Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Sometimes writers block gets the best of me. So this blog will be three mini blogs in one. South America has been wonderful so far. God has been continually breaking and growing me just like how your body experiences growing pain before actual growth takes place. These three blogs are new insights God has given me. My prayer is that they offer new perspectives that you will wrestle with.
WONDER
Let me start with two songs that have been instrumental (pun intended) to my Race thus far. As you listen to these songs I want you to pay attention to what they are saying about the word “wonder.”
https://youtu.be/XiNoelODP_Y Bethel
https://youtu.be/VMimAr8_b-8 Hillsong
As we live our lives we start to become numb to certain things. For example, when we were in Argentina a few of us would climb on the roof of our host’s house and stare at the Andes Mountains for hours. Some of the neighbors would wonder what we where looking at. You see, they had gotten used to living amidst some of the most majestic snow-capped mountains I have seen in my life. When the month was over, they came over for a party and told us that they have a new-found wonder of las montanas again. They told us that our wonder was contagious.
I believe there are many things in our lives that we get numb to. God has been teaching me that we should never lose our wonder for him. Hear me when I say this, you do not have to travel the world to see God’s wonder. There are things right in front of you that should take your breath away. Psalms 71:17 says, “O God, You have taught me from my youth, And I still declare your wondrous deeds.” Job 37:5 says, “God thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend.”
WALK by faith and not by speech
Our squad arrived in Argentina last month. That was the first of four Spanish-speaking countries we would be doing ministry in. For the first 7 months I never really experienced culture shock, but when I stepped off the plane, I was in for a treat. God has continually been showing me what living a life of abandonment looks like during my time on the field. But over these next four months He is going to show me what it means to Walk by FAITH and not by SPEECH.
In 2 Corinthians 5:7, it says, “For we walk by faith and not by sight.”
When I was in Cambodia I fasted from talking for the second time in my life. The first time was a year before I committed to the World Race. When you choose to abandon something like talking, something else begins. Your faith starts to increase. This is the same thing that started to happen last month when I started the month of ministry. I was forced to fast the thing that I took the most for granted, my voice. And my faith started to increase.
NETWORKING
I remember back to undergrad business school when my teachers where preaching a “sermon” about networking. They talked about how, in many cases, “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” I had many friends in Greek life, although I decided not to join myself. I remember going to many fraternity parties and asking some of the “brothers and sisters” why they joined their respective Greek life organizations. The top response I would get is that they wanted to join a network of people that had common goals.
The thing we both had in common was that we desired community. We desire to feel apart of a group that has a great purpose. That is one reason I joined the Church. I believe that the Church has one of the largest networks of people around the world. God has been showing me this for many years now, but it became real when I stepped on the Race. Every month we step on a new mission field, and our contact is someone we have never met. The only thing that binds us together is the similar thread to reach people for Christ. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is networking at its basic state.
I have a network of people around the world that is 2 billion strong. They are some of the nicest and most hospitable people I have met. I would encourage you as a reader to use this network of people.
Questions to process through.
1. What is something in your life that used to take your breath away that doesn’t any longer?
2. What is one thing you could fast from that would help increase your faith?
3. Have you ever thought of your church body through the lens of your network?
Next month my squad will be in Bolivia. Bolivia is financially the poorest country in all of South America. Countries like Bolivia are not glamorous. They are not the countries we look at and jump for joy that we get to travel to. But they are the countries that continue to wreck my squad in the best way possible. We are expectant for God to show up in big ways next month!
-Josey the Outlaw
