a conclusion in the upcoming week, I pray for fearless believers to continue coming with their alarms sounding and I am looking forward to the day when the alarms stop and my dear friends are awake.
