I’ve had a crazy few months.
By crazy I mean I gave my senior thesis, went to South Korea for the senior mission trip, came back home and graduated high school, and then a few days later, I packed up again and left home for a month to follow God’s call to India.
As you know, graduating high school means receiving tons of gifts and writing tons of thank you notes. One gift I received, though, was different. It’s called a Giving Key. These keys are made by men and women recovering from homelessness. Each key has a word engraved on it and each key is meant to be given away over and over. They are worn proudly and intentionally by people who want to be inspired and touch others with their words.
My word is hope.
I desire to live boldly the message of hope, to lift the hurting and broken. I began wearing “hope” around my neck because I wanted to be everything it entails. I only had one key but I wanted to give it away like I had 1 million keys.
Often times, this attitude of wanting to reach big numbers can lead to disappointment. Katie Davis said, “A life changed is worth it, even if only one.”
If you would have asked me before my trip to India if I thought this was true, I would have said, “Yeah, of course.” But the truth is that I didn’t want it to be true for ME. I wanted to be the one to bring hope to all the broken, to witness all the healings, to see breakthrough in all the people I prayed for. I wanted to have big stories to bring back to my friends and family.
This led to much frustration when I didn’t see instant results in our ministry time. I wasn’t seeing what I thought were big things. I’m in India for you, God. Aren’t you going to use me to do something great?
What I forgot was that I only partner with God in what He is ALREADY doing. He will carry out His plans with or without me. It’s my choice whether or not I join him. It’s a privilege just to partner with Him.
While we were there, we had the opportunity to begin sponsoring a child, which would pay for them to go to school. It is a struggle for families to pay for education even with both parents working, so these sponsorships lighten a huge load. I knew this was my chance to partner with God.
A couple days later I received a piece of paper with a cute little six year old boy named Justin who had the same birthday as me! It turns out that he was the nephew of one of our hosts, Hazel. She began telling me all about their family and the hardships they’ve been facing. She said that they couldn’t believe that someone they didn’t even know would love them so much. Then it hit me. Hope. The giving key was for them.
I was able to meet the whole family and give them the key and a note explaining it all. Justin was shy at first but he loved to draw and sing and he’s sixth in his class of over 100 kids! Getting to sponsor a child is always awesome but getting to meet the whole family is something I’ll never forget.
Fast forward to the airport on the day of our departure. We were saying our goodbyes to the hosts who had taken care of us all month. I went back to Hazel for one last goodbye and as we stood there hugging so tightly she said, “Thank your for changing my family’s life.”
One family. If I only went for one family, that was enough. This idea of stopping just for one is still hard to accept sometimes. I want to reach them all. I want to give hope to them all. But it’s not up to me. It’s crazy to think that Jesus would have still come if I was the ONLY one who needed saving. So I will keep saying yes and stopping for one.
