The Bigger Picture

Last week I spent the week working in Quito, Ecuador with a team from Clear Lake UMC and First UMC Pasadena. We partnered with an amazing organization called SIFAT (Servants in Faith and Technology). Instead of naming it a traditional mission trip, we were intentional to call it a Learn and Serve Trip, since that is exactly what we were doing. Our goal there was two fold: to learn as much as we could about the people of Ecuador, how SIFAT works in Ecuador and their specific culture and context of ministry, as well as to serve in any capacity we could to further along their ministry. For us, that meant working on the construction of additional space at the Nazarene Church in Calderón (one particular area of Quito) so that they could receive additional children in their after/before school programming hosted through Compassion International. It also meant doing a week long VBS with the kids, which meant a lot of jump rope and soccer and laughter.

Each day we journeyed to the church in Calderón to spend the day working on either construction or VBS. Both groups got a chance to experience a little bit of both, as construction workers took a break to jump rope with the kids and our VBS workers stopped to help with what we termed the bucket brigade- forming a chain of passing buckets of cement (which had been mixed by hand) to fill posts. We worked side by side with local Ecuadorians and I am certain that the relationships built and the stories shared between us will leave a much longer impact on all involved than any progress we made on the building itself.  Each night we headed back to the hotel where we stayed for dinner and evening devotionals. I would like to share below some reflections from my evening devotional on Thursday night…

Ever since I went to Brazil for the first time, one of the ways that I help keep up my Portuguese is by watching novelas. I know Latin American novelas are largely caricaturized in the States, but the truth is, some of them (especially Brazilian) are very good and have deeply woven plots that to a certain (sometimes greater and sometimes lesser) extent actually demonstrate some of the key cultural issues present in society. One of the things that I have reflected on over the years of watching them is that (like with any movie or book) what keeps the story going is that each individual character does not see or understand the whole story. They can only see their role, their situation, their scenes- just like we understand our own stories in real life. While I, the viewer, see every scene and know who is being truthful and who is being dishonest, who is really in love with the girl even though he won’t tell her, etc. etc., the characters themselves are destined to only understand the story from the perspective of what is right in front of them. And yet I know as frustrated as I get, like any good fairy tale ending, by the last week of the novela, I know everything will work itself out. The villains are served justice, people come around and offer forgiveness and everyone seems to find true love. Granted, I know this is not real life, but it does help to know that throughout the frustrations of the entire show, I can say with confidence- “don’t worry, the story isn’t over yet” or in the words of John Lennon, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”

As I think about what this looks like in our own lives, I realize how shortsighted I can be at times.  I too, like the characters on screen, can only see what is right in front of me. All too often I get caught up in the here and now of my story and forget that I can't see all the scenes. I can’t see all the ways God is working, moving and weaving together beautiful storylines for our lives, all the ways God is preparing both myself and other people for future scenes that will not take place for a very long time. This week I heard story after story of SIFAT’s 15 years in Ecuador- stories of success and setback, stories of loss and stories of hope, stories that made me ask myself, “how many times would I have given up by now if that were me?” And yet, their story isn’t over yet. God is still present and moving in powerful ways. And so they continue to get up and keep working towards the dream that they know God has for their community- to be a place of wholeness and joy, a place of abundance and well-being for children. Because they understand that God is still working, even through heartache and devastation. They understand that the story isn’t over yet.

We may feel at times that failure, loss, or even death get the last word. But the final word belongs to God alone.  And God isn’t through with us yet. That's the beauty of believing in the Christian story. Even in the darkest hour of crucifixion and death, God was still at work even though they didn’t know it yet. And so we continue to live and work in this tension between the already and not yet- searching for little glimpses of the kingdom to sustain us along the way, and continuing to live everyday with the brokenness of the world we live in. May we always trust in the slow work of a God who never tires of working in our lives, a God who sees the whole picture, a God whose love and desires for the world go far deeper and wider than anything we could ever imagine, a God who will not rest until love gets the final word…

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something

unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances

acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin