Today I feel it is time to take a break from the series I have been working on and spend a little time on why we do what we do.
I have been feeling a tug on my heart lately to go deeper into the Love of the Father and just abide there-- but this life makes it so difficult to stay in those moments. I am writing today to share of a life riddled with God's fingerprints. As I look around me I see joy abounding in ways America never dreamt. I see my materialistic nature shedding itself like an old crusty snakeskin. I see my soul smiling at the giggles of kids playing with rocks as their goal posts. I see my old heart being revived and made new in ways that do not make sense to the American girl I once was. I see joy abounding in a suffering world. It's in the mom feeding her baby with no shame from others around. It's in the potty training toddler half naked running through our english class. It's in the morning greetings from passerby's who view their greeting as their passport. It's in the freedom that comes from lack of busyness. It's in being neighborly as the neighborhood is the family and community is a lifeline. I often get focused on the lack of things here but where they lack in resources here they abound in richness of things Americans are actually longing for in our hearts. Following God might look like selling all of your belongings and moving across the world, or maybe it just looks like coming out of your house and moving your feet across the street. Whichever it may be for you- I know it will always look like LOVE. But not just any love that we as Americans or humans have fabricated- a love that takes time for others, dies to itself, gets uncomfortable, lives vulnerable and messy without fear of rejection but even after rejection this kind of REAL love- it lasts. It abides. It thrives not because of its destination but because of its source. The source, the place this love flows from is God who is Love. If we do anything without this Love, without the source of it, it is for nothing. If we accomplish nothing else in this life but loving people richly and discipling people deeply while Abiding in the source of True Love- then we have done everything worth doing. May your Joy Abound in the richness of He who is the source of Love. For joy abounds in the land of hearts for those who trust in Him and follow Him when the world around seems to have lack. I see joy abound here in a people I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of their sufferings. I see joy abound here because they choose it everyday. I pray you can grasp what I am trying so hard to convey- joy abounds even in suffering because of the abundant Love and grace God has for us, its a choice.
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AuthorKristen & Alex Bradshaw Archives
April 2021
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