Sometimes I really hate people like me.
They go off to Africa or Colombia or something and along with an alpaca blanket, come back with a heart broken for the impoverished as a souvenir.
Then all they do for the next month is talk Peru, Peru, Peru. So much that we’re all tempted to click away until they come down to earth again.
Except it’s not Peru, it might be Bolivia or Kenya or Guatemala. It’s the Philippines or it’s India. It’s basically somewhere I’ve never been.
Believe me. I’ve been right there. And I do click away. I am bored with people who talk about poverty because it really is such a downer. Along with that, I’ve heard it all before.
Blah, blah, blah, going to Blah-Blah Country changed my life. I’ll never be the same. Blah, blah, blah. I’m going to sell all my furniture, I’m going to beat the sponsor-a-child-stick over the head of everyone I meet until they see things just like I see them. Blah, blah, blah.
I do hate it. But I find myself somewhere in the same pond because something about Peru really DID change my life.
I’m not selling all my clothes or moving to the inner city quite yet, but I do find that the more days pass between me now and my feet in the dust of Lima, the more I find that Peru is following me. It will not let me go and I do not want to shake it off.
Just wait, you say. Just wait until it’s Christmas and you wrestle another mom in Toys ‘R Us for the latest Nintendo thing. Just wait until you buy that $12 glass of wine from the wine bar. Just wait until Peru seems like a distant memory and life has moved on and you have moved on and you are still so very American.
Maybe.
But 6 days gone and 4200 miles each way cannot be in vain. I don’t know WHAT to do with Peru. I simply don’t know what.
I do know that it has changed my life in both gentle and jarring, both slight and drastic, and in both quiet and very, very loud ways. {And maybe something like this, or very unlike this, has changed you too.}
When I met those little children, when I walked into their homes and embraced their mothers, I thought,
Everyone must do this. Everyone must do this.
All of life becomes so real and so brilliant when we do this. Life no longer lives on the page of a letter or in the words on a computer screen; life lives in rainbow color and it has hands and feet and kisses.
But I know it isn’t possible for everyone to go to Peru or Haiti or Ethiopia or get on a 20 hour plane ride somewhere. But there is something we can do.
We can choose to do life-changing things.
We can do the scary thing, the risky thing, the uncomfortable thing, the disquieting thing that is staring us in the face. You know exactly what I’m talking about because something jumped into your head right now.
It’s the small group someone has asked you to lead, the Laundry Love meetings someone wants you to go to, the language you need to learn to talk to your neighbors, the foster-parent class you know you should take but you haven’t leapt in the water yet. The life-changing thing actually might be the trip you know you need to take, it might be the family you should let live in your extra rooms, or it could be the young girl you need to mentor. This scary, risky thing is the recovery group you should have joined years ago, the therapist you need to see, the college degree you haven’t finished yet.
It’s the book, the article, the post that is begging to be written. It’s the debt you need to take care of or the conference you won’t go to {even though EVERYONE will be there} because you will take the money and give it to a family who needs to pay their bills. The life-changing thing might just be the family member you need to reconcile with {not later, but now. Right now.}
You don’t have to go to Africa or South America to feel your perspective of the world begin to take a flying leap off of the tallest building. But if you do want your life to change, your world to look oh, so different, you really must do something to shift it.
What do you need to do to change your life? What have you done to help your worldview shift?
I think we all need to do more to help the homeless starving kids in America. So often our own country is forgotten about. Not all of America is privledged.
http://irishtripletsrecovery.blogspot.com/
i agree with you 100 percent. thank you for calling attention to one of the biggest (and quickly growing) problems in our own towns.
Thank you!!
After spending two years in an Asian country, my husband is back getting a different degree that would provide for us here, and make it possible to go back. When he learned how much opportunity we have as Americans, and freedom to embrace that opportunity, going to college didn’t seem like a drudgery. It seemed like an opportunity that half the world doesn’t have even though they may be talented…they can’t afford it, or they can’t get ‘scores’ that would allow them to go.
i agree. we often take our educational opportunities for granted. =)
I could relate. We are foster parents and I feel like once you open your heart it becomes broken wide open. I welcome it but it leaves me feeling a little overwhelmed with all that still needs to be done. I write and talk about it a lot and I don’t wish to overwhelm others too. You are right, focus on one life or one step toward serving others. It will change your life. It has mine.
so inspired by you!! what an amazing thing you are doing, krista!! =)
I need to step out on faith–my husband and I are on a strict budget in case I decide to walk away from a part time teaching job–we both commented how it seems we have more because we are so aware of what we are spending and what we actually need. One day I would love to go on a mission trip (he’s not quite there yet) with prayer, I know together we can do this and our lives will be all the richer because of our experience.
stepping out in faith is so hard. thank you for being one of the few who is willing.
i’m struggling with what that thing can be for me. i want to make a difference, but my husband feels differently. its a struggle
praying with you brooke. i believe you will find that “thing” that you should do. thank you so much for your comment.
Famous Mother Theresa quote(paraphrased), “Lord, why do you allow the pain,suffering, and poverty in the world today?” The Lord’s response, “Why do you?”
thank you vince. i love that quote!! =)
Thank you so much for the inspiration, Sarah! I needed to hear this today. I have found myself smack in the middle of a life changing experience and sometimes I don’t know quite what to do with it. Doing something that is risky and uncomfortable can be extremely scary, but if you don’t do it, you’ll miss out on some many God things that He has for us. It’s incredible!
OH! Risk is so horrible and scary and hard and beautiful all at the same time. Cheers to you as you step out in amazing risk!!
This: “We can choose to do life-changing things.”
Thank you for making your life changing thing — kindle all of ours.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
thank you ann. you’ve been so obedient to kindle all of OURS. Can’t wait to see you again, friend. =)
Loved this, Sarah…
Thank you Marijke. =)
Yes. Yes. Yes.
6 months after returning from Bolivia, I still don’t know what the hell to do with Bolivia.
But I do know that opening my home when I don’t want to… waking up early to pray for my son… writing out the words when I’d rather hide them… sponsoring another kid, even though money is tight… they all seem so small, but they’re changing my life & those around me, one small moment at a time.
Proud of you for going & inspiring the rest of us.
Right. I love it that you went there with that group of ladies. what a wonderful bonding time you must have had.
thank YOU for inspiring us to do great things, friend.
I promise not to click away.
Your heart is beautiful. I love it when we see ourselves in the broken and become the broken, when they become a part of us.
You articulate it well, and it is indeed a challenge.
thank you friend! i love you and YOU are beautiful. =)
This is honest. And well…you do with Peru just what you did…you write this post to remind us all that life is risk and color and people God loves and cries with.
Love you and your heart. This, my friend, is a good work you have done.
yes. yes. life is risk and woe to me when i believe anything different. thank you friend. i owe you a phone call. =)
I traveled to Peru a little over 3 years ago and I know how you feel. Just recently I’ve been struggling how to leverage what I have to give back. I can’t believe how not only did I find this post through someone else but how much your words have touched me. I’m not beginning to see a clear path on how I can impact those right next door!
Thank you a million times over!
thank you so much Sara. so glad you commented. and i’m sure you love Peru as much as i have come to love it. what a beautiful people and a beautiful place!
Sarah, how I needed this reminder! It is so, so good for us to do big and scary things. Grateful for you!
thank you sarah. and yes, it is so good for us to do big and scary things. =)
Please keep talking about it. Because as much as I hate it, I forget about the Indian girl who’s time is just 12.5 hours ahead of mine, and the tall Kenyan young woman who wants to be a teacher.
I forget about the poverty in the world while I sit amidst my decaying possessions. I need these reminders that it isn’t all iPhones and a roof that doesn’t leak over my head.
Thank you Sarah. Always. Thank you.
oh yes. i need the iphone-reminder too. thank you friend!! hope you are well. =)
Check out Ruby Payne at AHA processes. She is dedicated to educating the poor and has an excellent workshop. I’ve done it for schools and churches. It will help you understand, so that you can make a difference. We frequently trust common knowledge which is often false.
thank you! =)
Sara – your words & images here have stirred up images and memories and heart cries a decade old and an ocean away. Thank you for writing Peru, again. I found it just tonight, and I hope you do keep writing it out, again and again, and living it out, sister.
Thank you Annie. That means so much.
I knew before I even read this it was going to be a different kind of “change your life” post…I was right.
I’ll leave it opened and read it again, later…You just had to go and write this.
winking right back at you .
[...] Do Something That Changes Your Life @ The Best Days Of My Life – Very stirring. Her honesty is so captivating! [...]
it’s funny, but visiting to peru (almost 10 years ago now) is what has spurred me on to do missions. my husband and i spent 2 yrs in malawi and are now in seminary so we can work/live in africa (hopefully zimbabwe). we are also training to become foster parents this spring. i say all of this to prove that once you give you heart of to the Lord’s leading, he will USE you. but in ways you never imagined.
Listening to the process once people are back – yes that’s the most interesting part, I think. Because that’s where the journey really begins.
Sarah, I’ve been reading one post after another of your writings and I just had to tell you how there’s this tread of depth, honesty, and humility that is so beautiful and woven throughout what you’ve been writing lately. Thank you so much, I am truly challenged by all of it.
well i missed this blog because i was in africa. and dang if we didn’t come back and write the same thing. http://bit.ly/y13CxP
kenya is still all over me. and i have no idea what to do with it. thank you for using your questions to help other be part of your experiences.