Paybacks

It’s been a long time…

 I’ve spent the last month hugging, crying and sharing meals with the prayers and the people that keep me breathing and that entertain all this blogging.

Thank you.

I’ve been too full of Tex-Mex and gracious, celebrating, joy-breathing love to have even a moment to stop and write. I’m completely out of my element.

I throw parties.

I bake cakes.

I provide the meals.

I’m the celebrator.

And then I left my element.

And when did Africa even become my element!?!

The tables got turned.

And the tables got completely filled with queso and guacamole.

(The chips never stop being refilled!)

In South Africa, I spend a lot of time with Mama Charity’s family. They trust me. They love me. They let me love them.

The details are not for this blog today, but Mama Charity is inviting me into 3-year old Given’s medical condition. A condition that has painted Given and Mama Charity with a silencing shame, completely wiping away expression from their faces, inflection from their voices, and hope from their spirits. But they’re letting me in. And it’s starting with a slew of overnight, 4-hour long road trips to a government hospital.

The hospital visits are expensive. Gas is about $7/gallon, and I’m providing food for the family as well as a place for me to stay overnight. But I’m so thrilled. We are going to break through brokenness in the name of Jesus and His Family.

I told a friend, “I want to love Mama Charity in a way she knows she can never pay back. Because that’s what Jesus does. And I want her to know that love.”

A love that you can never pay back.

That’s who He is. That’s what He does.

That’s what I love to do- for kids and grown-ups and gogo’s who’ve never had a birthday cake. For a family who doesn’t have enough food or a safe house to live in. For a little one who just needs a lap to nap on. For a little girl who doesn’t have proper shoes to run from danger in.

A love that you can never pay back.

Paybacks are in heaven. Just on the other side of those glory gates. That’s the party, the food, the home and the lap I’m living for and waiting on.

But for more than a month now, I’ve been out of my element.  

And I haven’t been celebrating like I’m used to. I’ve been celebrated.

Jesus told us to pray for the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10), and it’s happening. I’m tasting, touching and beholding the celebration of that day – the ultimate Kingdom Come day – through His head, shoulders, knees, toes and the whole dang Body of Christ right here in my hometown.

I thought a birthday cake was good... Look at THIS dessert!

I’m completely embarrassed by this love I can never pay back.

I’m beside myself by these tables turned with His kindness, His generosity, His Family.

I’m overwhelmed that glory reaches down and right through my home church and my Home people.

I’m overflowing with a love that I can never pay back.

Thank you for being a part of that love. The love that you’re storing up in me, the God-love you’re feeding me, filling me and covering me with is teaching me, inspiring me, and is going to spread far and wide in a couple weeks when I get back to South Africa.