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Haiti 2012: June 1

I started early today and worked on my last day of school for the year until a little over an hour before we had to be at the church to leave. After a send-off prayer, we left for San Francisco International airport. The drive allowed me to get acquainted with a missions leader at the church, named Bill. From him, I learned something about my assumptions of other Christians: I tend to believe that Christians are so concerned with conforming to an image of the ideal Christian that they bury any opinions that might be seen as judgmental or cynical. Bill, however, was open and forthright in our conversation, and I wholly respected him for that.

The truth is that I have this assumption of other Christians because I see it in myself. I'm learning again, though, that God set us free from the chains of habitual and uncontrolled sin, not to strip us of our personalities and opinions so that we fit some uniform cultural perspective and lifestyle; but freed us instead to be "conformed to the likeness of his son." This means living out our lives with purpose and using the gifts God gave us to serve him. It doesn't mean conforming to a culture, but finding yourself, your uniqueness, and to see more clearly the blurred image of the perfect creation God originally intended us to be, free from the bondage of sin and at peace with him and each other.

All of this served to reinforce something I've learned through my own experience: to borrow from C.S. Lewis, I was reminded that God doesn't want nice people, but new men. Now on the flight from San Francisco, at 11:30 or so and among the lively chatter of close-quartered conversation, I found myself able to rest, knowing that I learned something today, not realizing at the time that God would bring further lessons.
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