But look.

Just one week ago, I was sitting here writing a blog about my mission trip that I had returned from just one week before that. I was happy, hopeful, and encouraged from my time in El Mirador. How quickly life can change. Now I sit here feeling unsettled as the world falls apart around me. I’m thinking to myself, how did this happen? Why is this happening? The coronavirus??? This is not what I imagined my 2020 to look like.

If I’m being honest, it has been an interesting process for me in regards to how I feel about all of this. I started off in disbelief. Then over the past 48 hours I have become more aware of the entire problem, verses holding tightly to my limited point of view. I have taken the time to read more about it and settle my brain long enough to think through everything I do know. I was subconsciously protecting myself from emotionally embracing the entirety of the situation. The reality is that this entire thing is not about me; and I will never know or understand every detail pertaining the matter. This is the new normal I have been handed and nothing is going to change that. All that matters now, is how I choose to move forward within it all. Suspicion is a choice. Fear is a choice. Negativity is a choice. Panic is a choice. Complaining is a choice. Arguing about all of this is a choice. I will no longer choose any of those things. It won’t change anything.

As I continue to try and wrap my head around all of this, I can’t help but wonder where God is in all of it. Right now I see a whole lot of bad happening around the world. God, where are you? As I was writing this very blog I took a moment to pause and ask Him that very question. In this still and quiet moment I felt God say “but look.” Look? Look where? Am I missing something? Where am I supposed to look for hope and peace amidst chaos and pain? I’m looking to YOU God! Where else am I supposed to look? God reminded and assured me that when you look much closer, you will see much better. These are the times that prayer is the “magnifying glass” of life for me. It’s hard to see what we are looking at from far away. I imagine this as the little speck of dust on the flower from Horton Hears a Who. Sometimes all we see is the flower, when there’s the entire city of “Who-ville” we are missing.

So what do I think God is saying? He is saying that on the surface we see pain, sadness, fear, dying, confusion, loneliness, disappointment, and sickness. God sees that too. Up close and personal though, God also sees His people coming together. When I think about the general state of the world, these days I am finding most of life to be pretty selfish. Not all people are selfish; but our society is motivated very much so by a self focused mindset. These days however, I am seeing something quite different.

Sadly it takes a pandemic to remind us that we were put on this earth to work together and help each other out. I have seen companies giving away free online learning subscriptions for children at home, people offering daycare services for those who are without childcare, schools giving lunches to the children that would be without food otherwise, people creating fundraisers, organizations helping people get food and medical services, utility and cell phone companies waiving bills for the next few months, people reaching out more often and asking each other “how can I pray for you”, churches putting on full online services to bless their communities, people making face masks and donating them to hospitals, and even just people reaching out looking for any way to help. People are stepping up and it’s truly a beautiful thing.

I believe that God sees the simple things too. The Italians are doing it right! I’m in tears every time I see one of their videos of people out on their porches singing and playing music for the whole street to hear; while people are cheering and clapping for one another. You can feel the love! People dying is painfully sad. Nurses and teachers putting in all these extra hours is hard on them and their families. People having to cancel vacations, weddings, and funerals is also all very sad. People not able to get food and basic hygiene items is scary. Nothing can diminish these things and I am certainly not doing that here! God sees all of this and He mourns with us; but He also sees people and communities coming together in ways they never have before. I think, this makes Him happy. Therefore, it should make us happy too.

So you see, when the devil comes to “steal, kill, and destroy,” the Lord takes over and says “but look” I will ALSO bring peace, love, togetherness, and generosity among it all. All things that we tend to take for granted on any normal day. Could it be that this virus is also here to remind us that our world is already “infected” with far worse? People need JESUS, and this is the perfect time to be handing that out. Our fear of this virus, pales in comparison to the sadness God feels as He sees a world infected with lies and people far from Him; and He wants us to know that.

Stop in the chaos of it all, and look a little closer. All of this does not mean that we ignore “the flower”. It just means we stand a little closer so we can also see all of “Who-ville”.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19

Share Hope. Everywhere.

It’s been just over two weeks since I have returned from my mission trip. I have a mix of emotions, and a different take on retuning home this time. This was my third time going into this community, and for me it was a turning point in regards to how I am feeling about our partnership with El Mirador. My mom, who has also now been three times, said it best. She said “this time I didn’t feel like I was even on a mission trip; it felt like I was visiting family”. I feel that in ways I can’t even fully describe.

It’s interesting that when we go on trips like this, we think of all the ways we can impact the “receiving community”. We definitely do! However, their ability to impact us is just as real. I have learned so much from my El Mirador family these last few years. They have so little, but their level of gratitude far surpasses mine on any given day. I have also learned what it really means to be in and embrace community; something I find time and time again that people here can’t fully understand. Even at my own church, many find it hard over the years to fully feel connected. It’s hard to embrace community in a world that often defines it as a distracted coexistence with the people around you. That’s not community to the people of El Mirador; and it’s not community to Jesus.

After returning from a trip like this I often get asked “what did you do?” While this is a completely rational question to have, I think it’s important in those moments to point out that most of our “doing” was actually just BEING. When people come together to simply just BE present, both people are changed and built up. There’s a fine line between coexisting and truly being present with each other. When we figure that out, that’s where we find community. What we are “doing” for these people in El Mirador, is giving them a simple yet powerful gift. We are acknowledging that no racial, political, financial, religious, language, or lifestyle differences are going to stand in the way of us taking the time to walk alongside them as equals. Being with them is enough. Why then, is this so hard to embrace here in our own country? We have so much, and yet we are actually the poor ones. We have lost site of how important it is to just love without limits, listen without judgement, and BE without distractions. When we focus on what really matters, we will be able to rest in the truth that God is in control. This takes our focus off of how we are different or what could go wrong. What is it that really matters? Well... Sharing hope.

I’m aware that if you attend my church, then that last statement may seem cliché to say. It’s how I would describe in the least amount of words though, what I believe the world needs most right now from Gods people. This isn’t just an American thing, or a mission trip thing. This is a radical, Jesus like, whole world thing. If you think of Jesus’s mission when he walked the earth, his mission was to spread the gospel through sharing hope; and he did it everywhere. So when my church decided to create another mission statement of “Share Hope”, I was immediately on board!

It was only a couple months later that I sat in a meeting with thirteen other people from my church, in an off the grid community, and listened to men and women tell us that we have “given them hope”. One of the pastors in El Mirador actually uttered those words after saying they felt forgotten before we came... until we gave them hope. Some of us sat there wearing our churches share hope shirts while we listened to their gratitude of that very same hope. Incredible! So you see, this is the call not only within our church, but for all of Gods people. When we share hope, we allow the Lord to fill the uncomfortable gaps with love and acceptance; something the world needs a lot more of these days.

My church has been in a season of transition for about four years now. Four years ago we lost our pastor. Since then it has been a rollercoaster for our community. It’s easy to loose hope when you can’t seem to navigate where we are headed and who is our leader. However, when we are anchored in hope and decide to choose faith over fear, we remember that we have a very important call. A mission you might even say! You don’t have to get on a plane to enter the mission field. You only have to walk out your front door to encounter it. Unfortunately though, the mission to share hope can be easily distracted by our ability to over complicate the gospel.

If you are part of my church community and you are reading this right now, listen up! We cannot share hope with a broken world if we have lost hope within our own community. Our churches main mission statement since I have been attending is “helping people find their way back to God.” Well fourteen people from our church went to a different country for only a week, and we made an impact. So I assure you, we are still helping people find their way back to God, and we are still sharing hope! We are still on mission. In fact, we are doing these things better and more often than we were when I first started attending Harbor nine years ago; before the ship got rocky so to speak. Same ship. Same mission. Same destination. Detours and stormy waters? Sure. All things that bring us back to that one thing that’s needed. Hope.

I share that bit about my church because I find that we can all relate in our own lives and communities. How easy it is to become sidetracked in a world full of panic and distractions. When we allow God to speak peace over our panic, and we worship instead of worry, we silence the lies that tell us to give up. “Loose hope” the devil says. The people of El Mirador felt forgotten, but we gave them hope. If they can receive hope while having so little, then what’s our excuse?

I’m grateful for these trips because it reminds me that the same needed hope that we shared in El Mirador, is needed here in our own country and communities. This trip has taught and reminded me that we are all more alike then we think. At the core of every human being is the desire to have hope in something or someone. The world will tell us a thousand different things that we should put our hope in. Therefore our voices need to be louder! What we put our hope in is what navigates our entire life. Don’t give up or give in to fear. Stop over complicating church, faith, community, and the gospel. When you have found that hope in Jesus, simply share it.

Everywhere.