Love Your Neighboor

I’m back!

First, I just want to say thank you for reading these posts, the fact that there are people out there who care enough about me and my adventures is a beautifully humbling truth. My life is good, really good (in a Nacho Libre accent). Life here in Nicaragua is everything I’ve ever hoped for and more. The things that the Lord is doing through the teams that come here and the staff here at El Ayudante is incredible and a testament that God is good, all the time and all over the world.

I keep being reminded of a simple truth that encompasses what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. That is to love God, and to love people. This is the most important thing we can do as Christians. Going to church and learning theology is important but I’m a fan of keeping it simple. God put us in community with other human beings so that we can love each other and help them love God more, too. This is what Jesus said was our most important commandment.

Without sounding egotistical, I believe that the Lord has blessed me with a gift to make friends very quickly and even more so than that, I have been given an open soul. I love to make friends and I love to get into deep issues very early on in a relationship. I can’t focus well in school and I can’t do a lot of other great things but one thing I can do is love people and the only reason I am able to love is because the One who created me loved me first. Without the love of Christ, we are hopeless and without the love we receive from others we are bound to a life that is less than what God planned for us.

I’ve had the amazing opportunity to meet a LOT of people here, Nicaraguans, Americans and all sorts of people. This past week, a team from Huntsville, Alabama was here and it really hit me that ministry isn’t building houses and giving away food. Ministry, in its simplest form in making relationships. I made friends that God willing, can be lifelong friendships. I came to the realization that people are people and everyone has the same type of issues and Christ calls us to love and to love well. Big shoutout to Huntsville for diving into serious friendships with me and the people here, not knowing them at all when they arrived. It’s an incredible picture of what life should be like.

To all my friends stateside and around the world, slow down. Slow down enough to see the people that God has placed in your life at this moment and make some dang friends. Slow down and breath in the air that’s in front of you. Don’t worry about the future or the past( Big Al), love the life you live and trust the God that created you and life will work itself out.

Much love,

B-rad