This month I gave God limitations. In my own mind, I put Him in a box and told myself He couldn’t exist outside of it. Now let me tell you about how He completely wrecked that box.
When we arrived in Thai Nguyen, it immediately felt empty to me. The city was bustling, the people some of the most hospitable I’ve ever met, and yet it still felt lacking. Lacking in the Spirit. I couldn’t feel God anywhere. I couldn’t even see the sun. My first thought was, “God where are you in this place?” As days went on, our team continued to do ATL things. We met locals, made connections, visited a school, invested time in the family we were staying with, and still I couldn’t really see God in any of it. So I stopped looking and I put God in a box. Maybe He really wasn’t anywhere in this city.
Then we met the city’s Catholic community, which was full of bright-eyed college students just brimming with happiness and smiles. And I said, “Okay God, maybe you are here, you just show up in a different way.” The students then proceeded to completely immerse us in their life. We were invited to their celebrations, mass, performances which we even participated in(church clap around the world), games, and even their family homes for dinner. They made it seem as though we had known them for months and I felt peace in my heart. God showed me that I didn’t have to find the perfect “Christian” stereotype to find Him. These people love Jesus just as much as we do, and they poured into us their love while we poured His into them.
After meeting this group, I proceeded to lose my phone in the back of a taxi, realizing it after already walking back to where we were staying. My “American” mindset dubbed it lost forever. Since losing it, I’ve spent a lot of time in prayer, bringing to light just how much of a distraction my phone was. I made promises between me and God about boundaries and setting my priorities straight, and six days later my phone turned up. Things like that don’t just happen, I mean seriously, the back of 1 of 10,000+ taxis that go in and out of the city within 6 days, and yet here I am typing up this blog on my very own phone. God is good and His goodness is in people. God is in community, in church, in mass. He is in universities and students, in the back of taxis, in dumpling shops and markets. He’s all around us, all the time. It took some major brokenness for me to realize it and now I know, I can’t put God in a box.
