God tripped me.
It was a Sunday, and a bunch of us were headed from Viile Tecii into Tegu Mures to visit a church. We stopped in another village on the way there so Ali could buy a handmade violin. Some of us gals decided to make a visit to the restroom nearby (incidentally, it was at a ballroom dancing school, so it was partially an excuse to peek into their beautiful competition ballroom! so fun!).
We decided to jog it since everyone was waiting on us. So I quickly picked up my pace–and before I knew it, I was diving face-down into the stony pavement. Landing hard on my stomach and hands, I instantly felt extremely nauseated. I looked at my palms and saw dirt carved deep into them, mixing with blood. My knee, hip and elbow were also deeply scratched…I totally ate it.
What killed me was that I could not for the life of me figure out what happened. I am a person that does NOT fall. I’m usually too self-protective to keep myself from eating it like that. (For example: My friend Emma-Rose once witnessed me nearly crashing a bike into a tree, but at the last moment I leapt sideways off the bike onto the ground, successfully rescuing both myself and the bike from imminent impact. She said it was the most graceful non-crash she had ever seen.) Anyways, I am not a person that falls! I could not figure out what happened. My Rainbows are way too trusty to trip me up. The pavement was rocky but solid, not shifty. I don’t know what happened.
I’ve since figured it out. It was God. Yes…God tripped me.
Since that day a week ago, I’ve seen how that little incident has actually been an allegory to this entire time of ministry for me.
God’s tripped me here in Romania. I was excited about ministry here, living among the gypsies in Viile Tecii, learning their culture, asking God to lead us into what He desired for us. I was picking up my pace from an intense debrief, excited about what lay ahead (like I had been excited about seeing the ballroom place and using a nice toilet).
But God had other plans. He tripped me. He made me fall flat on my face in the dirt, where it HURT. He stopped me in my tracks because He had some work to do. He wanted to work on my humility by bringing me low (hence the falling face-down in the dirt). He wanted to reveal some dirt (sin) in my life, which meant pain (hence the injuries of the fall). He wanted to slow me down so I wouldn’t rush into a ministry without really thinking about what I was going into and truly spending time asking Him what He wanted me to do in Viile Tecii.
OK, God…I see it now. Even though this ministry hasn’t been exactly what I thought, it’s because you pulled me out of it to do some more inner work. I know it’s all for a greater purpose. After all, God can work even without me as his willing servant (think about it for a second….yep, it’s the truth. He CAN do things without us. Proof? Saul on the road to Damascus.) …He knew I was a bit too eager without really understanding our purpose here in Viile Tecii.
What IS our purpose in Viile Tecii…and everywhere we go? What is your purpose wherever you are?
The Race has helped me learn that our purpose on earth…is just to hang out with God…all the time. He just wants to be with us all the time, everywhere we go, abiding in us, guiding us, bringing His Kingdom to the places we go. Because if He is in us, He is in the places we are in. And others will see Him in us. Not because of anything we do as humans…but because God is like that. ‘Cuz he is GOD. He desires US. Because that’s why He created us…to walk with us in the garden. To BE with us. To love us.
So, God tripped me, all because He wanted to hang out with me some more. And yeah, it hurt for a while; all the painful sin-revealing stuff sure wasn’t fun. But my gosh I know it has been worth it.
