During our first month on the race in Costa Rica, a couple of my teammates and I had an experience that was frightening, shocking, and exhilarating, all at the same time.
I knew the Lord was wanting me to write about this story, but I was never sure what exactly it was He wanted me to write about it. It wasn’t until 7 months later when I was in a rural village in Cambodia, sitting in my hammock overlooking a large group of neighborhood children playing games when the Lord spoke to me. I was in the middle of reading the book Love Does– a book that I for SO long I called my favorite book….but the truth was that I was only 16 chapters in and didn’t want the book to end, so I quit reading it a few years ago. After reading chapter 16, Hunting Grizzlies, I was inspired by the metaphor Bob Goff used and began to think.
Truly inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Lord reminded me of a memory from Costa Rica.
It was a rainy day in October, which wasn’t unusual in San Jose, Costa Rica. We were basically done with our first month of ministry on the race, and my teammates and I wanted to visit a local orphanage house our host kept talking about all month, Casa De Pan.
Excited to meet the 45 kids who lived in the orphanage home, we got into 2 cars and made our way to the house. Our car was going to be leading the other car to the destination.
Gracie, Jenny, Karen and I got in the leading car with an older woman who helped out at Transforma. This woman was incredibly kind, soft spoken, and gentle. Her smile lit up a room, and her frailness was endearing.
After a month of not wearing seat belts in Costa Rica, she recommended that we should wear our seat belts. We all looked at each other and laughed a bit, since it was very uncommon to be asked that in Central America. We did so anyway, and I’m glad we did.
About 10 minutes through our drive, the woman made a left hand turn onto a street. Instantly I knew something didn’t feel right. I felt it in my gut. As I started looking around, I noticed that all of the parked cars were parked in the opposite direction.
Gracie, who was next to me, mouthed, “Are we on a one-way street?!” to me with a surprised look on her face.
As I shook my head yes, I realized we were, in fact, going down a one-way street, and we were going the opposite way.
As cars honked at us consistently and as we dodged cars speeding our way, we all started to look at each other nervously in the back row.
“Does she know she’s going the wrong way?!” Jenny whispered to us.
Taking double takes from each other to the street ahead, I decided to speak up.
“Hi– I think we’re going down a one-way street! Is there any way we can turn right at the next street?!” I said impulsively.
She laughed. She nodded to herself and said, “Oh, we’re fine. Just fine,” as she continued driving as if nothing had been said.
Still going down a one-way street with PLENTY of options to turn right or left to get us out of the situation, we held onto our seat belts and anxiously laughed to one another.
2 minutes later, home girl was STILL driving down a one-way street. She well knew she was going the wrong way, but she kept justifying her behavior. She had something to prove.
She leaned into the driver’s wheel and began to laugh to herself. “They don’t know who they’re messing with,” she said every time someone honked at her.
They were trying to warn her.
We were trying to warn her.
We did all that we could but she wouldn’t listen.
Her decision to keep moving forward in this hazardous way was not only putting her life in danger, but it was putting our lives and other’s lives in danger, as well.
Oh, did I mention she ran red lights, as well? Home girl SPED through intersections and wove through cars to avoid stopping. Cars swerved out of her way to avoid crashing into her. Nothing was getting in her way. She was determined.
At points, we had to close our eyes. We couldn’t watch the close-calls, and we couldn’t bare to see the sight of an accident waiting to happen.
I wasn’t going to sit back and watch this happen– watch her potentially destroy her life with reckless decisions. With aggression, I insisted, “We lost the other car and we need to turn left to find them. Please make a left turn and pull over.”
Somehow, what I said got through to her. I think she realized she was in her own head and was only caring about herself, that she forgot that she was supposed to be leading other people. She forgot her actions were effecting others.
Home girl FINALLY pulled over after making a left turn, and we sat in silence. Our clenched fists and tight bodies slowly released the built-up tension; knowing we were going to be okay. After 4 minutes of going down a one-way street, we finally made a decision that would lead us to safety.
Finally, someone broke the silence and laughed. We all laughed together. We somehow located the other car, and we ended up in alignment with one another and got to the same destination.
Doesn’t this happen in life?
Are we so set in our ways, that we forget to listen to the people around us?
Does our pride hold us back from letting others speak into our lives?
How often are we knowing that we are going the wrong way, and we don’t take the time to practically listen to what others are saying– knowing those people are WITH and FOR us! Knowing they, very well, want to see us all arrive at the same destination.
Sure, this woman KNEW her way around San Jose and we were new to the area, but didn’t our perspectives matter? She might have “known more” than us, but our outside perspective had validity that she could agree with in the long run.
This is the beauty of old wine skin and new wine. This is the beauty of letting people speak into our lives– especially when we don’t realize we need it.
At what point do we humble ourselves and admit we’re in the wrong? At what point do we recognize that change needs to happen?
When we realize it’s not about us, and it’s all about Jesus. It’s all about how we can be molded and changed to further the Kingdom!
It’s about taking the focus off of ourselves, and realizing that we effect other’s around us with our actions. It’s not about us.
We need to humble ourselves to be moldable… to let people speak into our lives… to recognize that we’re going down one-way streets that lead to destruction, and that we’re taking the people around us with us.
I have to realize that there are times when I’m just like this woman… too focused on where I want to go and what I want to do, that it leads to bigger pride and less of a concern for those around me. I see so much of my self-reliance sin tendencies in her.
We need to live the story we’re trying to preach to other’s about. We need to think about the impacts we make for the Kingdom. And it starts with humility and letting others speak into our lives to help us grow in ways we can further the Kingdom.
Peace + grace,
Kels
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Encouraged? Challenged? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
