Lessons From God

Wednesday, March 12

I find that sometime, even when things seem to not be going as it seems they should, it is in those moments when God shows you or has you experience something new and unique that in the long run furthers your growth as a person of faith.

Now let me point out that some of these are in fact about personal comforts, but for me and others it is definitely important to overcome a worry about physical comforts in order to further the word of God around the world.

Take this trip that I am on as an example. While the weather has been agreeable for the most part, on most days it is hot. It has been really hot. I mean like North Carolina summer hot. And as most people know, I am not a huge fan of the heat. We have a pretty spotty history in the past.

However, every day, despite being hot out. I have found myself pushing on as I do the Lord's work of sharing the Gospel with the people around me.

A second example that has occurred on this trip is another example of God showing me the ability to overcome a further physical inconvenience. When we got to the hotel on the third day in a town called Laguna Blanca, we "drew straws" with leafs to determine who slept on a mattress on a floor.

Guess who was the lucky short (or in our case long) straw...

So I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor of our hotel room for the past two nights and have one more night to go. While at first I considered this a bad situation, I now consider it a blessing for I have come to learn on this mattress that serving God is always rewarding, not always comfortable.

And I know that this is a complaint that is rather superficial, but the last area is where I have grown the most.

The last area that I have personally grown in on this trip through God's grace has been my ability to share my faith with others. And in share my faith I didn't simply mean the casual "Yeah I'm a Christian." I mean being intentional in telling others about the beauty of the Gospel and how it works in my life.

For example, today my group had a prearranged visit with a woman, Laura, who had come to our event with her son the night before. When we first sat down, she engaged us in the usual small talk, seemingly trying to avoid the topic that she had asked us to come for.

However, after 30 minutes of chit chat, we were able to steer the conversation to the matter of the Gospel. And for the first time in the entire week, I took the lead in evangelising to an individual. This was big for me in that, as I said before, I have never had any true experiences evangelising.

So while the act alone was a big step for me, the bigger thing that I took from this experience involved a fear that I have had about me and missions in the past: that I will be ineffective. And this was confronted in this experience as after all our sharing, Laura did not feel the urge to start a relationship with Christ at that time.

At first this was rather upsetting, for I had just given two hours of my trip with this woman and she still seemed hesitant about faith. However, upon reflection, I have realized that while it is important to lead people to Christ, something that is just as important is planting the seed of faith that others can build on.

So in just these instances this trip has taught me much, about both myself and about the Gospel. It never ceases to amaze me how people in different cultures all over the world have faith and praise through worship our great and powerful God. To see that even while they may have little on this world, they take heart in the rewards that are to come through faith.

I just wish we were all that way.