What’s another human’s soul worth to you? $100? $1000? $100,000,000? Priceless?
What’s the worth of a soul?
This past year was overflowing with people changed by God’s presence. Their very souls were transformed. Souls were flooded with Light and Life and set towards an eternal path that emits the same.
I don’t believe it is prideful to say that if I had not gone on the Race, some of these souls would not be where they are today, changed. I think it is much more about honing the Spirit I carry and realizing God is what changed them, not me.
But He used me to lead people to Him. And who gave me the means to go?
You empowered me to go. Do. Learn. Live. Love. Teach. Experience. Pursue. And reach.
You did that.
It wasn’t me who reached people, who changed them, who instigated an encounter with Jesus. It was God Himself. But He asked me to be a part of it. I said yes to Him, but you all are the ones who got me here. The graduation money, the tip at the coffee shop, the tee shirt you bought, the donations to my Race, the time you spent praying, the energy you took to read my blogs, the effort you took to message me, and your sheer UNENDING amount of confidence you had in me to go out and freaking change the world?
Yeah. That’s what got me there. YOU got me there.
And I don’t have words to show how thankful I am for you all. My support crew. My encouragers. The ones who on many occasions had more faith in my ability to bring Christ than I had in myself. Thank you. Thank you a million times.
I caught a glimpse of what a soul is worth to you. I saw money you didn’t have being given and time, always too limited, being taken to care for me, and I saw giving on giving on giving. The $10 donation towards my funds? That made an impact for eternity. You didn’t sponsor a cool trip, or a fun year, or a humanitarian experience. You sponsored the YES I had towards God to use me how He needed me, and He used me to do nothing short of impacting eternity.
I guess I can’t quite imagine putting a price on a soul, but then again Jesus showed us pretty blatantly what His price is. For Him, even one human, one soul, was worth the God of all existence limiting Himself and giving up His glory to live with His creation. Us. The people who turn our backs and spit on Him constantly.
Jesus lived.
Jesus suffered.
Jesus died.
Jesus rose.
For us.
For us?
For us. Period.
For God, the price of a soul, all souls, was the blood and agony of everything He gave up to give us a chance to accept Him. How much would you pay for a soul who deserved nothing less than a torturous existence? He did it on a maybe. That maybe we would choose to accept His love and love Him in return.
Your soul was worth every second of His pain.
Jesus doesn’t want eternity without you.
So. What’s the worth of a soul?
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I skipped around a little bit by throwing a story from Nepal in there before Rwanda. Here’s a story from Rwanda:
At our humble little home in Africa, surrounded by shack-like houses that were much less sturdy than ours, there lived a small boy. Every day this little four year old would climb up on the fence separating our houses and peek over at us. Near where he would poke his head over there was a small hole in the fence. My team and I would be heading out the door to go teach English for that day and there he would be, staring at the strange muzungu white people there.
Until one day he started talking to us.
The first few days it was in Kinyarwanda, the native language. We would smile and wave and respond something along the lines of “you’re cute, but you don’t know what we’re saying right now do ya?”. And we would go on our way.
Then one morning, he said something in English that caught our attention.
“Give me your shoe”.
What? Did our little neighbor friend just say that?
And we would talk to him, and wave, and say good morning in kinyarwanda, and he was our little friend.
And every day we would hear, “give me your shoe”.
We started responding the same to him. “No, you give me your shoe!” we would say playfully.
It was our joke. We had fun with it, and he was so cute, how could we not?
Until one day, my shoes disappeared.
And when you only have 2 pairs of shoes, you DON’T just lose your shoes.
My shoes could have been eaten by a ferocious animal. Or they could have spontaneously combusted. But I have a pretty good idea of where my shoes went that da
R. I. P.
Green Teva Flip Flops
Ebay purchase- Slightly Used
Beloved Sandals of Michelina
Left of Kin: a single pair of blue chacos
You were thoroughly loved until your day of departure.
I hope you bring the small Rwandan boy much joy
I am not bitter
Long Live the Green Teva Flip Flops.
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Also, I’m back home again. If you see me and need some ideas of what to ask me about, and what not to ask me about, here you go:
What NOT to ask me:
-So, how were all the orphans?
-How was your vacation?
-How many times did you crap your pants?
-Did you even eat while you were gone? Was there food?
-Did you help “all those needy people” out there?
-Now be honest, did you brush your teeth at all?
-Did you have to just live in garbage dumps like the rest of the “those people”?
PLEASE ask me…
-What was your favorite country?
-what kinds of food did you eat?
-Who were some of your favorite people you met?
-How were some of the countries different than the USA?
-How was paragliding in Nepal?
-What did you miss about home?
-Do you miss your friends abroad?
-What was the best and worst part about one of the countries you lived in?
-etc. etc.
I am thoroughly convinced that part of the reason I had an incredible experience on the Race is that I had so, so many people praying for me. Not everyone loves their time with World Race. I know that one of the reasons my year was so powerful is because of you all praying unceasingly for my time there. Thank you so, so much.
