Abundant Joy

This week I've been thinking so much about how circumstances and basic human needs so greatly affect a person's life. As I've been dealing with so many physical and environmental challenges over the past two months, I've begun to realize how important physical well-being is to a person's general demeanor and specifically to their effectiveness in ministry. People who do ministry from the comfort of wealth have a totally different understanding and approach. That's not to say they won't be effective, but I think it may require more effort and different strategies. I remember that some people accused me of choosing to do Mission Year because it would be easier than going to graduate school or getting a job. I hope that if I had conversations with those same people now they would have a change of heart and mind. This life that I'm choosing to live this year is incredibly difficult. I would argue that it is more difficult than getting and maintaining a job, because I am adopting an entirely different lifestyle this year. I don't get to go home at the end of a hard day or a challenging week. Because to go home here is to continue in the hardness. I live and breathe these challenges 24/7. At the beginning of this experience it was easy for me to resent these challenges and their inescapable nature. It was frustrating and I hated feeling trapped in this. But as time has passed, I've developed more of an appreciation for this experience and the ways I can learn and grow here. These things are unique and beautiful. The fact that I can have deep, immense joy in the midst of my struggles here is to me a clear picture of God's promises and faithfulness to me and all of humanity. I feel blessings pour out to cover all of my struggles. It makes it all worthwhile. This is not something that would probably not make logical sense to anyone who is on the outside looking in. Yet I feel it, and I have abundant hope. I have confidence that I would rather be here serving than anywhere else right now. I would rather be in this place of physical discomfort while loving and serving with an eternal perspective than living in comfort while loving with an agenda that struggles to see beyond my own nearsightedness.

I am grateful to be here, and especially grateful for the joy I have in being here. God is clearly at work in me, because I'm not capable of sustaining this kind of joy and contentment on my own, especially in these circumstances. Praise be to God, the Rock on which I stand.