Today was the first day of the new school year for Emmaus. Our faithful friends have been sending me pictures left and right....last week from the two days of spiritual retreat and orientation, and today from classes and the first chapel of the year. The theme is "How to Reflect Christ in Difficult Times", and I immediately thought three things:
Praise the Lord
I hate that I'm missing this
Our students are blessed to study the theme under a transparent panel of True Experts.
What experts believers in Haiti are at reflecting Christ in difficult times. How difficult are the difficult times, unlike anything I've ever experienced or will truly ever understand. And how much our staff and students and brothers and sisters in villages throughout Haiti reflect Him.
Despite grave circumstances, any concern is always quickly paired with a praise. Any hint of worry is always quickly followed with statements of faith. Any burden is always watered with, but God knows. Any crippling situation is always met with jokes and encouragement and the sharing of whatever there is to be had...whether that's the family's dinner of rice and beans, a kid sent up a tree for a fresh coconut, the family chair.
How deeply our family in Haiti has etched within me those constantly repeated statements of faith:
I will see you tomorrow, if the Lord wills, si Bondye vle.
I don't know what to do in this situation, but God knows, Bondye konne.
What is she going to do?? God is there, Bondye la.
Life is in tatters, so right now let's pray...but first let's sing His praise.
On the heaviest days in chapel or church, the times when the precious, battered country of Haiti is literally burning to the ground, being ripped apart, crumbling to the ground, perishing from disease and hunger...the time of corporate prayer always finds the chairs empty. One by one brother and sister slip to their knees on the shiny white tile of the chapel or the pressed dirt floor of the church, too heavy for composure...too dependent upon the Lord for self-control...too humble to pretend all is well, when the Only One Who Matters knows full well that it's not.
How I've loved over the years the freedom...the freedom to not feign a smile. The freedom to not carry it alone. The freedom to get down in the dust and be speechless. The freedom to lift my eyes to the mountains, and find the brothers and sisters around me on their knees as well.
It's an on-your-knees season in the world, and as our dear Emmaus family are rolling out those same precious words again and again, "God knows", it is not the pithy statement I once thought it was.
It is not "shrug, oh well" God knows, and that's that.
"Bondye Konne...God Knows"...is that He is on the throne. He is already more aware than we are. He is already there. He already has the solution and healing and help needed. He hurts because we hurt. He sees and hears our cries.
It is GOD that knows. And if the mighty God of the universe knows, then these lose ends WILL be tied up. These painful circumstances will be redeemed. These impossible pains will be Healed.Our God KNOWS. And He can be trusted.
I praise the Lord for that tonight, my outstretched hands both waving in opposite directions, the Haitian pose of praise that will always emerge from me when I've exchanged what's around me for being at His feet.
When we grow weary, brother, just get down. Sister, we don't have to have it all together, sitting pretty. He knows. There is a place to go when we are in this place, and it's on our knees.
Today was the first day of the new school year for Emmaus...challenges loom and the future for much and many in Haiti is so uncertain.
They're not the only tribe and tongue and nation struggling.
I'm so grateful God knows.
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