The Eye Talking to the Hand

My time in the Philippines has been full of wonderful conversations, new friends, and good reminders.

Sometimes it was chatting global politics with a pastor from Myanmar and students from South Korea and the Philippines.

Sometimes it was just joking and laughing. Or talking about the recent Pacquiao boxing match (hey, if your little country had the best boxer in the world, he would be a national hero there too, ok?).

Sometimes it was sharing our stories and hearing how God reached us in unlikely ways. Even for some of us how God reached us through folks working in what we might consider "the wrong way".

It was a reminder that no one holds a monopoly on the "right" way to do things. That the Spirit will blow where the Spirit will.

Or, as one of our coordinators wisely put it, "we can never confuse ourselves for the Kingdom". We're part of it, and sometimes when we are abiding in Jesus, we might even be doing a pretty decent job at joining in with what God is up to.

But we aren't "the" answer and we don't have it all together. More often, God uses us in spite of our bad attitudes, theology, methods, etc. than because of our good ones.

We can't look down at other people, churches or groups because their attitudes, theology, methods are bad, wrong, not the same as ours. That's not to say that we shouldn't learn from each other and all strive to improve. But the body works because we have a diversity of attitudes, theology, methods, etc.

All that to say, I'm really enjoying learning from and listening to and getting to know our brothers and sisters from all over the globe.