As Long As I'm Here

Day 4: a photo of a place you'd like to visit

That is a very odd picture for this category you might be thinking...so let me explain. I have a list of places I'd like to visit that would rival just about anyone's I am pretty sure. I even made a bucket list a few years ago and realized most of the things on the list were places to visit. Australia, Machu Picchu, Costa Rica, Galapagos Islands, the Great Wall, the Pyramids, pretty much every National Park on the list...the list could go on forever.

So why is the picture of a place I'd like to visit a little girl in Managua, Nicaragua? The short answer is, my plans for what I want to do in my lifetime has changed. Be very careful when you honestly tell God that you want to do His will, because His will is not living it up in luxury. When you ask God to help you to love the things he loves, you start to love little girls in Managua, Nicaragua with a runny nose and a bowl of food bigger than their head, which might be the only meal they eat that week. You start to love sweaty nights in Panama laying in your hammock while praying for an island of people you didn't know 12 hours ago, and will likely never see again. You start to love finding ways to raise money to give to people who will never be able to pay you back. Because God loves those people and he needs hands and feet in this world to love them through.

I didn't actually realize the complete shift that had happened in my heart until I had to pick a picture for this day. While there were plenty of places to choose from nothing was screaming out to me. I figured it would come to me eventually so I saved the first line of my post listing what this photo was and went to work. When I got there my dad had sent me pictures of his mission trip to Nicaragua and my heart melted when I saw them. All of the sudden I realized I actually really wanted to go where God told me to go. I always thought that was a cop out more or less, the answer people who didn't really like to travel gave when asked where they wanted to go. And I certainly didn't think people really meant it, I thought they were in essence settling for it. But I really mean it. While I'd love to lay on a beach in Cabo, or dive the Great Barrier Reef, or wander through canyons in Utah, I'd equally love to set up clinic in the Kuna Islands and hand out Tylenol, bumbling through explaining it in Spanish. It was really a major moment when I realized it sitting there in my office crying over the pictures my dad had taken of sweet little children and their sweet little smiles.

And so, I decided that the place I'd like to visit is the place that I can do something for someone who can't do something for me. It's humbling to realize that God could change my heart that much, and yet he says not to rejoice in that but to rejoice in the fact that my name is written in heaven (Luke 10:20). And hence my picture is not so much a place as it is a person. Sweet little faces, who Jesus said of 'the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these' (Matt 19:14).

My dad asked the missionaries in Nicaragua what he could do to help once he got back to the U.S. and they said that one of the biggest needs the kids have is school uniforms. School is free, but if you don't have a uniform you can't go. It costs $25, which in a country where the average annual income is $3, you are talking a hefty price. Unfortunately because of corruption it's safer to transfer money into their account than sew and mail actual uniforms, otherwise we would do it that way. So, if you would like to send my dad or me a check for $25, he is collecting money to send to the missionaries in Managua for uniforms.. If you need our address comment on this or send me an e-mail.

I am going to finish up with another Brandon Heath song (I know, it's obvious I'm somewhat obsessed with his CD). I think though it sums up where I am right now in the way only a song can do - Brandon Heath - As Long As I'm Here

Someday I'll pass through the great sky above
And the first thing I'll ask is how well did I love
Did I leave the world any better than it was before?
Of all the things I've done, could I have done anymore?