I just read some emails from a friend of mine who is a missionary in India. Currently she is in Nepal due to requirements to leave India each year for a period of time. I was thinking about the people she is meeting and the experiences she has in her service to God and I had a sudden, completely unrealistic desire to run a race through countries and cultures and experiences. The world is so large and to have the privilege to breath the fresh air of experience is a bit overwhelming... and cooking one more breakfast or washing one more load of clothes in the daily routine of my life seems somehow very, very futile.
I don't normally write this type of post as I'm not a fan of whining. Sometimes life can be sort of...boring. I get that. But I have been thinking about the life we live here in the USA lately. The suffocating shallowness of personal ambition that is modeled everywhere you look, on television and down the streets of subdivisions - car lots and shopping centers - billboards and advertisements. You would think that the only result to a successful life would be that you were a healthy, skinny, young, beautiful and popular rich person. You can't even have imperfect teeth in this country any more without feeling like a loser.
My trip to Haiti recently most likely is the real instigator for this train of thought. I went to Haiti alone, but not really because you are never alone with God. And He set up all the circumstances where I was welcomed into Haiti by a wonderful couple who had never met me but opened their lives to me and they took care of me. And I met others there that helped me along the way. I am so very grateful. But the experience in Haiti has changed me. You see, going to a country like that alters your point of view. It is a beautiful country, with scars. There is beauty from the Haitians themselves and the beautiful mountains and sea. There are foreigners with hearts full of desire to help and to build who live and work in that country for the sake of the Haitians. But there are the scars made by the Haitian people themselves, and a lot of them are from the wounds and interference of others; other countries and churches. And it is complicated. Very complicated. Even so, and in even the middle of all the mixed motives and efforts, a plan is in the works, a good one - and I want to be a part.
And so, I will get on with my day and wonder how this is working out in my life. I have grand girls to pick up for a visit and there is actually clothes in the washer and the dryer as I write this. But if you think about Haiti, please pray for them. And if you have a few dollars to spare, I can give you a link to a ministry run by a very dedicated couple, below. They do make a difference.
http://www.haitiforchrist.net/
