Without fail
this year around the world, God has taught me that, for those who lives by
faith, nothing is impossible. I know Ive talked about this in several blogs
this year, but God has brought this yearlong teaching to a powerful climax this
final month in Malaysia. As God has made this teaching a reality in my life
this year, most notably in providing every last cent of my support money when I
needed over $4000 in less than one month, I’ve recognized that we aren’t
confined to applying this perspective only to finances or other black and white
needs we have. God wants us to take on this worldview, God’s view, as our way
of life He/She.
This
month, God has put the finishing touches’ on His/Her crafting of my belief in
the impossible, as far as what I could learn this year on the World Race. Coming
on the Race, I never imagined I would find a ministry that would be like an
internship for me to practice exactly what I hope to do as a career, let alone
in the last month of the trip. Yet this month, I was given the option to do
college ministry at a local campus everyday, meeting students and making
friendships with them, promoting the restaurant where we were serving our
host/contact for the month. Even still, I didn’t think it would be possible to
invest in numerous relationships and stumble upon worthwhile conversations
everyday. I prayed for one person to be able to invest in, and hoped for a few
impactful discussions throughout the month. But, within the first week, I had
made at least 5 friends that I maintained almost a daily friendship with all
month, and by the end, it had grown to 10, including people outside the
college. Also, God unveiled the occasions for meaningful discussions with
students and friends multiple times a day, adding up to more than any other 2
months combined this whole year. Going with students to class, club meetings,
prayer meetings, fellowship gatherings, cafes, dinner at their house, and
having them out for college nights at our restaurant Kennedys, we had the
chance to interact with them on so many levels of their lives. It was my dream
ministry, a surreal firsthand preview of what it could be like for me in
college ministry in the US. It was a ministry more fulfilling and worthwhile
than I ever thought possible to find on the World Race… I guess its yet another
example of why we need to always believe in the impossible while we walk this
life of faith.
Zooming
out just a bit on what this month looked like for me, I want to share how this
college ministry was actually just one piece under the umbrella
ministry/lifestyle of my final month on the World Race. If you know me well at
all, you know that relationships are the crux of my character, the reason why I
believe college ministry is my calling. Building relationships for the sake of
helping people discover the joy of living a kingdom-focused life of faith is
the major purpose for why I came on the Race. How fitting it was then, that not
only did I get to relate deeply with college students forming their lives, but
I was able to witness God’s love and receive it abundantly in relationships
with a family and also a friend who treated me like a son and a brother. Sparing
names and details for privacy, let it suffice to say that God couldn’t have
packed more purpose into the connections God wove between this family and me,
and separately, with this friend who worked at the restaurant, Kennedys.
In
both situations, aspects of our past and personality aligned in a way that
allowed us to learn from and challenge one another in our relationships with
our families. Although no one can ever fully understand the layers and intricacies
of a family dynamic, sometimes an outside perspective can help people see
things that they need to deal with but were too blinded by past pain, trauma,
or the emotional walls they erected around themselves to see. In addition,
sometimes witnessing the way someone loves and sacrifices for his/her family is
what we need to realize the investment and commitment God desires for us to
find for our own families. With the family this month, as they befriended me
and welcomed me into their lives, I truly believe God used me as this 3rd
party perspective to call attention to some of the obstacles in their
relationships that God wants to help them navigate on the road to a more loving
and unified family. The only reason God was able to usurp my voice in speaking
His/Her love to them, however, is because God had to take me through some of
the same processes of forgiveness with my family. In addition, I discovered
through fighting for their family in prayer and conversations that God was
teaching me ways He/She wants me to fight for a greater love in my family when
I return home, as the work God is doing in both of our families isn’t finished.
Parallel to what God was doing through and revealing to me in those
relationships, God showed me in my friend at the restaurant the best human
example of how He/She goes to every possible end to take care of us, God’s
family. As I learned from this friend the inestimable power of giving every
possible ounce of love we have to our family, even when all odds are against
us, God used me to emancipate him from some burdens he had taken on in his
all-out but blind love for his family. For him, it was a redemption we both agreed
is now altering the course of his life forever towards serving God’s kingdom.
For me, Ive seen the love I want to give to my family to continue the work God
has been doing in all of us over the years.
The
connecting thread through all of this is that for each of us, there was a time
when we would have said that the breakthroughs God surprised us with this month
were impossible to accomplish. It was the faith that God had been pushing me to
hold on to more vigorously this year that enabled me to believe despite the
odds. Because of the impossible things God has done every month this year on
the World Race, its becoming more natural to cast the lines of my hope, love,
and passion into bottomless waters of uncertainty. Although years of hardened
pain and unhealed wounds may stand in our way, and miles of separation and isolation
may overpower our hearts’ grasp on hope, God’s goodness has no threshold when
it is unlocked by our faith. For so long this family has been troubled by
un-forgiveness and hidden bitterness, just like in so many of our own
relationships with our families. And similarly, for years my friend has been
locked away from his beloved family, for which he’s sacrificed everything,
behind the ever thickening door of past missteps in his self-imposed efforts to
“fix” everything for them on his own. Nevertheless, God has now pierced through
their clouds of darkness now with promises of His/Her faithfulness to bring
redemption, leaving it in their hands to follow faithfully to the clearing
horizon ahead.
Like
I said earlier, in this process God has also helped me spot the brighter future
ahead for my family and me, and I know this year God has given me enough ammo
for my faith to push on towards that. So I offer this truth to you as well, for
whatever impossibility may be fooling your faith right now. The mountain before
you CAN be moved by faith of a mustard seed. Whatever agony or frustration
someone has caused you, it doesn’t have to control you now. Whatever secret has
kept your family from being real with each other, it doesn’t have to have a
clamp on you any longer. Whatever mistake you’ve made that has crushed your
confidence or hope for a 2nd chance, God wants to show you that
He/She makes all things new. Nothing is impossible for he/she who believes.
Take a risk of faith, gamble on God… God’s just waiting to fill your life with
the riches of His/Her Kingdom.
