In many ways, the actual task of building our home dealt with the very themes we talked about as we prepared for the experience. One of the primary questions we asked from the beginning was: how do we faithfully walk with Jesus every day of our lives? Most of us are pretty good at crying out to him when life sucks. Less of us are good at remembering to praise him when life is great. But, how many of us truly walk intimately with him when things are just so-so? How many of us choose to spend time with him when we don't need something, but just because we want to be close to him? The reality is that this kind of intimacy takes discipline and intentionality.
Our houses reflected the so-so kind of spirituality we all feel most of the time. We didn't have impossible situations that required us to get down on our knees daily and cry out to the Lord for strength and wisdom. In fact, had we not prayed once, we likely could have finished the houses by our own physical strength and human wisdom. But we also didn't have the intense joy that has come in the past due as a result of the relationships developed with local children. We didn't even see children for the first 2 days. And so we were in a situation where we were building two homes for families we had hardly met and had zero relationship with, the work wasn't overly demanding, the weather was fine, stressful situations were limited, and yet God was calling us to lean on Him, depend on Him, and truly seek Him.
For those who did seek him during the week, the reward will be an increased awareness of God's presence in the ordinary, everydayness of their lives back at home. For those who didn't, they will likely find their faith to be the same ol' immature - pray when in need, thank him if something cool happens, but forget about Him during the rest of the time. We are all there at some point in our faith, but the goal is that we'd move past it and into a daily, intimate, faithful walk with Jesus.
Two thoughts I posed during the week that kept coming up and should continue to churn in our hearts and minds:
1. We always make time for the things that are important to us.
2. "Holiness is not doing all the right things, it is doing everything with God."
As I said in the opening, pictures and stories will follow. I just wanted to offer an initial observation from our trip. Continue to pray for our team as the Experience is not over yet. Groups will continue to debrief tonight, and this Saturday we will be trying to offer a summation of our trip to our family and friends.
Grace and peace,
Curtis
