Sandboxes. I used to have one in my backyard. I’m pretty sure it was shaped like a turtle. My niece has one with pink sand. Occasionally you can find them on a playground, although let’s be honest – public ones are always a little sketchy. Even still, when I see them, I usually think of childhood and have a positive reaction. Until…
Enter the sandboxes from…the not so good place, if ya know what I mean.
This week, our “official” ministry contact for the month left to go on a much needed and deserved vacation. We were sad to see them go, while also thankful for all the time and love they poured into us this month. But since they left, and we aren’t headed to Romania until Tuesday, it left a bit of a gap in our schedule of ministry.
Earlier in the month, we visited a local orphanage in town called Mother and Child Orphanage to spend a bit of time with the kiddos there. (For all you followers out there, this is a different one from the one that I previously blogged about.) So we thought it might be fun to go back to the orphanage to see the kids again. As I went through the process of setting up this opportunity, I just approached it in the manner of, “Hey. We would really love to serve you all. What does that look like? Are there things around the orphanage that we can do? How can we help you all out?” The response was a very vague “Come on Thursday and we will have something for you to do.” Hmmm. Okay!
So team Rise Up set out bright and early on Thursday morning to the orphanage with daydreams of painting murals and playing with children. What awaited us instead was a lady who led us to a 20 X 30 foot (rough estimate by Hannah) rectangle on the ground that was covered in grass. After multiple phone calls to Pastor Yavor to help translate and the presentation of two hoes, a couple of rakes, and some trash bags, our task was made clear. This was a sandbox. Rather, it once was or was supposed to be. And we had the task of returning it to a respectable sandbox as opposed to just a glorified patch of grass.
First take? Okay! Let’s do it! Twenty minutes in? Hmm, this grass has some deep roots and two hoes aren’t really getting us very far very quick. But all the same, we kept at it. We were sandbox warriors. We got sweaty. We got dirty. We worked hard. And after two hours of exhausting labor by seven people, we had finally cleared the area! Celebration! …………
Oh, but wait. There’s another sandbox on the other side of the grounds, you say? And if you can believe it, it is in worse shape than the first. Before we can even start working on clearing this one out, we have to dig to find where the blocks are that outline its shape. And so how were we feeling three hours in? What the heck?! These roots are like one of those mutants monsters where every time you cut off one head, three grow back! There will be no end!!! We chopped and chopped and chopped away at the land, all the time our eyes wandering to a suspicious looking third square – another sandbox? Oh Lord please have mercy on us and tell us that it is really just a square meant to hold the greenest and thickest grass on the grounds, because it could pass for that as well. But indeed, right before lunch we discover that this third sandbox needs our handiwork, too. Recap of our thoughts? Exhaustion and a smidge of defeat.
Now I know I’ve gotten a little wordy with my introduction here, so for the sake of your time, let me just get to the point. Clearing out these sandboxes? Not the typical definition of fun. Not particularly exciting. Not easy – I have multiple blisters and am hurting in places I wasn’t even aware had muscles. Not a World Race adventure. Not what we expected when we decided we would follow Jesus and serve His people.
Ever been in that place? Where you are just doing something that in and of itself is not fun or exciting or easy or adventurous or what you expected? Well there are two things we can do in those instances. Option one is to focus on all the “not’s” and get in a bad mood and have a negative attitude – it is an easy option to slip into when things don’t go our way. But we will always have a choice of how to handle a situation. And so there exists an option two, to be thankful for the situation you've been given, to take what you have and roll with it, rejecting your own human perspective of what is going on and searching instead for God’s perspective.
Option one is easier. But I guarantee you that option two will always bring more joy, more fulfillment, more peace, more purpose, and more of the goodness of God.
Option two. I spent seven hours digging three sandboxes to glorify God. How? Only God knows for sure I suppose. But one idea I had is this: the workers at this orphanage knew that we were Christians from North America. We offered to serve them. They wanted sandboxes for the kids. Not fun or easy work, which is probably why no one had done it. And yet, we did it. What if we hadn’t? What message would that have sent? Are we too good for such petty or difficult tasks?
For me personally, it was a testimony to the heart of a servant – the heart of Jesus. Jesus called us to serve one another, and sometimes that gets to be the fun stuff, and other times that gets to be digging sandboxes. Besides, last time I checked washing someone’s feet was not the most coveted task back in the day (or now), but Jesus did it with humility. So we are called to serve one another in humility every day, even when it is not our own desire to do so. Because the truth of the matter, and I say this in great love, is that the call is for us to pick up our cross daily WHATEVER that looks like, to serve His Kingdom FIRST before we serve ourselves, and to glorify Him in ALL that we do, even if what we are doing is digging some sandboxes.
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. –Colossians 3:17
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. –Colossians 3:23
The other idea? Maybe I was digging sandboxes to dig some sandboxes. Maybe God was glorified in that just because those are His children. There are about 80 kids in this orphanage, all under seven, and maybe they just needed another piece of childhood given back to them. They have very little, if anything, to their names. They have no earthly parents or family. Much of the playground is falling apart as it is. Don’t they deserve a day and a half of work from me so that they can have a little added joy to their days outside? Is that really too much to ask of me?
So these past two days I made a conscious decision to put on a smile (except for when I was being hardcore and hacking away at some mean ole grass), to ditch my earthly perspective, and to take on an attitude given to me from above through grace. Wasn’t always easy, and I’m not saying there weren’t times when I had to check myself, but at the end of the day, through God at work in me, I could say PRAISE THE LAMB!
And in one of those moments where God just winks at you, when we finally finished up and went to leave, we walked past a big “pot hole” in the sidewalk that I hadn’t noticed before. It had the tiniest bit of sand in it, and one of the sweet little kids was sitting with his feet in it, swirling them around to feel the tickle of the grains on his bare feet. And I just breathed in the beauty of that juxtaposition. We put in all that hard work so that these orphans could go from a pathetic pot hole…
…to a giant, “real” sandbox.
Serving God is so rewarding and refreshing, even when it is digging sandboxes.
What are the sandboxes in your life, and are you giving them the heavenly perspective that they deserve?
