I suppose it’s always good to give a general update on my
life, how I’m doing, how I’m holding up, what I’m learning – all that
jazz. Here’s a quick glimpse into the
life of Matthew Snyder at the present moment:
Currently I’m sitting on a couch – yes, a couch – writing out
these words of wisdom. To my left is an
LG television, a fan, while to my right sits a recliner of sorts draped in a
sheet. This is all irrelevant to any
point I’m about to make. I just wanted
to tell you that I’m relieved to be living somewhere for the next two weeks
that resembles a home. 
*Excitement
ensues*
But I’m truly doing really well and I’m thankful that
several of you have emailed me or sent me messages over Facebook prying into my
well-being. It’s good to know that
people care. And while I like the
connectivity of Facebook with the rest of the ‘world’ I found myself a part of
back home, emails are so much easier to manage and easier to reply to. Unfortunately the internet isn’t as great in
some parts of the world as it is back home, so it takes longer to load things
and log into different accounts. So don’t
be offended if I don’t write you back over Facebook, instead, email me and you’ll
probably hear back.
Can I get an amen?
I wrestle sometimes still with the community thing, but we’re
all beginning to understand the way that each of us operate and what each of us
needs, so it’s actually becoming easier to escape in the crowd here. My brothers and sisters are aware that I need
some time to myself, so they give it to me.
We’re truly like a giant family trying to figure out why God found us
worthy enough to be adopted as sons and daughters into His family. And like every other family in the world, we’re
fairly dysfunctional. I love it
though. I wouldn’t trade any of them for
all the treasures of the world.
I could probably write a novel on all of the things that I’m
learning, but I’ll touch base on the most evident one around here: I’m finally
hearing God’s voice. It’s become quite
obvious that MANY of us have finally developed an ear to hear when the Lord is
speaking to us. I love it! It’s amazing how often the Lord speaks to
each of us… and I’ve been writing down what He speaks to me so I don’t forget
it. I wrestled a lot with the lies at
first, with the lies that I wasn’t really hearing from God. And it became a thing that I didn’t doubt
that I HEAR from God, but I began doubting that I HEARD from God. Then there’s those lies that others begin to
feed you that, “well, you haven’t been listening to the Lord that long… you
could still here Him wrong.”
Liars.
Maturity in hearing the Lord doesn’t come in our ability to
understand what He says, the maturity lay in our recognition of that voice and
our willingness to listen. I’m still
growing into that maturity. There are
still times that I hear God saying to me, “Matthew…. Matthew… hey, Matthew…”
and I ignore it, I push it aside because by the way He’s beaconing me I know He’s
going to ask me to do something. So
maybe maturity doesn’t lay in the hearing of the Lord’s voice, but our willingness
to listen and obey.
The Lord’s also been teaching me about being a servant
leader, a humble one, a son of His who takes on the Christ-like attitude we
find in Philippians 2.6-11. I wish I
could go further in depth on that but I’m unsure of how to really put it into
words at this point… and I don’t want to try and be at the risk of sounding
stupid. I still haven’t let go of that ‘looking
dumb in front of others thing’. I think
I still care too much about the image I put out. Just because I’m not in the States doesn’t
make me any better. I still wrestle with
the same things.
I was able to preach one night in Nauta. I hesitate calling it preaching because,
well, I do not believe that my gift lay within that. I would much rather say that I was able to teach one night while in Nauta. But it was an amazing opportunity and I’m
glad that the Lord chose to work through me the way that He did. I had about four hours to prepare and I went
straight to the Lord and sought Him on what I should speak about. It was the one thing that’s been on my heart:
following Jesus.
I’ve struggled in my past with the whole believing Jesus
versus following Jesus dichotomy, so it was cool to share what was on my heart
and to call the followers out of everyone else.
But I KNOW that the Lord spoke to me because even I was convicted at some of the words that were coming out of my
mouth. The Lord moved in an incredible
way – again, it’s such a blessing to be used by Him in that fashion.
I’m not really sure what else I should talk about at this
point. There’s probably a lot more but
my mind fails me and I draw blanks, so I’ll end it here. There truly is so much that I could write
about, I’m just unsure of how I’m to really put it all into words on a page at
this point. I think I still need to work
through the lessons that God’s been teaching me through this all, then maybe I
can hash it out to make more sense on the page.
Bathe yourselves in prayer – seek the Lord’s wisdom and the
goodness that flows only from Him.
Grace and peace.
