Early this past Friday morning, our World Race team and a group of Canadian missionaries made our way up a small mountain to give sand-boarding a whirl (sorry Mom).
Here at Inca Link Peru in Trujillo, the ministry we are working with for the month, there are a multitude of different ministry divisions. One of these divisions is called “Inca Thakhi”. This was the first division at Inca Link Peru, and their sports ministry is a crucial component of this section of their ministry. Inca Link’s mission is to reach the 300 million young adults in Latin America. The way in which the sports ministry works, is that Inca Link provides the equipment and leadership for the sand-boarding to the local young adults and children in the community. It is through this that they are able to minister and share the Word of God.
We were able to understand a bit of how this works this past Friday morning. After we carried our boards up the rocky side of the mountain and made our way to the top of what I would call an advanced bunny hill, we took a seat. Joca, the leader of Inca Thakhi, told us that we could eat our packed breakfast (it was probably 7am by now), and proceeded to open up his Bible. He and his wife Alex went into a lesson that in a few words, I would describe as a call to one’s self for God. They read about Peter going fishing after the crucifixion and Jesus showing up on the shore. The point of the study was to encourage us to understand what we were going to do with our lives. Were we going to make God the center? Would we leave Trujillo and go back to our old selves? Would we refuse His call, or embrace what He has beckoned us to do?
After posing a series of thought provoking questions, he requested we take some time to give that some thought. To journal, to think, to pray- to enter into whatever each of our respective forms of quiet time looked like.
Always wanting to push the envelope, I decided to climb up the pathless rocky part of the mountain that led even higher. After I had gotten up high enough to receive a couple of “wow”’s from the Canadians, I felt that I had reached my place of peace.
I put my phone down and took in the view around me. We were quite a ways up, and from where I was sitting I could see the entire outskirts of the city where we reside, the dozen mountains that scraped the distant sky and all of the members of our pack engaging in their own moments with God. After taking it in and thanking God for what an incredible creator He is, I picked my phone back up to do a little reflective writing to find that it was dead. “Ok God” I thought. “I’ll just pray”.
However, the daggum gnats would NOT leave me alone. That’s the one thing I’ve found about the Trujillo desert. No matter how high, how clean or how much you swat your arms around, the gnats are always present. For a second, I was irritated. I thought, “If only these gnats would leave me alone, then I could pray. Then I could connect with God. Then I could do what I needed to do.” The gnats were just too annoying. Once they subsided, I could focus.
As I mulled that thought over, I found myself mildly ashamed.
How many things in life are like the gnats? Annoying, ever present nuances that we can’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard we try. Tasks that plague us regardless of what we do to live without them. Washing the dishes, folding our laundry, answering that email, going to that early meeting. The list goes on and on, and isn’t unique to any one of us, even if some of the tasks may be.
How often is it that we push God to the side because there’s an annoyance or two cluttering our minds? How often can we use those nuisances as distractions, as justifications, to put our spiritual lives and relationships with God on the back burner?
As I sat there, slightly embarrassed at my own high maintenance, I had another realization. The gnats were nothing but a distraction. Sure they were irritating, and I would have loved for them to go away, but were they harming me? Were they biting me? Were there so many that I could barely breathe? Was I overwhelmed by their presence?
The answer to all of these, was no.
I found that although the occasional gnat would fly up my nose, their general presence could be easily ignored. When I learned to let them hover around me or gently swat on occasion, they began to become irrelevant to me. I began to focus on what I needed to: praising God and thanking Him for our day.
Once I accepted their presence and that I would have to co-exist with them, they were no longer a distraction. It was after this that I was able to accomplish the true goal that I desired.
Do I need to explain the parallel?
Certain events, circumstances, tasks and items in our lives definitely have more importance than others. However, the daily/weekly mundane tasks that seemingly infect our lives will pretty much always be there. No matter our socioeconomic class or our job title, household chores and daily tasks affect us all.
In knowing this, we have a choice. Do we allow them to become the focus of our attention- hoping and wishing they would go away? Or do we understand their existence and take breaks from them to focus on the things that truly matter in our lives? When we stop using them as excuses and embrace the metaphorical gnats, we not only take away their negative influence on our lives, but we see past them to focus fully on what truly matters in life, whatever that may be.
For me, it’s my consistent pursuit of God our Father in heaven.
So, what about you? Will you look past the gnats, or let them be the focus in your life?
^Our team, Squad Leader Lynna and two Inca Link-ers on the left!
Unfortunately.. the iPhone’s HEIC photos don’t work on this blog and I have yet to turn them to JPG’s so this is the only photo available.
Hit the “Follow Me” button to insert your e-mail address to follow all of the wonderful things God is showing and doing through us for the next 8.5 months!!
