I’m writing to you right now from the airplane on my first of two connecting flights to…. drumroll… Costa Rica!! I would just like to share a couple of my thoughts as I’m way up high in the air. (And no, I didn’t post this from the airplane… I'm doing it from our hotel room in La Fortuna, Costa Rica)
First of all-- God is so amazing. Have you even gotten in a plane and looked out the window and thought “So, what I can see right now is not even a whole percent of the world, and it is gorgeous and beautiful and amazing. And God created like 1498745878693 times the amount of awesomeness that I am seeing right now… in seven days.” Well, in case you were wondering, those are my thoughts exactly. Like, WOW, God. He sculpted every single little piece of this Earth with His hands. Every little nook and cranny. And I guess the fact that I’m on a plane and A) can see more of the world than normal and B) am closer to God (since I’m further up in the air) is just throwing me into a state of wonderment. Oh, and by the way, if you ever get a chance to take a flight around 6am when the sun is rising, do it. It’s like God is looking at you and smiling as you take off. I don’t know, I guess I’m just especially enamored with God and His creation today. It’s a pretty cool feeling.
Second of all-- I don’t mean to brag, but I’m so excited to just go and soak up all of God’s glory in a different corner of the world. I bought a camera just for this trip, so that I could bring back pictures of just how amazing He is. Again, I’m especially in tune with how wonderful God’s creation is this morning, and I just wanted to share that with you.
Third of all-- I will be trying to write as many posts as I can while I’m in Costa Rica, but I honestly can’t guarantee anything. I don’t know how the internet will be in the hotels we’re staying at, but I will do my best to keep you informed on what God is doing in the southern hemisphere. Also, I will probably try and post some pictures, so you can admire God’s creation too! :)
Completely unrelated to Costa Rica, are you still going on Project 1C134? Admittedly, it’s slipped my mind a little more than I’d like to admit, but now that the aftershock of the Cause Conference has died down, I’d like to get started on that again. We’ve spent weeks on patience and kindness now (that doesn’t mean we can forget them, though). Now we’re on to
"It does not envy" 1 Corinthians 13:5
Now how do we spend a whole two weeks focusing on not being envious? I think an important thing to remember is that-- especially in American culture-- we’re almost taught to envy as a way of life. We envy that guy’s car, or that girl’s shoes. We envy the iPhones or Android Phones that we see people walking the streets with every day. Another big one is relationships. Are you jealous that your friend is spending more time with their significant other than they are with you? Are you lusting after someone? Those are forms of jealousy too. And even commercials engrain jealousy as a way of life-- don’t even get me started! We have literally been taught to envy everything that we don’t have and someone else does. And I find it really sad. So maybe with these two weeks, we don’t have to get rid of all of those things. And by no means am I encouraging you to sell all your belongings, or anything. I just think that in order too become less envious, we need to first be aware that it is happening. Who or what are you jealous of? And then, it’s God’s turn. Let’s remember that we aren’t just doing this for ourselves or to become “more holy”. We’re doing it so that we can show other people the love of Christ in a way that would please God. We’re doing it so that as we make these personal changes, the light of God would start to ooze out of every pore of our body (lovely image, am I right? Sorry about that). I just imagine someone with this enormously bright source of light inside of them, and it just comes out anywhere it can. Ears? Check. Nose? Check. Mouth? Eyes? Belly Button? Check. That’s kind of my goal, you know? I want to be noticeably more like Jesus in everything that I do, so that people would ask me why I am the way I am. What a great way to share your faith-- to have someone ask you why you are the way you are and to be able to tell them it’s because you’re completely in love with Jesus Christ? I think that would be pretty awesome.
So, lovelies, good luck to you in your quest to become more like Christ! Pray Pray Pray!!
And always, always remember that God, the creator of the universe, loves you enough to care about you at a truly personal and deep level. He loves you no matter who you are, where you’ve come from, or what you have done. Or what you will do in the future, for that matter. He loves you the way that you are-- broken, hurting, lonely, or just plain complacent. He loves you. He loves you so much that He sent his only Son to die for you, so that you wouldn’t have to carry the weight of your sins. His Son, a human, died. For us! And lovelies, don’t ever forget that no matter where you go, you are always, always in the shadow of the cross.
I love you all and God bless!!
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