Thoughts::Pursuing Truth

I have SO MUCH to say. And like I said a few days ago, not nearly enough space for all of it. I promise I'm going to do better with telling you about my adventures and the places Jesus has met me here.

But for now, I'm sitting in the uncomfortable. And I want to share it with you, because discomfort is always, always, always the point at which growth occurs. So. Here goes.

After just four weeks in Costa Rica, I'm realizing how little of the world I know. How much it's going to cost me to know it more. How much I'm really willing to sacrifice to do what I say I want to do. I'm learning about perspectives I've never considered, points of view I've never analyzed. All because I live in my own world, used to seeing God in my own ways, existing on my own terms.

Everything I know, I've created. Based on what I've been taught and what I've been given. But this world--this new experience I'm living every day--is full of new truths that are sometimes similar to and sometimes nothing like the ones I knew before I came. So I've been forced to reexamine what I know is True. Like an expanse of uncharted land that just keeps rolling, the beliefs I am creating are in some places secure and in some places wildly undiscovered. 

But there are still some things I can see--some things I know. I'm starting with those. Because I cannot explore the rest until I've charted what I know. People tell me sometimes that it's not about "true" and "false." But if it's not about Truth, what is it about? I can't base anything on "maybe-maybe not." Without some type of fundamental Truth, there's nothing on which I can build my worldview.

So I know these things:

-I believe in a God as big as Grace, and as deep as Love. Inexhaustible. Incomprehensible. Infinite.

-I believe that same God created this entire universe with a breath, and every inch of it was good.

-I believe it was humanity that made it bad.

-I believe in a divine man who came and wrecked the world as mankind knew it, by saying that the meek and the poor should be emulated, and the proud and rich should tread with caution.

-I believe in loving people well. Not loving people the way I want to be loved. Not loving people to make myself more righteous. But really loving people--seeing them for who they are, in all their shame and pain, and showing them that they are beautiful simply because God called them into existence out of dust. I want to see the image of God in all people--not just the ones who actively reflect Him in my life.

-I believe that there is no joy without suffering first, because pain has always been a part of the story. I believe sorrow is what makes life rich, since it is through sorrow that redemption shines. I believe in taking up a cross--whatever it might be--because Jesus took up His first, and I want to be like Him.

-I believe in life. Not just for people--for the unborn, for the terminally ill, for the mentally ill, for the elderly. But for this earth that we are stewards of. (This one is a bit new on my tongue; I won't lie.) I believe that to be truly about life, I have to also be about preserving the earth, because she is still the same good God created her to be. And humanity is ruining her.

-I believe that my reality, my narrative, is not the only reality that exists. But this is where we run into uncharted territory. Because I'm still pursuing Truth through my reality--I'm just not sure how that Truth shines through other realities and narratives. I want desperately to know. And I want desperately to not be wrong.

To open hearts, open minds, and a shameless pursuit of Truth. It's a new kind of Marvelous Light, here in Latin America. But I'm still adventuring in it, because God's still lighting my path with it.

Hasta luego, mundo.