This week’s Five Minute Friday prompt is on the word world. I wish I had this wonderful intro to give you this week before my post. The truth is, I’m in tears again. I think about the world and I am devastatingly choked up to no end. If you know me, I’m sure you’re well acquainted with my empathy meter and strong emotions. It doesn’t take much to get me to feel…and there are times when I’d love to say being empathetic is a blessing – yet others that make me feel just a little cursed.
But enough of that nonsense.
Because I’m going to use this heart for something more than just crying over areas where I don’t think I can make a difference. That’s nonsense, too. God calls us and equips us. And even though I don’t know what it all looks like yet, I know a stirring in my soul when I feel it. I am going to Kenya in August. And I’m going to take it all in. Every single bit.
I’m frightened and excited and completely undone over it all. Pray for me. Pray that He moves big…
But now. World.
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World
Start:
This world seemed big to me for so many years. I’d shut myself off from everything around me because the distractions were enough to keep me busy. I had my own world to focus on and I didn’t need to be bothered with anything outside of Jefferson City, Missouri.
Yet it began to get smaller as I aged. As I realized there was so much hurt. Poverty. Oppression…
I didn’t know that word then. It was foreign to me.
I say it again. Oppression… It’s hard to even think it now without my eyes welling up.
But I continued to shut them. Shut them so tightly that I wouldn’t see a thing. Then. Staying in my own world where it seemed safe. Comfortable. Familiar.
But He kept shrinking it for me and I couldn’t keep them shut. I couldn’t deny myself the look at what He wanted me to see. I felt as though I could embrace it with my arms…without much effort at all. I would shed tears – tears that still continue to fall at various hours of the day. They just come with no warning.
I hear words like: Homeless. Prostitution. Sex-trafficking. Lack of water. Mud cakes. No medical aid. Orphan and widow…
It’s so small now that sometimes I feel like I can reach out and touch it. 8,300 miles just seems so close. My heart is there now.
In Kenya.
It has been for awhile. Halfway across this big-little world.
That one that continues to shrink.
How I wish and wonder and whisper into the darkness of the night when the house is asleep that I could see it and hear it and smell it – as awful as I know it all might be – yet priceless to a voice that needs to convey it to the rest of the world.
To those who still live where the world is big.
Like the one I used to imagine. Where places like Kenya and Uganda and Rwanda and Iraq and Libya were still so very far away.
I’m going there. Kenya. 10 weeks, Lord willing, and I can shrink my world even more. I can grasp the hands of those who I have cried for and prayed for…
…when I realized just how small this world really is.
Stop.
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Won’t you join me this week for Five Minute Friday over at Kate Motaung’s page?  We’d love to see you there!  Just familiarize yourself with this page first, no editing, and set your watch for five minutes.
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Photo credit:Â africangametreksafaris.com
Jennifer- This is filled with so much beauty, passion, truth, and love- that it chokes me as I read it. Love for others shrinks the world and eliminates the distance between us. That’s such a perfect picture of the gospel. Thanks for sharing your beautiful words and heart. Loved this!
This moves me to ask the LORD to keep shrinking our worlds, and growing our hearts to fit more world inside. Thank you.
Prayers for your trip Jen! I wish I was brave enough to do something like that. And you and I must be soul sisters. I am an emotional person too. I’ve been known to cry at Hallmark commercials. Which also means I love big too! Visiting from FMF where I’m #8 this week.
Thank you, Tara! I’m a little apprehensive about it but excited all at the same time. So glad you visited today.
I am just SO excited for you! Beyond excited! I believe that God has broken you in a special and specific way in order to use you mightily. His heart beats for the hurting, and so He has made yours do the same. This is going to be awesome and I can’t wait to read all about your experience!
Thank you, Marie, for your constant prayers and encouragement. I can’t wait to experience it for myself!
Kenya!
Kwenda…kwaheri!
🙂
How exciting that you are going to where your heart is!! I can’t wait to see some pictures and read your words about your trip. Praying for safety and for God to show up in ways that you are not even expecting. Great post, Jennifer! xoxo
Thank you so much, Holly!
What a beautiful post, Jennifer! I’m so glad you’re getting to go to Kenya. Thank you for going! I know God will use you as His hands and feet as you love on His precious ones. 🙂 I have to admit, I’m a little jealous. I’ll go again one day (maybe not to Kenya, but to wherever He calls me)… But for now, I’ll pray for YOU as you go! Blessings, Tasha (visiting from Five Minute Friday)
Thank you for visiting today, Tasha. This will be my first time out of the country (unless you count Canada and Mexico…and those don’t really count)… So prayers appreciated. I feel confident God is in control of it all, though.
I am SO EXCITED for you, my friend! …and SO PROUD of you for saying yes! #YourYesMatters #SayYesinYourMess (Ya see what I did there?)
I saw what you did there. 😉 So clever!
Hi Jennie,
I “accidentally” found your page, but being the person that I am, I actually feel it was no accident at all, but synchronicity at play. As Albert Einstein so poetically stated it, “There are only two ways to live your life. One as though nothing is a miracle, the other, as though everything is”.
I am a screenwriter who shares your emotions, empathy, and views about life. In fact, to such a great degree, that sometimes I have felt too sensitive for this world. But, when God opens your eyes, you know it! We are all here for a divine purpose, and I discovered that mine was meant to make a difference in the world through my writing, the stories and characters I create, and the way I live my life. Congratulations to you for finding the courage to commit to yours. Every person who chooses to stand up for the greater good is another star that shines brightly onto the world, and one day there will be so many, that we will distinguish the darkness with light.
Wishing you an extraordinary and inspiring journey.