On Friday night, the day after getting back from Costa Rica, my parents & I went to one of the concerts in the Paso park. I was still terribly tired and hadn't planned on going at all, but last minute I went. It was the first time I had been out in society after getting back and it was a bit of a shock. I actually found myself being rather disgusted by many of the people around me. Everyone seemed so self centered, always trying to impress someone else, always taking...
Children were running around, screaming, many of them obviously spoiled. I found myself comparing these people, my fellow Americans, to the Costa Ricans I had just spent the last 10 days with. I found myself wishing I was back in the jungles, in a place that held so little of the daily distractions which accost me here in America. Suddenly though, I realized something...I realized how incredibly selfish my own thoughts were. I had just been blessed with an amazing experience, one that many people would never even imagine. Yet here I was, judging those who I had been called to love. I realized something else; Americans need my love, and more importantly Gods love, just as much as the poor hungry people of Costa Rica. It is so easy to think of missionaries as people traveling to other countries, but really we are all called to be missionaries, and not only to far off areas of the world, but to our own country, towns, and homes. And not only for a week here & a week there, but everyday of our lives. This is of course not something that is in any way new to me. I have heard it before, and have really always known it to be true. It is something that I obviously need to continue reminding myself. Gods word teaches us to love. Not just those who we enjoy, but everyone, our enemies included. How simple a concept this is, yet how incredibly difficult...
Anyway, I really must go to sleep. I'm still rather exhausted from Costa. Maybe it's jet lag...whatever it is I can't seem to get enough rest this past week.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." ~John 15:12
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