Just because you showed up today doesn’t mean you get to take tomorrow off. That’s one big lesson I learned this month. It may sound a little bizarre to say that I’ve become entitled during my year of travel and service to some desperate parts of the world but I have.
I didn’t have any idea how entitled I had become until I came to Nicaragua and met my hosts for the month, Scott and Jennifer Esposito. The Espositos are the first American hosts that I have had in a long time. Our ministry for the month was varied but our main project outside of relational ministry was helping them to plant 600 limon trees. The first day we worked we began at 8:30 am. I expected to work until lunch and then go home because that was the pattern that most of my race had followed. We would show up and work a few hours and then our hosts would worry we were too tired or too sunburned or too sweaty to keep working so usually we would go back at lunch and then do something slow or easy in the afternoon. This was not the case with the Espositos. We worked until lunch and then ate at the site we were planting. It suddenly dawned on me that we would not be going home. Scott then told us that we would be staying out in the field until 5pm. I couldn’t believe it at first. I thought that was bad enough until Scott said that we would be returning the next day at 6am. What? We don’t get to take tomorrow off? But we worked so hard! Are you kidding me? This is too hard, this is too much work, it’s too hot, blah blah blah. I caught myself in the midst of such a selfish and whiney train of thoughts. It actually grossed me out a lot. When did this happen? At what point during the year did I decide that I was above working and getting dirty and beat up and worn out? After all, wasn’t this what I signed up for?
I’m currently in the middle of learning a thousand different
lessons and I so badly wish I could tell you that they’re all profound and life changing but the reality is that most of the time they’re common sense. Most of the time the lesson looks like me realizing that God really is completely good or that it’s better to give than to receive. Honestly, I’ve been learning these two things since Sunday school so I don’t have a good excuse for why I still can’t wrap my mind around it. They also don’t make for the most interesting blogs so I try to limit how often I write about it.
So, I said a prayer and looked towards God and apologized for the ways I forget that because of him I’m strong enough. Because in my weakness he is strong. He is always bringing us from glory to glory even if that looks like taking us from a pulpit and putting us in a field of lime trees.
I thank God for Jen and Scott Esposito and all the things I learned from living with them for a month. They are the picture of being interruptible. They live their lives with their hands wide open and hold their plans loosely. It is evident that they are led by the Holy Spirit and operate out of a position of humility. They loved us well and worked us hard and I’ll never forget them.
Sent from my iPhone
