Very random musings from a week of travel and Ethiopia......

Too many things to expand on - so a partly bulleted summary is what you get:

• Looking back at my week of blog posts while in Ethiopia, I use the word amazing a lot.

• I am a BIG chicken (not news to some of you - especially Jason & Rhonda)

• What is with full on shopping malls within international airports? I honestly don't get it, I didn't enjoy walking through a mall to get to my gate. 

• The cultural samplings of people at international airports is mind boggling......since I'd never been out of the country before, it was eye opening.

• Ethiopian coffee is seriously like no other. The rest of the world doesn't know. I felt like a coffee pack mule on the way back - the least I could do to repay a coffee loving husband that took on the brunt of the load when I left the country :)

• I am very used to BIG children and babies......Little Miss's smallness was throwing me off in a way I didn't expect. So odd to see a newborn sized baby do older developmental things.

• Ethiopians are extremely loving and hospitable people.

• The reinforcement in my mind that the response to orphans and the orphan crisis is not just adoption, definitely a small piece of the puzzle, but it is really prevention. (5 million orphans in Ethiopia alone - which is a country about the size of Texas)

• Amazed at the United States. That in our country there is opportunity for all. Put in the effort, time & sweat equity and you can do anything - not true other places. Seeing it for the first time was eye opening.

• The single thing that surprised me the most about Addis was the sheer amount of people. People everywhere. Walking everywhere. Only wealthy people in Ethiopia own a car.  This fact alone brought out the wide divide between how I live and others in the world. 

• The exchange rate of US dollar to Birr is 1:19 - visited an ATM in Ethiopia (and unfortunately because I am not good at fast math :) thought I was taking out a lot money. Since everything is paid in cash in Ethiopia we wanted to make sure we had plenty (along with the money we brought) to pay our guest house and driver  - 3,500birr is what I took out (100 birr being the biggest denomination - so it looked like a LOT) We did the math in the car to find out that it was only $151 US.

• Shocked at my response to the $151.....it was crazy I viewed that amount as ONLY in my mind. That amount to someone else in country would be a large, unattainable at one time, sum. That is when it hit me - I.am.a.rich.person. Ouch. (disclaimer: by that amount being ONLY $151 - what I am not saying is that I have that amount of money to waste or spend as I will, or even that it is such a small amount. Years of Dave Ramsey facilitating has made Jason and I VERY careful with just how we spend our money. What I was, was humbled by the simple fact that I have that amount or more available to me, should I need it, when so many others don't have that luxury)

These last few facts kept shouting at me while I was there. Car ownership being rich, my dollar being worth so much, how inexpensive things were to buy because our money was worth more, the opportunities we have in America that are not available to all. Crazy when you think that my household in America financially feels about mid-pack culturally. Middle class. A lot of people have more than us (or look like it - because they are probably carrying huge amounts of debt), and I've seen with my own eyes that others have a lot less.

Let the cultural mind wrestling begin.

While in Ethiopia - I kept coming back to a few passages of scripture. Over and over. Chewing on them in a whole new way.

Matthew 6:19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also."

Gut check. I know where I think my heart is, but where is my heart? Do I find comfort in my things?

It keeps going a few verses later speaking on not worrying......Matthew 6:25-27 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

If my things were taken totally away and my dependance totally on God alone, could I relax and rely on Him alone? How much of my confidence is because I have "things"?

Matthew 6 is coming to a close with the not worrying about tomorrow and ties into chapter 7 with.......Matthew 7:7-11 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? If YOU then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask?"

The comparison of God the Father with us as natural parents. Of course if our kiddos ask us for something, we will generously give what they need - out of love.

Followed of course by......Matthew 7:13 & 14 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Paying attention to my course. Does it need correcting? Does it feel easy? Am I really on the wide road? Letting culture lead me? Or is God leading me?

Then wrapped up with Matthew 7:15-23 - The sum up being, you will recognize people by their fruit produced. A good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. The two cannot be interchanged. What is my fruit? Has my life been so impacted by the gospel that the fruit of it is absolutely reflective of the change within?

This is the first time that I noticed a certain thread connecting all of these verses.....

• Don't store up treasure on here on Earth - store up treasure in heaven.
• But yet while having less, don't worry. God will provide what you need when you need it.
• ASK when you need (legitimate need - look at the examples), He will provide.
• Whoa. The things above sure seem like a narrow road.....VERY different than the majority.
• Just what is my fruit? Good? Bad? Is it reflective of what has been done for me?

Am I the only one seeing this? I tell you. I couldn't read through these passages of scripture while in country without being totally broken. Tears people. From a non-crier. I just saw these passages in a totally new light. You see I AM RICH PEOPLE. The culture that I live in just shielded it from my eyes. Comparison to the wrong standard is what keeps us (me) fooled.

I hate to say it, but I must. YOU ARE RICH PEOPLE. If you are reading this. On a computer. In America. If you own a car. Own a home. Have running clean water. Electricity. This is you too.

What to do with that knowledge? Honestly, I wish I knew. I'm not sure. I know it isn't cookie cutter and has to look different for everyone. However, I do know "that to whom much is given, much is expected; and the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48)  and I have been given much, now what to do with it.

Practically for me - it starts with a major adjustment to the lens in which I view the world, maybe it is God prepping me and my family to actively do more. For now, supporting ministries like Embracing Hope that minister to the poorest of the poor and spreading awareness. I do know that I won't ever be the same and that God's got this. He knows where he is going with our family, we just have to be open to his direction.

Take a moment - this song is worth the listen!