the painful GO

So, this is what I'm thinking lately.  

It would be far easier to just. stay. home.

Looking into people faces when they are cold and wet and bucketing sewage from their homes is miserable.  

Staying home and enjoying coffee and a movie and cooler weather would be easier.  Something about ignorance and bliss.

Not following our blog would be easier...just don't have to think about Haiti or poverty or how things are other places.  Or at least not looking at the pictures.  Not thinking about them.  Not putting yourself IN those photos.

Not seeing so much would mean not thinking about so much, not remembering so much.  Not dealing with so much.  Not knowing how to process so much... 

Phida understands.  Aldy agrees.

Before this weekend, they didn't know Limel existed.

They didn't know its faces, didn't know its struggles, didn't know its darkness.

And now, of course, they can't stop thinking about it.

Now they know the kids names, and see their bare feet.

Now they know they have no school, and it kills them.

Now they know what their lives and homes look like.

Now they know that they have NO comprehension of the life in Christ Napo and Junior shared.

Now, everyone's questions and confusion over something other than darkness and voodoo are ringing in their ears, and while they are supposed to be studying, while they're sleeping in dry dorms, all they can think about is getting back.

It would be easier to stay home.

But my life is changed because Jesus didn't.

His willingness to GO painfully into a broken and fallen and needy world,

walking amongst the diseased and dirty, hard-headed and self-invested

eating in their homes, scooping up their children, sharing hope and healing

persevering in patience, walking with the outcasts, making time to teach and eat and pray together

means 'staying home' is not an option

and He will always understand better than we do

how painful the going can be