Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Costa Rica is full of shadows.
 
Shadows from the mountains that surround the cities. Shadows from the palm trees that sway with every gust of wind. Shadows from the huge Catholic churches in the middle of every city. Shadows from the enemy who still has such a strong hold on so many here…

All the faces. All the hearts. All the souls.
 
Most lonely. Most looking for meaning. Most not having a clue as to where to find it except in the things that Satan tricks us are acceptable.

It's easy to see…mainly because I walked in the same shadows that they are now walking in. Shadows of hurt. Shadows of pain. Shadows of lies. Shadows of discomfort. Shadows of pride. Shadows of so many things that the world teaches us are okay. Shadows that aren't really shadows, but more like walls that seemingly don't have a way for us to climb over.

But there's hope…
 

And if you look close enough…at the very top of the wall…you'll see hope. You'll see hope reaching down with an open hand to pluck you up from the abyss. It's God. A loving and gracious God. A God who provided us with His own shadow in the form of His only son. A God who is purely and furiously pursuing us to be in an intimate relationship with Him. A God who has all the answers for the questions we have whether they be in English or Spanish.

While I've been in Costa Rica for less than a week, it's evident that God is doing work in and through the people here. It hit me the first day we had here.
 

As I sat in an empty sanctuary with nothing but the voices of the worship leaders practicing being my only
company, the Holy Spirit decided to swoop down and consume every piece of my heart. One second I was fine, the next I found myself sitting in silence as tears streamed down my cheeks and onto the open pages of my Bible.

“Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God” – Hebrews 11:16

At that moment it was like a light-bulb had went on. The same God that was in Mississippi was the same God who was next to me in San Pedro, Costa Rica. And I needed to feel Him. I needed for Him to tell me everything was okay. I needed Him to be my remedy. I needed to have Him sitting next to me. I just didn't know it before that instance.

With each night since that has passed here, I've made an effort to stop and sit under the stars and think of what a great responsibility it is to be me. I'm human because God made me. I experience suffering and temptation because I chose to follow the enemy. But God is reaching out to rescue me with each screw up. I am learning more and more to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that I might be preserved forever.

And that's what everybody who understands God is after. A chance to be preserved forever as we try to make sense of the fact that we are just tiny people on a tiny earth suspended in an endless void that echoes past stars and stars of stars…

So we search. We look into every shadow hoping that we find find the source we'll find Jesus