how our Jesus is.

Verna made a passing comment in the car this morning on the way to church that has stuck with me all day.

We were talking about what a challenge it can be to always stand out as foreigners, and how hard it is  to share Haiti with teams and visitors well, wanting to honor and protect how the culture is, and yet instantly changing it simply by showing up.  I concluded that that just is how it is, just is the reality.

"That's not how Jesus is," Verna blurted out quickly. "He wasn't one way with certain people and another way with others. He didn't share one truth to his disciples and a different one with the Pharisees. Jesus just was who He was, and shared the truth as it was."

I thought about that all through church as Lily and Sofie were off at kid's church with their friends, as I wrestled Ben and Nora through the three hour service, as visiting professor Larry preached, as Matt finished the service, as our friends worshipped all around us...Edlin, Junel, Gertha, MaCodo, Lucner, Eliab, hundreds of people in Vaudreil.

Because she's right of course, and it's as simple as she said.

It's easy to think about how things are, about how people are, about how life is, and think that THAT is our truth.

It is easy to think that our reality. is. our. truth.


But it's NOT.

He is our truth.

He is our truth.

How often do things feel the way they feel, priorities seem the way they should be, emotions follow the road they run, cultures play out as they always have, our faith rests in reasonable places, the truths of the day slowly, comfortably become the truths of our days...

and then suddenly someone reminds us that it doesn't have to be the way it is, that we cannot do what others do, that we can't prioritize the way the world prioritizes, that we can't allow what the world allows or think what it thinks or even take to heart our own hearts--but that Jesus, the one we're following, out to be mirroring--He was entirely different.

Do we ask for His perspective and walk in it? Do we seek His one truth and build upon it? Do we speak for what He spoke for, treat people the way he treated them, allow only what he allowed, seek what He seeks?

This new, busy week...let's let how Our Jesus is lead the way.