Day 4 of staying home from work, feeling progressively better but still coughing and feeling like my head might explode during said cough. Yes, training camp brought on this illness while living in close community in the muddy, cold rain, but I wouldn’t have given it up just to stay well. I learned what it is like to live so closely with a group of people whose hearts beat for the same purpose as your own, to be selfless and share their things when yours are taken away, and to laugh so hard you can’t breathe and your jaw locks. I am blessed to be a part of this family whom I have the privilege of traveling with next year to share the love of God with people all over the world & put ourselves in a vulnerable place so that He can touch our lives in new ways. I wouldn’t exchange this experience for a day without snot and coughs or to keep all of my stuff that “comforts” me here at home. I am quite excited to leave what I know behind to venture into the unknown and see what lies there.
I am ready to minimize what I deem as necessary to a combined 90 Liters on my back. It is time to open up these eyes to the reality of what the 2/3 world lives like while millions in America complain about waiting in the drive-thru line or that Starbucks ran out of their favorite flavored syrup. I am ready to leave the culture saturated with processed junk food bringing illness to our bodies. I am ready to know what it is like to truly work hard for the meal that ends up in my mouth, even if it is bite-sized. To know what it is like not to have everything a person could desire at their finger tips. To plug into the reality of the quality of living in the majority of the world. America is in a bubble, where poverty and starvation are a commercial away, distant from the heart-wrenching reality of how prominent it is outside our bubble. Some are worried about disease and danger on this journey, but I am more concerned about meeting and knowing the equally human people on the other side of the map who have feelings, needs and dreams just like we do. They are no different in how they are created and need just as much love and affection as we do.
You would think that in a place like the United States, people would be happier with all these things to keep them busy. Yet we still have sky-rocketing divorce rates, suicide rates, sex and drug addiction etc. Because the only One who can fill the void we are looking to fill with drugs, sex, people, food, money and material objects is Jesus. Apart from Him, we will always have an empty feeling deep in the bottom of our hearts. And until we recognize that as a collective whole, murder, greed, addiction and bondage will continue to run rampant.
