Worlds Can Collide

As I woke up this morning covered by four walls of soundless safety I chuckled to myself as I found my ears nearly missing the echo of the fading roaster crow just outside our Haiti window.  Brushing my hands across freshly clean and cotton soft sheets I found myself thinking of the bumping van ride rumbling across unpaved roads heading to Compassion Project HA-303.  Walking down my hall hearing the buzz of the heater and reaching for the doors to my three sleeping arrows seeped so deep into my soul as I recalled Sonoa sharing his cement walled room with doorways protected by neatly knotted sheets.  My worlds collided as I kissed the plump and milky hydrated skin of my babies that smell like the sweetest aroma of lotion you can imagine and I recalled the group of little school girls and boys of Compassion Project HA-797 that piled on top of my lap and kissed my cheeks until you could imagine nothing would be left.  I close my eyes and can almost hear Toby playing “Simon De” {aka Simon Says} to that same group of children and hearing their laughs echo from my ears to my heart.  I look into the eyes of my babies…my Cade, my Ainsley, my Shelby and I am reminded of Simone – the teenage girl with the longest eyelashes you’ve ever seen  -  who braided my hair for nearly two hours one day, look into my eyes and ask ME who sponsored MY children…….with tears welling in my eyes, words uttered through my lips with the greatest humility I have ever known and the deepest pride I have ever felt I softly spoke, “I do.”The ache comes in the missing of the worlds together.  Not in preferring one world over another, but the longing for all worlds to stay so intimately connected.  Those worlds where you see Jesus everywhere….the worlds where there is no compartementalizing….it is simply all Jesus.  There is great ache in the day after an incredible revelation of Jesus.What are those of us to do in the longing, the depression of the space between the there and the here.  Between the that and the this.  How do the worlds collide?How do you answer the questions or understand the passivity of the responses to having seen Heaven peel back?  How do you navigate that with grace; seasoned with salt?In my limited understanding you do as I have just expressed.  You allow your worlds to collide.  You love with all your being wherever you are.  You give more generously, more willingly.  You open your eyes to see what Jesus sees be it as you kiss the check of your sponsored Compassion child living amongst the deepest of poverty or your very own baby headed off to school to learn to grow to become.  You love both with all your energies, all your efforts.  Because as you love both with all your being somehow I think your worlds collide.  Because the Spirit of the Lord is among those that love and give so generously your light and love is liberating as you are so liberal in your offering.  The fear of depression or the destitution of wondering where to act or give or relive what you experienced in such a super natural way becomes a way of life so there is no variation in giving here or giving there…..you are simply giving……and in turn receiving Jesus.The coined term we, as a Trotter tribe, have for the feelings of low that come after such an incredible experience, “The Day After”, are natural.  Normal.  However they should merely propel in such a desperate dependent way to run harder and faster towards the things of God.  The release of the burden found in the day after should come as we raise our heads up in thanksgiving for each breath and beat of our hearts in our chest.  As we take notice of every little nuance that makes the day great, truly I am wishing to compel you – earnestly – to take notice of every single dedication that occupies your time.Allow your worlds the space to collide.For me it has materialized in doing each day well.  To literally speak “Do it well, Cari” over my family life, my marriage, my spiritual life, my ministry, my abilities as a mother, a friend, a daughter, a wife, a mentor.  Not perfect, no one is perfect and if you are reading this post bless you for indulging the thoughts of a HIGHLY imperfect woman.I’m not talking perfect…but if we are capable of doing all things in Christ {Philippians 4:13} doing each moment well is attainable.  Doing each moment well and less haphazard invades our worlds with the space for Jesus.  It invades our mental, emotional and relational energies so that each moment as it passes has the potential to be the greatest moment we have ever seen Jesus.It is indeed in the going – the being sent to a place as beloved as Haiti and doing something that more than exceeds your knowledge or ability base…Jesus’ spirit in a palpable sense is felt in the going to the nations, I can testify to that.  The Jesus I was graced enough to touch and feel in the last week was more real than I can put into a blog post…..but it is also in the coming back.  Jesus is just as much on display in the “Welcome Home” banners my children made.  It is just as much in their smiles as I kiss them, pray with them and send them off to school with full bellies. The “there” and the “here” collide when Toby and I seek after our babies’ hearts – whether they are needing disciple in Love, or hugs, time, approval, correction –Toby and I have to reach into their worlds everyday…just as we sought to reach into the world of “M”, a 13 year old boy wearing an Under Armor shirt like Toby, that was lingering outside the school gates of the first Compassion Project – unsponsored and seemingly unloved -  never having been to school.  As we are reaching into the lives of Cade, Ainsley and Shelby Kate we are ALSO reaching into “M’s” life….worlds collide.Worlds can easily collide as this morning was filled with dancing to “Sophia the First” with my almost two year old and then immediately turning to the computer to write to Jamesley, our sponsored child, about a memory I had as Shelby and I danced.  A memory of him singing all verses of “On Calvary” in French Creole the day we met.   The first world is indeed harder to navigate and find a thick and uninterrupted display of Jesus, but HE is there AND here…the requirement is merely that you lean in tighter and allowing what happened there to motivate how you live here.Allow your worlds to collide.  I feel a call to encourage those that have had grand experiences in Jesus to continue sharing, don’t shrink back – share by allowing it to change the way you live.  Share how to become involved in those experiences you love.  Your passion will propel a movement and mommas that movement might very well start at home.  Allow God the opportunity to prove faithful as you operate as your full self – created by God and for God – within the position that you are currently in.Toby and I challenged each other as we came back from Haiti that the freedom we felt to be all that God created us to be as we walked from village to village, worshipped alongside families declaring that God would be faithful, and both of us laughing from a place of the deepest Joy should translate to our address stateside.Because the Truth is that Isaiah 52:7 is the same Truth in French Creole as it is in English.  Written so each can receive it and live in boldness within the confines of their own language God desires us to uphold it both here and there.  Worlds collide sometimes and in this context let them…allow what you experience there to well up and flow forth as a river of Living Water here.  Let it change you……forever.  Don’t ever let the flame of passion you felt to reach into others and draw out Jesus go out….be it there or here.“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”” {Isaiah 52:7 ESV Bible}^“ Ala bèl sa bèl lè ou wè sou mòn yo mesaje a k'ap kouri pote bon nouvèl k'ap bay kè poze a! L'ap fè konnen delivrans Bondye a. L'ap di moun Siyon yo: Se Bondye ou la k'ap gouvènen!” {Ezayi 52:7 Haitian Creole Bib La}