Loveshack

For most of my life I have been fascinated with the poorest of countries. I've grown up in a nation of great wealth and opportunity. My first ever trip out of the country like most of us Americans, was to Mexico. I remember riding with a group of people in a van and listening to their comments about the awful housing, I was thinking "this is beautiful." I was in awe...and this strange peace overcame my heart. I watched as the ladies did their laundry, bent over and carried water in for their families. I saw children laughing and playing beside the colorful wood that was used to create makeshift housing. When we arrived at our destination, I felt odd...as if we were there "to make a difference." I struggled with the idea of making a difference...feeling this pressure....to make a difference. But, as my friends wandered around an orphanage trying to help out I stayed outside and played basketball in the rain with some of the kids. I gave up on trying to be something for them because deep in my heart I knew what corruption came with wealth and that really, I wasn't better than them..I had just the same amount of pain and struggles in my life..just in a different fashion. I didn't want them to have the wealth. So, it rained and we played and laughed and a few hours in we were covered in mud. I didn't talk much..it was freeing just to play. As we left, later on that day, in my heart was formed a vision for my life. I look at America and I feel pain..pain for what this nation has become. I grew up in a broken family and came out of it completely confused and true love was and still is somewhat foreign to me. I look around me and I see brokenness all over the place...but the funny thing is that people here in America have money...have opportunity..have plenty of people to choose to be around...plenty of things..have everything really...except true love. Now, as the "things" are being taken away our nation is left empty...with nothing left. People are depressed...discontent..worried... because without money what will people do? How will they function? A few years ago I visited Bacolod, Philippines. I met 150 kids who were saved from abuse and neglect and brought up to know and love God by a couple of missionaries who had given every inch of there lives for them. These kids to this day are not rich, do not have everything..they share most things..but they know love. They aren't perfect...but they know truth.

I've found the greatest of all loves is found in God and is found in sacrifice for others. This statement almost sounds silly in the society we live in but it's still true. Jesus on the cross is true love. I remember the story in the Bible and the part where Jesus sat and wept to God...WHYYYYY? If there is any other way!! But He followed God's will. When I was in college I researched religion. I searched all over wondering if I had been duped into believing some "opiate for the masses." I read and read and came to the conclusion that the Bible's teaching was selfless and true....that it wasn't about finding some inner peace by being selfish and "successful" but it was giving of yourself to help another. It was about an eternal peace and contentment which only comes in taking your eyes off of you. I see beauty in brokenness everyday. My adopted mom is one of the most sacrificing women I know and she is so exquisitely beautiful. She has given every bit of her comfort for my little sister and her health issues that have been going on now for about 13 years. In this I see love...and it's not even her biological daughter.

I feel sad for our nation and for the pressures we face everyday to conform but really what makes you beautiful is your uniqueness. Don't be the same. Love others before yourself.

Serra