Reality

Written 8/19/12

I think so many times, people have this view of missions as glamorous and like the "in" thing to do in Christianity and really just as a young adult right now in America. The mindset is that every day is tiring and long, but somehow our normal every day human emotions fade and people think that life just can't have anything negative in it at all or if it does have negative, we somehow will just maintain a happy "Christian" demeanor and God will get all the glory. Don't get me wrong, God still gets all the glory, but its not always easy to maintain the right spirit and life certainly isn't always perfect.

I woke up early this morning to shower before church. Thru a few miscommunications, I was unable to take a bath this morning. Taking a bath requires notifying my host family at least 2 hours prior to the time I want to bathe or the night before in order for them to turn the hot water heater on and the water to warm up. I was quite annoyed to be honest. I thought for sure I had asked multiple times to bathe this morning and since it's Sunday, I couldn't just put a hat on to go to church. But I guess the language barrier came into play again and I wasn't clear. During breakfast, I was talking to my host mom about a lunch that one of the other host families planned for all the host families and our team today. She was very firm in the fact that we were not going and I was to come home for lunch after church. I found out later that both of these incidents were miscommunications and to be honest miscommunications happen quite often when you live in a place where the first language of the people is not your first language! Neither of these events were negative or worked out in any sort of bad way, let me make that very clear. But by the time I arrived at church this morning, I was quite annoyed. Not for any specific reason, but I'm human and I allowed my emotions to rule and get in the way today. Disappointingly enough, it took me a bit of time to let the annoyance of my rough morning fade and allow myself to actually get involved with the service. Our community partner, Hein, spoke (in English, which was a nice treat!) but he spoke about the parable of the sower and really challenged everyone in the building.

For as long as I can remember, my mom has taught me about the devils attacks. More specifically, the war that is waging for our souls in the spiritual realm. But when you're 7 years old, attacks are much easier to understand. But as I look back on this mornings events, I can't help but to see the devils efforts to distract me from what God had for me in Hein's message and ultimately the entire day. Being aware of the attack from today got me thinking about missions. It isn't all rainbows and smiley faces amidst the hurt and pain of the people we are doing life with. I am challenged every day, my heart breaks every day for someone or a situation or something going on in the community. While people may be aware of the challenges, I think there is a lack of awareness of the war in the spiritual realm and how it manifests in the work we do every day. In Africa, everything has a spirit. Everything has life and the forces of good and evil are always fighting. The people are very aware of it, too. They can hear the changes in the sounds around them and identify that as the change in the balance or they know when not to leave the house because evil is very prevalent. Americans, for the most part, live their lives without giving a second thought to the spiritual realm. I think in America, the devil attacks differently. I know in my house, if my parents are working on a big event or important message for their ministries, they are constantly fighting. And the same has been true in my life. When I was on the reservation, God was moving in some incredible ways. It was the day we had our feet washed. God was doing so much where I was, but I made an offhand comment to Drew about something and it really hurt him. And on our team, we are 12 people from all different walks of life that haven't ever met before and are trying our hardest to get to know each other while dealing with extreme injustice. The devil knows that if he can start fits or annoyances within ourselves, he distracts us from our goal and ultimately slows down the process and what God has for us to do here. The devil knows our closest friends and the people we care about most and if he can use trouble with them to get our eyes off of what God is doing, he has succeeded. If the little fights work, he doesn't need to do anything more to throw us off. BUT, if we are on guard to the devils attacks and aware of when God is moving or using us in great ways, we can be more mindful of the traps and pray our way thru them and consciously choose not to fall for the devils tricks. I will admit, I doubt I'll ever be able to see them all coming or not fall into some of the devils traps but the more I'm aware, the less I will but more importantly, the more that I pray thru the things I'm confronted with and wake up every day and put on every piece of the armor of God, the less likely I will be to get hit by one of the "flaming arrows of the evil one." My prayer is that you may be more aware of the spiritual realm and that every day, you wake up and put on His armor in order to walk thru the day He has for you and accomplish His purpose and not the purpose of the evil one.