So, month 1 in Thailand happened. That was a long time ago, and I already wrote
about Thailand so I won’t recap it. All
I will say here is that we made it through the month like champs; well almost
all of us…go read my Squatty Potty Blues
flog for more info. We charged into the
first month, bumbled our way onto college campuses and stared blankly at Thai
students who didn’t know a lick of English and they stared blankly at us who
didn’t know a lick of Thai. We did
prayer walks and lead Wednesday night Bible studies. One day we saw an elephant cruising down the
street, and I chased him down and tickled his fancy with some delightful
sugarcane. Suh-weet We started
to learn what it meant to live in community i.e. what it meant to cash in all
personal time and space. We dove into
the night markets and ate fried bugs, heaps of the most amazing Pad Thai on
earth (duh…we were in the motherland of this acclaimed dish) and any sort of
dessert we could find. At this point, we
ate everything because you tell yourself “oh my gosh, I HAVE to eat this
because I’ll probably NEVER see a sweet again on the Race.” Not true.
Contrary to popular belief aka naivety, America is not THE confection
capitol of the world. You simply tell yourself this because you need an excuse
to inhale unacceptable amounts of treats.
Whatever. Such is life on the
Race. Month nine you finally know
better. Thank goodness I’m finally
there!
I digress. See, I
told you I’m a terrible flogger: 1) because I never do it and 2) because there
is no doubt I have developed adult ADD.
I cannot hold a thought for more than a couple of lines. Internal filter: make yourself known
already!! I’d say I’d try better but who
am I kidding? A spade is a spade is a
spade. Anyway-y-y-y, month 1 is/was
interesting to say the least. In
addition to figuring out community and diving into your first ministry
location, you share your “story” with your team and that’s when it starts. I had almost 10 years more “wisdom” than most
of my team. Yeah, we’ll call it
“wisdom”. What I’m trying to say is my story, looking back, really could have
used an intermission. Crap, I’m talking
way more about Thailand than I had expected and the title of this blog remains
irrelevant to this point. You know what
I’m gonna do? I’m going to carry right
on with what I’m saying, because I can.
Back to it ‘starting’. You share
your story and then things get real. You
aren’t just a misfit group of people that happen to be traveling around the
world to the same places on the same buses and staying on the same floors. Now you know each other. Now you see each other’s hearts. The onion layers begin to peel off and you
start to open up. For some of the team
it took months to get really real.
Really real is serious. Plain
real is very important but is still a step down from really real. So, the process had begun. I mentioned in my last blog (Disappearing Act – plugging you to read
it if you haven’t already, and by plugging I mean luring), that I wanted to
disappear. Go on the Race, help some
people and melt into Africa when we finally would arrive in the summer. Not. So. Fast. I realized that by sharing my story I was
opening a box of memories that I had wanted to leave duct taped shut in
America. I had a lot of things that I
needed to deal with. I became acutely
aware that my soul had become dark and hard.
I didn’t want this, but I had allowed life circumstances to govern my
happiness, if you will. I wanted to
regain and reclaim that happy-go-lucky nature of my personality that had gone
into hiding. Month 2 in Cambodia would
be different. I could just feel it.
World Race Lesson 1…it is a year that is way more about
personal growth than you ever imagined.
It isn’t until your own heart begins to change that the world around you
follows suit. *Hindsight is 20-20 as per the usual.
Continuing on…my iTunes had gone janky on me for months and
low and behold it was toward the end of January and several email exchanges
with Apple IT that I was finally able to download music again. Sweet victory! I jumped online and bought the Mumford &
Sons album. The day we boarded the bus
to make our trek to Cambodia I nestled into my cushy Turkish bazaar look alike
seat thanks to all of the patterns and trinkets that adorned this double decker
people mover and I put in my earbuds. I
scrolled down to my new album and clicked on the song Awake My Soul. I cannot
remember how many times I listened to that song but I found myself praying the
lyrics to God. It captured my thoughts
precisely. The title of this flog is
finally making sense! I just needed to
make a few laps around the field before I hit it out of the park…or a single to
left maybe? Yesh. Either way, base hit. Back in bidness!
It says:
“In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will
die. Where you invest your love, you
invest your life. Awake my soul. Awake my soul. You were made to meet your Maker. “-Mumford
& Sons, lyrics to Awake My Soul
Dang. That is good
stuff right there. Life is short. It is precious. It is a gift.
Created with purpose. And the
great news is that we get to decide how we are going to invest our time and our
energy. Will we waste it away on the
things of this world that will surely pass us by? Will we squander our money away on empty
items that bring us temporary satisfaction only to leave us feeling empty in
the wake of their passing? (well yes, of course, and sometimes it’s totally
worth it! I trust you know what I mean). Or will we grab the bull by the horns and
sink ourselves into the investment of life…our
own as well as those around us? I know,
I trust and I believe that I am going to meet my Maker one fine day and when I
do, I want to know without a shadow of a doubt that I lived and I loved in the
body that was given as a gift to me.
That I tried my best to selflessly give to those in need. That I gave my all and my best to live a life
after the example of Jesus.
Matthew 25:33-40 says, “Then the
King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father;
take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the
world. For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick
and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord,
when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to
drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and
clothe you? When did we see you sick or
in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for
me.’
I want to live a life invested in love…for my Maker and for
the people I encounter along the way to that meeting. I have been graciously loved and saved and it
is the least that I can do to give back.
I’m not trying to earn my place in heaven. I will fall short every stinkin’ time…but my
hope is that my time here is invested in the treasures of my eternity which are
a result of the relationship that I have with God. Our lives and our actions are a
representation of the things in our hearts.
I love God. I’m in awe of His
greatness and I want to love without measure just as He loves me without
measure. I love because He loves.
Next step…my soul must be awakened…and not just in that early
morning alarm clock blaring way that jolts you out of a deep snuggly slumber and
abruptly sends your hand flying to hit the snooze button…over…and over…and over
(ok, maybe that’s just me) sending you back to sleepyland. It must be Starbucks Double Shot Americano
wakened because there are lives waiting.
Hungry, naked, sick, imprisoned, abandoned unloved, unreached people
that need some love.
M&S gave words to my thoughts (thanks, guys), but it was
God that answered my call when I asked for my soul to be jolted awake.
I’m ready! Wake up
soul! And I could really use some coffee
too.
Peace,
k
