"We believe God has NOT given up on the world...."




This past year has been an interesting season in my faith. I have wrestled with this idea of church and how to live out our faith. I have struggled with building community in the way that Christ talks about building community because our culture or society feels like it influences community way too much. It's hard to do something or take part in something that you don't feel like your doing it right....

I have not lost hope in Jesus, and who He was and is. I have become a greater cynic though... and I don't always like who I have become. I am too quick to criticize people and churches, in which I am thankful for grace. Building a community and a "church" certainly takes time and investing... And I am constantly reminded that I can not do this alone... My tendency has been to try and do it alone.. take it all on, and get burned out and frustrated when I realize no one else is fully in. Because in this society we are so far stretched, overcommitted, spread too thin, move too fast......

In one week, I will leave to volunteer in Haiti for one month. God certainly uses these trips and the summer to help me get back on track and depend just on Him. It will be a time to work through this reality that we live in an imperfect world, and that there will be flaws in our "church" and frustrations in our community, but what we really need to do is follow Jesus... that's all.

And even though I have tried to prepare myself for what Haiti might be like by meeting with people, reading books, reading blogs, emails, researching, learning a little creole........ I have a feeling nothing can prepare me for seeing the devastation that these people have endured. But I do know that I need to strongly hold onto the belief that GOD has NOT given up on the world!

And so I will go to Haiti, and I will learn soooo much... and I will be touched by so many... I will attempt be of assistance to the people I get to work with. I am so grateful for this opportunity.

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