Thursday, February 02, 2012

trying not to be swept away

pushing my way through crowded streets seems to be something I've been doing a lot of lately. in London, it's just a given that you push through people to get where you need to go, shouting "Sorry!" behind you. You have to do it every day, and people do it to you, and no one gets offended. it's just part of life. Well today, I pushed through crowds like I NEVER have before. And believe me, I've pushed through some crowds. I've been at Youth Camp with hundreds of hungry boys in the dinner line, I've been at the beach for Student Life with thousands of other teenagers, I've gone to an Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa, and I've even been at Passion with 45,000 college students trying to give money to stop slavery. Those all make for some pretty great instances to improve in my pushing-through-crowd skills. Well tonight was the absolute worst/best (depending on how you look at it) pushing-through-crowd-scenario you have ever heard or seen.
Chinese New Year. Trafalgar Square. thousands of people, all speaking different languages. In the short 30 minutes I was there, I heard English, French, German, Spanish, and what I assume was Chinese. We were packed in the streets like wadded-up clothes fill a too-small suitcase. All for some wimpy fireworks, distant music I could barely hear, and freezing cold. When all the fun and celebration was over at 6:30, I pushed forward into the crowd trying to get to the Square itself (which I was still at least half a block away from) and find my friends. It seemed as if at the exact moment that I decided to push forward, the whole world was there, walking towards me and occasionally pushing me backwards (literally). As I struggled to keep my belongings close and avoid pick-pockets while trudging toward my seemingly unattainable goal of Trafalgar Square, I retreated into my head (or maybe God just put the thoughts in there all the sudden, which is more likely).
Isn't that what life is like so many times? At least for us children of God. We're on this mission to glorify Him with our every word, thought, and deed. We're commissioned to seek the lost as He did, and share with them His Salvation. Then we're stuck here on this busy, crowded, selfish earth. Everyone else wants to go their own way and have their own selfish goals attained.
Sometimes we literally can't move, we just have to wait for Him to make a way for us.
Sometimes we get on that train of others moving toward Him together and help each other push through the crowd, and we accomplish a lot together and send out ripples as we go, making others see His glory and getting to see them join our train.
Sometimes all we can do is shuffle, inch-by-inch, holding our valuables close.
And sometimes, we're pushed backwards. At first, it results in completely losing our footing and fighting to stay standing. Then over time, as we join different trains, we find a few of the members of that train have broken off with us and are there to catch us when we tilt backwards and set us back on our feet and on our way to Him again.
Isn't that beautiful?
In the many stages of this crowded life, He is faithful to protect us, save our brothers and sisters, and ultimately bring glory to Himself. He stays with us in our stillness, makes a way for us in our inability, moves us along in our striving for Him, picks us up in our fallen state, and supports us in our overwhelmed moments.
I love that.

1 comment:

Meg said...

oh my word becca.
that was simply wonderful.
like really.
perfect analogy.
i love what God puts in your head deary.

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