This has been probably the most physically active months I have spent on the race. The Lord led us to work with a family outside of Cusco who partners with their family in supporting and maintaining an orphanage. Many of the days were spent halling rocks, concrete and Adobe bricks from one construction site to another. At one we were cleaning up rubble from torn down walls and broken down structures. At the other we were using the same material to build a supporting wall at the house of one of the families we were working with. One of the days Olivia and I were going to take a break from construction and snuggle some babies at the orphanage. Upon arriving we heard that Keith, one of the founders had a job for us. Come to find out, we would be buiding a fence to keep the chickens in the yard. As different as it was from a morning with the babies, these two days ended up being my favorite of the month. I got the most sunburnt I have all year and we kept falling in a hole that seemed to move right next to where we were working, but I loved every minute of it for several reasons.
One was the nastolgia. I used to do things like that with my dad and grandpa all the time growing up. The smell of the wood being cut, the sound of the circular saw, trying to remember how to use a hammer so it actually lined up with the nail. Another was being able to work with Keith, someone I could fully understand. I have loved learning Spanish and I have loved the culture of being in countries where I don’t speak the language, but the luxury of being able to work with someone you can fully understand (besides the measurements of building a fence that tapers uphill) is indescribable after ten months. Another realization came to mind after talking to my best friend about building the fence and she asked me if I felt closer to Jesus because I worked as a “carpenter” like He did? I simply laughed at this and told her that I wanted to figure out how to write a blog about building a fence. She and I brain stormed things such as Ten Lessons from Building a fence but I couldn’t quite figure out what I wanted to share. These thoughts coupled with John Eldredge’s book “Beautiful Outlaw” of which I am currently reading and a conversation I had with a teammate, made me realize just what an honor it is to mirror the life of Jesus.
The chapter on the humility of Jesus particularly spoke to my spirit especially as it addressed things Jesus had to “learn” and portrayed the huge step down He took from the heavenly place on which He dwelled. This pararlleled building the fence as it described Jesus’ willingness to learn carpentry from Joseph and how that humility was carried through to the rest of His ministry. Particularly within the constant misunderstandings between He and the disciples. How often were his metaphors or even direct references missed or misinterpreted by those who spent everyday of three years with Him? In the conversation with my teammate I explained how something I am still trying to work through with the Lord is my sensitivity to things. Negativity, a lack of gentleness, searching for what is true in what seems like little unharmful comments to the speaker but certainly effects me much differently than others on my team. Sometimes this is acknowledged and sometimes it is not. The Lord is teaching me about when it is a good time speak up about the validity of my feelings after these moments and when it is okay to simply work through confirming or denying these statements with my Heavenly Father. [My teammate sweetly spoke into the difficult journey this must be.] But then I read about all of the times Jesus had reason to be offended, reason to be frustrated and times He would have felt lonely and misunderstood. But He chose humility. His timing of when to speak up and when to stay silent was always perfect. In this journey to sanctifiction I can only hope to grow in the discernment and humility displayed in Jesus.
Mirroring this is hard and frustrating; especially when you are speaking the same language as the people around you and still don’t feel understood. Or it feels like you come back to the same sense of nastolgia, like you’ve done this before over and over. But Jesus did it over and over. Whether hammering a thousand nails in Joseph’s workshop or choosing humility and understanding among those He did life with everyday. He was fully human, it hurt and it was hard and it made Him different. Subject to snide comments, misunderstandings and I’m sure hurt feelings. But sometimes things need to be broken down so they can be moved to use elsewhere, like the rubble of our construction site. Sometimes simply seeing the progress and watching something come together because you endured the sunburn and the misfired nail gun to see what the result could be is enough. Jesus knew the people in His life were worth it and He willing came and humbled Himself so that we would know and practice that humility as well.
(I hope this video works!)
