Day Seven, and every day beyond

Despite coming home with congestion and a runny nose, I have an amazing amount of spiritual and physical energy. I don’t want to get sick so I force myself to rest and recover. One thing that stands out (among many) one thing the Lord has done, where I had been spiritually depleted and exhausted, I now look forward with eagerness and anticipation to the many things the Lord has on my heart and calendar. Had you told me a month ago that I’d come back refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready, I don’t know that I would have believed you. I fully expected to collapse, to be exhausted, to be done, and to need a long, long rest. Somehow out of the giving of the little that I had, I am now overflowing with abundance.

How has this come about?

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. 
Luke 6:38

I gave. And the Holy Spirit gave bountifully in return.

December held such an fascinating contrast. My husband and I took two trips. The first, before Christmas, with our son, his girlfriend and her family on a cruise to the western Caribbean. We had a delightful time together onboard and ashore. And while I’m not a huge fan of cruises, I do enjoy being at sea and love spending the time with family and friends, experiencing new places and adventures. Cruises, however, can be over-indulgent, extraordinarily extravagant, and self-seeking.

The second, after Christmas, with our church to Reynosa to build a small house for a family in need. We had an amazing time together. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for so long. I love how God can use us in the smallest of ways to make the biggest difference. Reynosa was about giving, necessity, and serving. Reflecting back, the month brought both leisurely pleasures and profound fulfillment, underscoring the deep dimensions of joy and purpose in our lives. As we enjoy the blessings God gives us, we need also to remember to generously share with others.

For the first blog in this series, visit Reynosa, Mexico: An Introduction.

Something I saw, that I noticed, that I discovered in Colonia—and it doesn’t fit in the narrative often promoted in our media—is that not all people on the border are trying to get across. Not everyone wants to come to the US. I’d say most people really want to live in their own land, with their own family and friends, where they have been born and raised. I met people, living, working, taking care of each other every day, enjoying the everyday blessings of their lives, and sometimes just needing a little help, a little sharing of the kingdom of God.

It causes me to pause, reflect, and wonder. Consider the question. What would compel us to either sell or leave behind everything we own, pack up a few meager belongings, take our children, maybe pay everything we have, leave our home, our family, our friends, our culture, our life, and go, making an arduous and possibly dangerous trip to somewhere else. How bad would our lives have to be, how threatened would we have to feel for ourselves or our children, to flee everything we know? What would make us leave? Why would we go? Where would we go? Who would we trust? How would we get there? And when would we know we’re in a place we can stay?

This question comes to my mind as I consider—not the issue of immigration—but the faces, the names, the stories of each person. Each one, created in the image of our God. Deserving of dignity. Longing for love. Craving compassion. Hoping for hospitality. How now have we forgotten?

cries she. With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus
November 2, 1883
Statue of Liberty

This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 
Jeremiah 22:3

Father, forgive us. We don’t know what we’ve done. We don’t know what we do. Compel us now to return to you and what you’ve called us to. Dignity. Love. Compassion. Hospitality.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Matthew 25:40&45

Grace & Peace