Be Addicted to Him

I recently had to get some files recovered from an external harddrive which was failing. I thought I'd lost close to 100gb of videos, pictures, documents and other important items to me, mainly from my years in Peru. A genius friend of mine was able to get most of the files back for me, and I was just sorting through them. In a folder I'd placed somewhere hard to get to, were some memories from a serious relationship in my past. I laughed when I saw it and decided it was ok to delete those memories. However in that folder was a small document he had challenged me to write, and I thought I'd save that one from the trash bin. My own words from my past encouraged me, so I thought I'd post it here. So here is "Be Addicted to Him".

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I was raised in the church, as a PK (preacher's kid) of all things. But it wasn’t until I was 22 when I went on my first mission trip. For those who have been on a mission trip before to a 3^rd world country, close your eyes with me and relive the memories. For those who haven’t, close your eyes, and take a trip with me to a 3^rd world country. For my experience, we’ll go to Lima, Peru. You look around with me and see a city, smoggy, like many large cities, grey and overcast due to its climate, and located in a dusty, dirty desert. Take a deep breath with me, and you will smell trash of all kinds; human and animal waste, fresh and old; exhaust from old wearing down cars, trucks, and buses. If you were to take a Kleenex with me right now, and wipe slightly the inside of your nose, you’d be discusted to see a black film on the tissue. Now I challenge you to open your heart with me. See the old man begging on the street with his trembling hand. See the impoverished little Indian woman in rags selling her handmade goods. See the little child on the street selling candy midday to help his family buy bread instead of going to school. Open your heart a bit more with me. Most of these people do not know about our Savior, and believe in the traditional praying to their saints (who I can guarantee don’t answer their petitions) and doing good works in order to get to heaven. If they continue with those beliefs, where are they going?

I have now been on the mission field for over a year. I have learned so much, yet not enough. Without Christ, I am just as lost as the drunk man on the sidewalk, or the man down my street stoned and shouting as he paces by my house. God has shown me His intense faithfulness in my time here. I get overwhelmed, if not on a daily basis, a weekly basis, by the extreme need that surrounds me. I am unable to meet all the needs. I am unable to sit down and talk to the 9 million people that live in the Lima area, to share with them of my faithful Lord. He doesn’t ask that much of me, and only gives me what I can handle. The mission field has brought out much more of my sin, some which is culturally innate, that I brought with me from the good US of A, and I’ve had to work through my ideas differently than I would back home. Yet, if I am a Christian, where is “home”? It isn’t in the USA, its in heaven, and when I suffer from homesickness here, it usually is more longing for my true home. Life is not as comfortable here, as it might be back in the States, but as a Christian, we are not called to live in comfort. We are, however called to know Him and to make Him known. How much do you know Him? How much have you made Him known?

Follow God to places out of your comfort zone, whether a mission trip, the mission field, sharing the gospel with your coworker, helping in the nursery, or whatever, and do it in His grace. I can’t even begin to tell you how faithful He is and how much His grace and peace will surround you if you let Him take you to those “uncomfort” zones. And how you will be blessed! Trust me, “once you pop” of His faithfulness, “you can’t stop!” One taste of His faithfulness and grace in situations unfamiliar, you will be addicted. Of all addictions, His unending grace, His unconditional love, and His unmatchable faithfulness, and all other characteristics that make up our Lord, He is the best addiction! Long for Him. Ache for Him to fill you. Be addicted to Him!