Balancing life wearing so many different hats (wife, mom, disciple of Christ, language learner, cook, English teacher, emailer, etc, etc) is often overwhelming. Trying to make sure that I am being intentional with my time and giving 110% to whatever I am doing at the moment is often hard. During the "down-time" of the day, I find that it is hard for me to relax and just be content to sit and enjoy the quietness or the stillness. However, yesterday I had such a unique and special time with the Lord in my community where I actually stopped long enough to really hear from Him...I teach English on Tuesday and Friday mornings to a few Tibetan woman. Yesterday, I went to my class at our usual time, and the restaurant where I teach these women was closed. So I had to cancel class for the day. I called Ryan (who was home with the kids) and told him the situation and told him that I was going to take some time and just sit at the stupa (the Tibetan Buddhist temple by my home) and pray and listen and talk to some people there. He of course was fine with that and so supportive as usual. I spend a lot of time at the stupa, but most of the time I have a specific purpose or reason to be there. Yesterday, I decided to just sit on the steps of a big Buddhist monastery for a while. At the stupa (it is circular) people walk around and around it and believe that each time they circle the temple they are earning good karma (or merit) for the next life. Because I had time to just sit, pray, watch and listen for the first time in a while, all of it was overwhelming. I began to tear up,and my heart was just so broken as I sat and watched these people that I love, that God loves even more, putting all of their faith and hope into idols made by human hands carved from stone, gold, wood and clay. I saw little old women, so old it was hard for them to walk,bowing down to these idols. I saw teenagers come and get 'blessings' from the Buddhist and Hindu spiritual leaders. I saw people pay respect to and honor a bell made of silver. I saw people give money to monks and nuns so that the monks and nuns would pray for them. I heard horns blaring from monasteries in worship to false gods. I heard monks chanting mantras (many of which they don't even understand). I saw children begging, and I could just go on and on.
Throughout my time, as I watched and prayed, God was revealing things to me and bringing many Scriptures to mind. I just had to pull out a pen and a paper and start writing. Here is a little of what I wrote yesterday:
God, it all seems so hopeless. It seems like it is a never ending cycle. People turn to idols, and then they turn their backs on you. People don't seek truth (Romans 3:11, Jeremiah 29:12-13). They do what makes them feel happy, what they think is right (Proverbs 16). I know that it is not all hopeless. I know that you can bring salvation to these people. That you can tear down their walls, their barriers, their blindness, the things that keep them from knowing you. I know you can do it, and I ask that you PLEASE do it! I can see now (or at least understand a little bit more) why you sent the flood and why you had to destroy your creation at that time. Thank you for speaking to Noah and his family and for saving them from the flood. Thank you that you have provided a way for us to be saved from sin and your wrath (Romans 3:23, Romans 10:9, 1 John 1:9). I know that one day you are going to come again and judge the world. I know that those that don't know you will be eternally separated from you (John 14:6). I know that that breaks your heart so much more than it breaks mine. You love these people more than I ever could. So much so, that you sent your One and Only Son to die for them and for me (John 3:16). You are SO patient and long suffering. Your Word tells us that one day you will return, and I believe that with my whole heart (Matthew 24:36-44). I know you are waiting to return because those that you desire to hear about you haven't yet (Revelation 7:9), because you desire the ones who are here on the earth NOW to know you. It is your desire that no one perish but that ALL PEOPLE come to repentance and come to KNOW you (2 Peter 3:9). I know it must break your heart and make you so sad that so many people around the world, including most of the Tibetan Buddhist people I am looking at now, don't know you. I know you love them. Thank you for loving them. I know that these people aren't going to come to you unless they hear about you and unless we tell them (Romans 10:14, Matthew 28:18-20). I want to tell them about you. I want them to know you, to understand all they can about you, to love you. I want their lives to be transformed and for your name to be famous throughout the Himalayan mountains of Nepal.
God, help me to love the people here (and around the world) as you do. Help me in my language abilities. Open my eyes, my mind, my ears to the ways and places you are working here. I love you and am SO thankful for my salvation. I want to spend my life serving you!
I just wanted to encourage you (and me) today, to share our love for the Lord and His love for all people with those around us today wherever we are. We don't know what tomorrow holds, but we do know that God desires that ALL people would know Him. We have an important role in that, and we are to be the mouthpiece to share the Truth about God and who He is and the relationship He desires with all people. What an awesome privilege that is!
