I am finally in Mexico and even though it doesn’t feel a whole lot different than home, the adventure has begun!
It’s been a great couple days getting to bond with teammates and even starting to experience the realities of living across the boarder (no flushing toilet paper, only drinking water out of approved “purified” taps, living in rustic a no A/C, cold shower scenario).
We’re learning about money, paperwork, exchange rates, blogging, etc.
It’s all good stuff but we’re definitely looking forward to our first race on Thursday!
The following is a journal entry from our “day with the Lord” on Monday.
I believe I can convince someone I love them.
The manipulation of my actiosn and words could paint the deceptive picture that they are actually beloved.
Yet, as I am honest with myself – who do I really love, love so much it hurts?
In the movie “Black Hawk Down” one of the soldiers suffers a life-threatening in jury to his leg.
His copious blood loss demands the medic to attempt to clamp off his femoral artery in an effort to save the young soldier’s life.
Mere adrenaline keeps the frantic man conscious as the medic begins the operation.
At the crucial moment of truth, the medic is unable to successfully clamp off the artery and looks around at the man’s squad with a slow, foreboding head shake.
The man, panicked, asks if the operation was successful.
His fellow comrades look around at each other when one finally recovers and lies “Yep! You’re going to be just fine.”
The man, relieved, smiles…and passes out – only to expire a few short minutes later.
I was praying for the AIDS children in Swaziland and the leper colonies in India.
As we travel to these locations, do we look around at each other only to provide quick reassurance that “Yep!
Everything is going to be okay!”
Or do we realize that people everywhere deserve hope?
The peace the dying soldier needed (executed ethically or not) allowed him to slip away quietly.
Yet, how many in this world die without this hope, love or reassurance.
Two thoughts exist here – one is that peace should be spoken and the other that reality should be presented.
I’m not here, as John Piper says, to “pad people’s way to hell.”
On the other hand, I don’t know how to love these people without being overwhelmed by their need.
I don’t know how to overcome the barriers.
I’m not even sure I have the vision to help them overcome their own obstacles.
I mean, I have practical skills, education, the ability to be innovative and resourceful, etc.
But what I lack is the ability to love so much it hurts.
I want to carte, but the thought of looking a dying child in the puts me in a position I don’t know how to handles.
For this I have no ruse, no recoil, not plan – and it distresses me.
It’s a risk I’m willing to take in the peace of a quiet time, but in the moment God is the one who will have to take over.
May it be so Lord Jesus.
This is just a piece of where God is taking me this next year.
I hope and pray that I am able to love God and love others, and not just love them – love them so much it hurts.
Church in Matamoros we woshiped at during our training week.
So much for 51 people packing ¨light¨ for a year of missions…
Church in Matamoros we woshiped at during our training week.
So much for 51 people packing ¨light¨ for a year of missions…
