It's like doing a handstand...

By my senior year of college, I had mastered the perfect study routine. As a recovering over-achiever, I decided it was best to not even think about test materials until 2am the night before. Collegiate logic at its finest, right?

My roommate, Lacie and our neighbor, Matt pulled all-nighters together during midterms and finals. So many memorable moments while we soaked up knowledge, sugar and caffeine in apartment 4204!

One night, during a 4am popsicle break, Matt said, “HEY! Did you know you can’t frown when you are doing a handstand?” We spent the next half hour taking turns doing handstands and trying to frown. We really couldn’t do it.

(Ok, I’ll wait here while you try… go ahead… you’re thinking about it.)

Being upside-down changes things: your perspective, your posture, your countenance and sometimes your blood flow. 

I had a mountain of moments pile up this week that made me wiggle in my worldview.

Why do I spend so much time trying to do things the “right way” when I'm supposed to be living for an upside-down King?

For the last two weeks, we’ve hosted a missions team from New Hope Church in Wiley, Texas. They weren’t just any team. They came into South Africa doing handstands.

The team came in to serve the servants and love the unloved. And, from their upside-down perspective, they saw different servants and different unloved people than most.

Tuesday night they sent us to our rooms to transform our pavilion into a fine-dining restaurant featuring a full wait-staff, entertainment and life-changing TexMex. The team read letters of encouragement to each of us, gave us gifts and finished the evening with a dance party! They didn’t just give us a meal, they honored us in every detail of the evening. They lavished love on us freely.

They did the same thing in the communities.

They didn’t just pass out meals to hungry young adults and orphans. They prepared feasts and prayed for protection and provision with every plate they served. They believed in God's best. 

They didn’t just host a Sunday School program, pass out Bibles and call it ministry. They vulnerably poured their hearts into discipling the next generations of leaders through personal relationships with them and encounters with the Holy Spirit. They made everything personal. 

The New Hope team had a magnetic love on them, created by their unity, their faith and their hope in this upside-down Kingdom.

One evening Lynn said, “I’ve never felt that loved by another person. And I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never felt that kind of love.” That’s how Jesus loves us.

Shelby stammered that even though she didn’t know the name of the little girl on her lap and couldn’t speak her language, the exchange of love was immeasurably powerful. A knowing, authentic and penetrating love. That’s how Jesus loves us.

Ken was surrounded by orphans and, with one on his hip and tears in his eyes, said, “You just can’t help but love them.” They’d done nothing to “deserve” love. That’s how Jesus loves us.

Tears soaked through boxes of Kleenex every evening as they worshiped and poured out stories of being so loved by God and feeling that love through those around them.

But they were the ones who came here to do the loving. To pour out. They poured and poured and poured. And I’ve never seen a team so full.

The more love they poured out, the more they drank in and were filled.

They had a real taste of the upside-down Kingdom we live for.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth through a single mom opening her chaste womb in a flea-ridden pile of hay to let the glory of God change daily life forever.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth by a homeless carpenter with a bunch of his vagabond buddies who had something to say and lived by it.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth by a guy who has the power to move mountains and destroy dynasties, but chose to use it to love the untouchables and the voiceless.

An upside-down Kingdom is one brought to earth on a splintered, blood-stained piece of wood with a King whose crown was bejeweled with thorns to save the skin on our backs.

An upside-down Kingdom is one whose membership comes through ripped veils, resurrection and accepting a gift you could never pay for.

It doesn’t have to make sense. You only have to believe it, accept it and it’s yours.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped paying attention to the upside-down part. It’s hard to know how to balance caring for yourself and caring for others when you live here all the time. It’s hard enough trying to know how to raise support to sustain myself while being confronted by endless needs around me.

Rather than figuring out equations, I choose to spend my time doing handstands.

Jesus, change my perspective. Give me an upside-down outlook. I want to serve my leaders whole-heartedly, to lift-up the tiniest, and give freely as I have been given rather than have control over my countenance. You can’t frown upside-down. And I have a feeling you can’t get love poorly that way either.

So there you have it….

The Kingdom of God is like doing a handstand.

All photos by Carly B

There is no room for sorrow when you are loving in that perfectly perspective-shifting way Jesus taught us about. I believe that, when turned upside-down, that sorrow is transformed into the active verb: compassion of Christ.