Living in Tough Times

So, first I'd like to say that I had the wonderful opportunity of traveling back to Haiti to help my family in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Thank you Doyle and Bonnie! I got to piggyback along with an awesome medical team and I ended up translating in their mobile medical clinic in addition to visiting with my siblings and some great friends. I lived in Haiti for two years teaching at a school, but visiting for ten days and serving with a medical team is a whole new kind of experience! I love seeing the work that God is doing through my parents in Haiti and I'm always honored to be a part of it!

My parents have been following God's call to live in Haiti for over 3 years now. But I still run into friends of the family who don't seem to know what that means. Despite the swiftness and ease of communication that is available nowadays--thank you internet!--it's hard to keep friends and family in the USA up-to-date with life in Haiti. I guess I'm saying, "thank you" to you for being interested enough in Mom and Dad's lives in Haiti to put up with this rambling blogpost, ha-ha.

Of course, the reality of life in Haiti is like cold water to the face. It's certainly not easy to face it with strength--much less, joy--every day. These stresses don't just revolve around the poverty of the people they're serving, but also around providing for such a large family in a resource-limited country.  Not only that, but many of my siblings have significant special needs and their future is another stressor. It's also emotionally challenging to leave behind your close friends and family knowing that most will never visit you abroad. That support structure is distant and limited.

Now, if you were to break down this blog into a few sentences, one of the major points you'd see is that being in Haiti is tough. It's tough seeing the depth of the poverty here and not being able to fix it. It's tough relying on God to provide for us and our family. I mean, Dad works part-time drawing bridge and floor designs but that's not enough to sustain us. Even if he had a great job and was being paid well, that security is just a man-made illusion. We have no control over the future. Tomorrow could bring illnesses, earthquakes, storms, or terrible headaches (I'm thinking of the migraine my mom had after hiking into the remote village six months ago which caused her to literally be down on a bug infested straw mat for two days throwing up). We have no control over that. Life happens and we have to keep moving forward.

Now, does that mean we should give in to fear, despair, and worry? There are some great verses in the Bible which are relevant to this topic. During Jesus' sermon on the mount, he cautions against worrying saying not to worry about having enough food, or water, or clothes. "Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life?" (Matthew 6:27 NLT). Negative stress is a form of worry...which itself comes from fear. Well then, why worry? There's a line in the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin which says, "In every life we have some trouble but when you worry you make it double. So don't worry". Such stellar advice!

For people living in the "real world" we accept that money is necessary to living. Gotta buy food, buy clothes, buy water, pay taxes...at some point you've gotta make money. Without money, you're up you-know-what creek without a paddle and no chance in buying one from the traveling salesman in the speedboat next to you. And so, we equate having money to not worrying. Which isn't as wrong as you might think. After all, money worries is the leading cause of stress in adults in the USA (over 70% of adults stress over their finances--at least, back in 2014). Often times, people worry less about their money when they don't struggle to make ends meet. Well, who'd'a thunk, eh?

Now, of course, it's very easy to recognize that worry doesn't add a moment to your life. In fact, the opposite is found to be true. According to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress causes many harmful effects on the body including increased risk of heart disease ( APA article here... ). I know, I know...big shock. Who could have predicted that chronic worrying has negative effects?

Well, so what? Saying, "don't worry" doesn't magically make the worries go away. They're ever-present, ever-pressuring...relentlessly eating away at our confidence and composure. But these worries are only as powerful as we let them become. And how do we do that? Well, the long-term solution is to keep the focus on God and trust in him. As a friend likes to say, "God has a giant bag filled with jobs to do and he's only given each of us a teeny-tiny backpack with our job inside." And God won't give us more than we can handle. 

For the short-term, we all have to deal with stress differently in day-to-day life. Keep company with encouraging people, keep your sights set on the overall picture (of God in control), and just don't worry! Maybe try listening to this song ;)