Inside out...

So, I just found this little bit from Francis Chan about the song that seems to have become the "theme song" of our team....I LOVE Francis Chan so I downloaded the 8 minute clip for your enjoying pleasure, too! He's spoken at the last few LIFE Conferences and has blessed me each time. Apparently the song that has spoken to each of us also made an impact on him. Actually, I guess for me, the song continues to speak to me...each time I hear it I think it's message sinks deeper in me. It's encouraging and convicting all at the same time. Mostly it just makes me want to be more and more real....let the real me stand up and take notice.

I've been thinking alot about our time in Africa...now that I'm 10 days back in the states I think I'm beginning to have a better perspective! Strange, though, how these 10 days have gone by so quickly. The 10 days in Africa were so rich and filled with new discoveries that it honestly felt more like a couple of months for all the relationships we formed and the experiences we had. That's really hard to explain to someone who waited stateside for 10 days for us to return. 10 days here are so different than 10 days overseas. It's hard to explain that you could love something or someone so much after only knowing them for 10 days...but I think each of us would attest to such deep feelings for the love of the Country of Gabon and its' people. It's a surreal experience in a surreal amount of time.

But, really...now we're home...our families have eased back into the routine of having us home, and we have no choice but to fit back in, too. So how do we fit? How do we squeeze the piece of the puzzle that is our life into the same space it used to fit in...our piece has changed shape..it's been pulled and stretched and no longer takes on the same form. So how does it fit?

It brings me back to the song that is probably still playing in the background. How do I, as a resident of Lancaster County, live my life in a way that the things of Africa that I've tucked away inside me begin to flow out of my everyday life here? How do I let those most private workings that the Lord has whispered inside me pour out into my everyday life? What does it really look like to live "inside out"?

I guess that's the challenge we all must face when we come home from a mission's trip with our worlds rocked off their foundations...the challenge is not just to listen to what the Spirit is showing us, but to put it into action and live it out. Sometimes the listening is the easy part...it's the acting out 24/7 that is the challenge. It doesn't come easy for any of us...I don't think it's supposed to, though...our struggle to do and be what God calls us to is our reminder that we need Him every second, minute, and hour of our day. Were it too easy, we'd have no need to invite Him along.

The older I get the more I realize I can't do this life-thing alone. I stand at a place right now where I must make some big decisions on some things that will affect the rest of my life, and my family's lives. I can't make them alone...and I wasn't meant to. I'm learning that in order to live "inside out" in the way Christ calls us to, I'd better be intentional about putting the right things "in". So, I'm reading...and listening...and asking...and waiting.

Let's resolve to live Inside Out...not just to say it each time the song comes on the radio, but to allow it's message to consume us and control our every move. The message is God's call to arms for each of His children...so that the world may know Him.