Today has been particularly difficult for me. We had an off day yesterday from ministry, so I took the opportunity to check in on my friends from back home. I use to not really care whether or not people around me were having problems, but in light of the truth in the Gospel, that is no longer an option. Consequently, it’s hard to be away from friends when they are doing well, but it’s even worse when they are suffering immensely.
When I encountered grace for all that it’s worth, my heart was softened to those around me, and I began to want to “rejoice with those who rejoice” and “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12.15). I am now a person who seeks to do whatever I can to bring light and joy into the bones of those I love, so hearing that my community at home is aching pierces my heart. I want to share in my friends’ joy and in their shame and pain. I want to comfort and exhort. I want to love. As you can imagine, this is very hard to do from 8000 miles away when texts are few and far between and phone calls are 50 cents a minute.
The apostle Paul of the New Testament has a way of speaking to almost everyone during seasons of uneasiness, including myself. At the moment, my mind is captured by the first part of chapter 1 of Romans, which is oftentimes overlooked. After he opens the letter, he assures the people of Rome, with whom he is a fellow citizen, that his absence has not been because he wanted to be away from them or he didn’t care for them. Instead, it was because he was being called to preach the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
I find myself in a similar yet so different position. I too am away from my friends and family who have sharpened me, but obviously I am not Paul, and I do not dream of comparing myself to him in scope or in faithfulness. But nonetheless, I feel comfort in the fact that Jesus brought him back to his people, to his home. As my friend Madeline likes to say, absence is in and of itself a form of presence. My friends do not leave my heart or my prayers because we are separated, but rather I am even more desperate for their peace and more fervent in prayer here than I ever was at home.
By the grace of God, I am in India and I’m here with a heart that wants to love these locals in the same manner that I do my friends. Until I am called back home, my heart rests here in this country and with its sweet people. Since I am a slave to hope, I will continue to speak and love and laugh until this people group and all of the other unreached peoples have access to the same saving hope as God has given me.
Soon enough I’ll be back with many stories to share of God’s faithfulness over meals of pancakes and tacos. So friends, peace be with you and peace be with your spirit. Take comfort in knowing that struggle is salvation working in us disguised as tragedy! And lastly, I humbly ask for all who read this post to pray and groan for my community at home, their aches, and that in the midst of their pain and torment, they may abide in Christ now and then forevermore.
Until,
Josh
