Day 09: Sam Baker, Regio 4?

Or: When Everything Came Full Circle

Well, i’m on a plane again. Now i’m sitting by Matthew. Today was really good, it had that bittersweet lull at the end of a mission trip. We slept in, packed up and went to church. The people here are requete good at packing bags in cars. Dang. #goals

Church was lovely. We had a good number of our people show up, which was encouraging. I can’t tell if it’s a language thing or a cultural thing or what, but sometimes i think i don’t agree with some of the points of the sermons i hear here. It can taste a little Prosperity Gospel for my taste, pero, no sé. Our farewell lunch was full of farewells, then we got taken to the airport. We checked in and said our “final” nos vemos’s and headed through security. It was a good trip and i am sad to see it end.

I think i like some things about myself better in Mexico than in the states. Maybe it’s just on mission. I enjoy living purposefully and sometimes it can be easy to forget my purpose in College Station. Not that i feel i am not living it out, just that i forget what it is. And when you do something and forget why, does it invalidate what you do?

What’s your initial reaction? Mine is “No, the work has value,” but i think i am wrong. What if God really does look at the heart, not our actions? (verse) What if good things are worthless (or even bad) when done without love? (verse) What if our Why is more important than our What? If so, does that mean that anytime i do something out of obligation or pride or habit or just plain choice instead of love and desire is wasted? Can we choose our motivation? Is worship a feeling or a choice? Or both? If i sing with my mouth and mind, but don’t feel it in my heart, does God feel loved? Is there worship in the desert or just praise? I’ll leave it to you to ponder.

All that to say: this trip was fantastic, and again, if you’re reading this, it means the plane didn’t crash while we were on it.

It will be important to pray for the church in Mexico over the next couple of weeks. They are going to be doing follow-up on our contacts (especially those we connected to them at the events). The next few weeks will largely determine who stays in the church and who was just a cool person we met that one year.

Thanks for tracking and praying for us.

P.S. Now i am in my own bed and not a hotel, i'm full of Whataburger and not tacos, i am sending GM messages to hoi polloi and not my Extranjeros, i'm saying "yea boi" and not "orale vato"...it's a different life, but it's still God's :)