It was roughly 9 o’clock last Friday night when I found myself staring into the water fountain at La Gran Via in Santa Tecla, El Salvador. People were crowding the pavements, music was playing in the distance, and spurts of chanting would come and go as fans cheered for the local futbol team on TV.
But, I didn’t get caught up in the noise or the busyness of my surroundings.
I got caught up in the goodness of God.
Earlier that day, 13 of us piled into a van to go to church. I was heavy and troubled by my thoughts that had overpowered me the night before. So I wrote. And I shared that poem with you in my last blog.
3 hours later, when we got out of church, we told our host that we needed to go back to the Starbucks we were at the night before…
He nodded and smiled and we thought we were good to go.
Translation is always getting lost somewhere,
And we realized that when we pulled up to a completely different Starbucks…
My teammates were coming up to me and apologizing that we were not at the same place as the night before.
But it was good. Because I felt that it was EXACTLY where I needed to be.
The peace that came over me when I stepped out of the van that night was incredible. I was able to breath. I was able to smile. I was able to be thankful.
After dinner, I walked down to the fountain where I had once been 8 months before. I remember so vividly the last time I was there. I remember being free. I remember mostly because it was the night before I got caught up in the heaviness and sin that I fell into in February.
So, as I was standing there—with noise surrounding me, yet only being able to hear God’s voice, I asked…. “Why here? Why not the other Starbucks?”
and he said…
“I am returning you to a place of innocence.”
Wow.
ALL I could do was smile.
And as a tear rolled down my cheek, I took it all in…
In that moment, I felt that He was telling me that I did not carry the weight of the sin anymore. The guilt and the burden was not mine to take. I am innocent. And He brought me here for me to realize that I am free and He wants me to walk in that freedom…
I lifted my hands into the air.
I thanked him with my entire heart that He was there with me at the fountain.
I sang songs to him.
Then my 6 teammates walked up. They fought for me. They prayed over me.
And we stood in a circle in front of that fountain and sang together….
The song that had been on my heart was Beautiful Things:
“You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of us.
You make me new. You are making me new.”
We sang it over and over—with tears in our eyes and smiles on our faces.
I experienced redemption in El Salvador.
I experienced a peace and a freedom I have never experienced before in my life…
That is my favorite experience thus far on the race. It is hard to put into words the work that was done inside of me. But I am new. I am his. I am fighting.
So much weight was lifted that I’m not only walking in freedom,
But, I am now dancing in his freedom…
And I know that it wasn’t an “accident” that we showed up to the wrong Starbucks
It was God. And God is Good.
So even though our plans for ourselves look different than God’s plans—
His plans are better. His plans bring joy. His plan brings freedom.
His plan is now making me new…
