It’s in our human nature to want to cover or overcompensate the parts of us that are weak, broken, corrupt. But, it’s in the nature of our King to reinstate us with purity, freedom, wholeness. Oftentimes, we fear approaching the feet of His throne because what we have to offer isn’t enough. So we vie to find shards of humanity that will somehow fit our missing pieces. But do we ever find those missing pieces? Are we ever enough on our own?
If we try to approach others with this twinkling facade, what kind of a God are we representing? Wouldn’t it perpetuate the fear of disappointment in the essence of who we are? Mila, junior Intercultural Studies major, of Macedonia told me of one encounter on a bus.
Team Macedonia embarked on a trip with a few of the teachers they were working with, and a daughter came alone, one of the only ones near Mila’s age. There prospered the opportunity for easy connection. But Mila, in her hesitancy, was pressed beneath the pressure of a one-time window to sit with her on the journey home. Curiously, she ended up not being able to. The seat next to her was taken. Mila, in somewhat of a defeat, waded into a conversation with her team member. A few moments went by when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She turned to a Macedonian woman. The impetus of a new conversation flooded with simple questions of Peter and Paul and prayer.
Mila said, “God hand-placed her. I wasn’t searching for it. I was intentionally trying to seek someone out, and it didn’t work. But, God had someone else on the bus for me. It wasn’t forced. We were getting to know each other. It wasn’t actively me trying to convert everyone I came into contact with, but it was me stepping into the movements of God at work.”
Too often do we embark on a mission, setting up our own fences in the four walls of familiarity we limit ourselves to. But, God usually has a bus route in mind for us perpendicular to those narrow pavements. He takes us out of our cul de sac to people and places nearby but unknown. And fear to venture is cast out by the perfect love rooted in the knowledge that we are not enough, but able because God in us is more than enough for us.