First off, I’m sorry that I haven’t been blogging. Several times I sat down and tried to write, but I couldn’t come up with anything. For the first time on the race, I’ve had some writers block. It was bound to happen.
This year, the Holidays look a little different than in the past. I’m missing out on all the annual traditions of Christmas and being away from family isn’t as easy as I thought it’d be.
Every year we get the family together, go to the Christmas Eve service, then a Christmas Eve party, open 1 present each at night, then wake up the next morning to a tree full of presents. After unwrapping our presents, we have eggs benedict. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, and I reminder each of these traditions so clearly.
But this year looks a little different. For the past month and a half, I’ve been hopping from village to village, living and serving in the communities of rural India. Every night, we visit a different house church and preach and pray over them. It’s been blessing to give wisdom and bring hope to these villagers, and it has truly been an eye opening experience in so many ways.
But being away from home makes you miss it a lot, and the sacrifice that I made by signing up for the world race is becoming more easily recognized. Instead spending Christmas with my family, I’m spending it with people I didn’t even know a year ago. Instead of singing silent night on Christmas Eve, we watch people sing in Telegu, trying not to count down the minutes until it is over. Instead of unwrapping presents on Christmas morning, we’re handing out Saree’s to church members. And instead of eggs benedict, we will likely have what we’ve been eating for the past month and a half: rice and curry.
But in the midst of the homesickness and sacrifice, I’m incredibly thankful. I never would have thought that I’d be spending Christmas in a village in the middle of India, but here I am. And although I’m away from my family back home, I consider the people around me family.
I’ve been reading through 1 Peter, and I’m learning about how we have the power to display the gospel in everything: in mirage, unjust suffering, and sacrifice. I’m working on considering it joy that I’m here. Instead of longing to be back home, I’m having to remind myself all that Jesus sacrificed for us, and that me sacrificing being home for the holidays can actually be a small reminder of his sacrifice.
Jesus embraced the limitations of being human, and all the sacrifices that came with it. Out of love, respect, humility, and submission, he sacrificed himself for the greater plan that is the gospel.
I’m in no way saying that I even come close to Jesus, or that my sacrifice of being on the mission field can even compare to Jesus’s. But I’m learning that literally everything that the Lord has called me into is to bring him glory and because of the greater plan that God has for my life, I can consider myself blessed. By following God, I have the opportunity to bring him glory in everything that I do.
