From Podunk to Posh

And here I thought I was finally starting to figure out Washington.

This weekend, I had the exciting opportunity to travel down to a town called Lyle in southern Washington, where I was allowed to speak with people about the work which God is doing up at WWU. My time in Lyle, while incredibly encouraging, was also something else I wasn't expecting. Convicting.

To give you an idea of Lyle, it's the sort of town where if you don't pay attention for a few seconds, you'll drive right through it. No, I'm not kidding, because I did exactly that. I had to turn around and everything. When that's your first impression of a town, it's easy for someone coming from a town like Bellingham to develop some negative preconceptions. This got reinforced when I was in front of the Church I was going to be speaking at. It was a simple building, nothing like the grandiose house of worship I attend in Bellingham. Little did I know, however, how God was planning on using this simple setting to speak something beautiful into my life.

God is into doing amazing things in the midst of simple trappings, as scripture reveals. My experience in Lyle was no exception. This outwardly unremarkable fellowship had one of the greatest hearts for worship I have ever experienced. It was refreshing to see how the Holy Spirit could inspire worship that no technical display could ever compare to. In one simple moment, God convicted me of just how much I had let the cultural trappings of academia blind me from the fact that I don't get to dictate what is beautiful in God's eyes.

Yay! Conviction happened! Story over! Oh wait, what? You're not done yet Lord? *Sigh*, O.K.

Before explaining the other part of what the Lord has been teaching me, let me preface with a bit about me. I have always been intimidated by wealth. Something about people who have attained a high amount of capital always makes me nervous. Yes, I know there are both righteous rich and righteous poor, but in my life I haven't met too many (or hardly any at all) of the former, at least not in the terms in which a Western society would define rich.

How fitting then, that now I am staying in Vancouver, Washington, in one of the nicest houses I have ever seen. Let me give you an idea. From where I sit, I can see two different ovens. The internet I am connected to is only good for the North wing of the house. When you get right down to the heart of it, though, a house is nothing without the people living in it. It's those people that the Lord has been using to teach me a great deal.

For example, the man of this particular abode has one of the most generous hearts I have ever seen. Not only is he supporting me incredibly generously for my internship next year, but he has a heart to help others in any way he can. To hear someone say that they're going to make some phone calls to make sure that the people they care about have opportunities to succeed is a model of what it means to use worldly influence with a heart oriented around the kingdom. If I am ever blessed with material wealth and social influence, I pray I can exercise it with the same grace and care I see modeled before me here.

So what have I gained overall from this whirlwind tour of different styles of living? The Lord truly does work through all, and we're doing a disservice to ourselves, and more importantly we're insulting God when we say "He can't work through that person or that situation because of my experience." Woe to me if I try to define what it is that God can or cannot do based on what little life I have lived.

With His love and grace,

Taylor