shaun wrote an amazing post today. and i can promise you. he is so right. and your prayers are so needed. for all of us.
**HIS POST IS BELOW**
A few years ago in El Salvador I saw real poverty for the first time. At the end of the week we gathered just off the hotel lobby, circled up in metal folding chairs, and talked about how we were feeling. Diving so far, so quickly, into poverty can nearly drown the heart and mind of an affluent American and so this is the standard way of ending a Compassion International “vision trip.” Depressurizing a little in a group before the plane ride home is safer for the soul than being yanked to the surface alone by the sights and sounds of the O’ Hare food court.
When it was my turn to talk about my feelings all I felt was insignificance and so I vomited that emotion up everywhere. (With a lot more words) I said just didn’t care anymore.
About what? About what color we paint the den. About whether my song is climbing the charts. About who the president is. About the gig next week. About what kind of cheese I can get on my Subway sandwich. About seeing that new movie. About that new laptop I wanted. About telling the interviewer what kind of animal I?d like to be. About mowing the yard.
I just didn?t care anymore. It didn?t feel significant ? none of it – not standing back to back with feeding kids, teaching them to read, giving them life-saving medicine, teaching their moms how to sew, telling them they matter to God and to me. Nothing in my whole life back home seemed as significant as my week in El Salvador with Compassion International. Nothing.
I changed my job, politics, theology, church, closet, free time, budget, house, parenting, show. I sought, and am still seeking, to make my life here in America as significant as one week in El Salvador.
I tell you all this because it’s time now for the Uganda bloggers to fight the same kinds of emotions and weigh the same kinds of life changes. So, if you’re part of their life, try to understand they’re quite possibly morphing into something else. And pray that it’s something significant. Pray that we’re not so wrecked that we’re poor teachers, poor communicators and friends, repellant to those we desperately want to introduce to the children and God we’ve fallen in love with.
Pray for…
Shannon
Sophie
Doug
Phil
Anne
Chris
Randy
Heather
Carlos
David
Shaun
Comments
10 responses to “stolen”
that’s powerful, thanks for sharing. praying that all you guys and gals decompress – but decompress into more of who God calls you to be.
Awesome. I will pray for all of you. Wrecked is the place to be, but wrecked and walking is the place to stay, that’s where God can use a broken vessel.
ROCK ON!
I went through that exact same thing 4 years ago. I kept thinking, “Life has to be so much more than this: mortgage, school for my kid, right job, right amount of pay, get paid more, cars we drive, neighborhoods we live in, fancy schmancy restaurants, latest music, latest technology or whatever.”
The answer I found was in God and what Jesus taught us while He was here on earth. Follow the red letters and it will become abundantly clear.
Thank you for sharing this blog. I am leaving in less than a month to spend about a week in Nicaragua. I’ve never the left US. I’ve heard a lot of people say just what shaun wrote: there are experiences in our lives that change us. They just do. And its good and its different and its part of the exciting plan God has for each of us. Molding us to be who He created us to be. I have enjoyed your blogs on your Uganda trip. My church also sends teams to Uganda, and last Spring several close friends of mine went. Your words and pictures mirrored so much of what they also experienced and you captured in a beautiful way what they ache to share with others… thank you.
I feel this way and I haven’t even been there. My heart is there and it is the job we are pursuing. It is such a hunger that life seems to be less important (at least my former life). I cannot fathom the feelings that will rise after seeing the place that God has for me.
Powerful – I can relate
Thanks Anne (and Shaun!). Following all y’all the past few weeks has been amazing. God is moving in big ways, and I will continue to pray for each of you on this journey.
Powerful post. I think a lot of people (myself included) feel the same way, and most of us haven’t had the benefit of being in another country to see how good we really have it. I want my life to mean something to God…everyone else are just people.
I met a woman yesterday who said something similar. She makes enough money to buy a plane ticket, and then she goes somewhere and teaches English, feeds people, whatever. It’s a moral thing, not a religious thing. She said when she gets back to the states she just can’t get caught up in petty stuff. Her priorities and values have been completely realigned.
Anne,
Thanks for sharing the insight. Having witnessed poverty in Brazil, Venezuela, and Thailand, I found this experience in Uganda very different in the sense that I left a little girl behind who has my heart. I’ve been to her home. I’ve held her in my arms. I am committed to her, and so is my family, even though she is too young to even know what all of that means. So this transition back in has been harder. I’m not saying that this is bad … quite the contrary. But it is more unsettling and makes finding a place to put my feet on solid ground harder.
Great to get to know you on the trip. Now, back to cleaning up the closet and rearranging my head and heart.
Grace,
Phil