People Watching

Most of the hours of my day are very busy, but still, many are spent pondering. Lately when I first sit on the bus I  have used that time for people watching. Seated in number fifteen, my mind lost out the window watching throngs of students exit the school. The romantics, the popular, the geek, the loner, two ‘bffs’. The disheveled, those who have it all together, some staring into space, and others caught mid-laugh as they walk out the door. You may think I’m stereotyping too much, I don’t mean to, but at a glance there’s not much else to go by. It’s a silent movie: no voices but the ones crying out from their eyes, no music but the pace of their footsteps. It’s a generation of seeking hearts lost in a treacherous world. It’s my daily missions trip.

As I observe those broken thirsty hearts out my window, each disappearing into their designated bus, the time I have here seems so fleeting. It’s not enough. But as I walked through the empty halls between periods today I realized that I’m not alone. I have a C.S. Lewis quote on my locker; now there are three other lockers with verses on them. Last year there weren’t any. I don’t even know all of my fellow soldiers but I know that I am not alone, that God is encountering the world every day here. The others and I are tied with an invisible bond, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank God for His children! His light is invading the darkness in all of it’s beautiful radiance. You can’t understand light until you’ve seen it in darkness. Piercing rays are all the more treasured when one understands what it is that they’re piercing through. Through all of the sorrows, the shattered, the sinful. I cry out over the darkness to my Father over the lostness of my peers, it’s evident in so much more than their faces. But I praise Him, I thank Him, I shed tears of joy that there are those who know truth in this place. I only pray that they are displaying that truth, and holding their lights high.

I didn’t know quite how to start this blog, or what to say. But I will say this: my writing is pondering also. Where I pause for a half hour to do self-examination, imagine, or worship God. Today I am sharing my ponderings with you. I’m letting you witness through my eyes the mission field I have been given. As Ezekiel, I have not been called to a foreign land; I have been called here to the needy in my front yard. And as it was for Ezekiel, they are much less likely to accept the solution to their brokeness than a foreigner. It’s easy to watch them pass by, it’s easy to feel sympathetic for how needy they are. It’s so much harder to actually reach out. But it’s worth it. I know, I’ve done it. To reach out beyond myself and point their questioning in the right direction means so much more than I could ever express in words.What’s your mission field? What are you pondering today? Don’t let anyone or anything stop you from experiencing the bliss of revealing a glimpse of light to those in darkness. Nothing quite compares. Nothing comes close to the look in their eyes when they first see the light. Ever.