That's what this blog title translates to in English. Why? Well, because things are changing: in me, in how I view the world, in the places where I find peace & happiness, even in the kingdom of God. Things are expanding, grace is flowing out and stretching, restoration is happening, joy is being made complete. I believe that, and I'm seeking it out, and this is step one. What does all of that mean? Let me attempt to explain.
A little over a month ago, I went to Nicaragua for the first time with NOF (Nicaraguan Orphan Fund), a group at UVA and other college campuses associated with ORPHANetwork. During spring break, I traveled with some of my peers to Nica and stayed at an orphanage for a week. To make it brief, the trip was incredible. We loved on orphans, we visited a trash community/one of the most impoverished places in the world called La Chureca, we had a dinner for prostitutes and their children, we served food in feeding centers...the experience was wonderful.
And it was also hard. Really, really hard. Being there, in this place so radically different than I had ever been before, experiencing things and people and ways of living I had barely ever let myself imagine, I was hit with a flood of questions. These things started budding up almost as soon as we landed, and got even more persistently demanding and interrogative once we got home. They started shaking up my foundation.
For starters, they were questions like: What things do I stake my happiness in, and are they real and lasting? How do I respond to God's demand that I be an advocate for His justice? What does His justice even look like, and how do I find it in these places of poverty? Why is it that there is so much joy here, in a place so full of suffering and hardship? How do I love people - like really, deep-to-my-core love them in their entirety, without getting caught up on my own pride or my differences or my fear? How do I love the way that God loves, and how do I love simply because God loves?
I don't have answers yet. Not even close. Maybe I won't ever have them, or have them fully. But I will say that the process has begun. It has been an exciting couple of weeks, sensing the Lord breaking down things in me so that He can rebuild me into the person that He wants me to be, and somebody that more closely resembles Himself.
And in praying through this process and in following this desire to explore joy in the face of poverty and explore loving people radically and explore spending myself to serve people the way God says to, the door opened for me to go back to Nicaragua. I'll be volunteering there for four weeks, starting May 13th (SO SOON OH MY GOSH) through a group called Manna Project International.
Funny the way these things work, right? Never ever ever ever did I expect to spend a month of this summer in a third-world country. Never. ever. But somehow, I am. And somehow I know that the experience is going to shake me up and God is going to do some big-time work in ways that I cannot fathom, but excitedly anticipate uncovering (at least to some degree).
So that is the purpose for this blog - to share with my family and friends and whoever else is out there and stumbles across this page the joy that God so willingly wants to give. Because He does. He wants us to be complete in Him, He wants us to witness His miracles and blessings, He wants us to spend our lives seeking Him out so that we can have the best possible joy that exists and so that other people can have it too. I'm over-the-moon excited. I'm bursting at the seams. I'm terrified. I'm not even close to feeling ready. But I'm going. Come along with me. Come watch me gain a new smile.
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