Measuring Life

There's a popular song that questions how we define a year-- in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee...  Since I've been here in Trujillo, Peru God has been teaching me to measure life in a different way.  I have been to a day care center, a community outside of the garbage and then also entering into the garbage dump, a children's ministry in a dangerous section of town, and also cell groups (Bible studies) in the churches.  Time is not measured by a watch, a clock on the wall, or the digital numbers on a cell phone screen.  Here, in Trujillo, I have been able to be part of a different cadence.

Time is measured by the rhythm of a plastic bag, floating gently through the air as it's thrown from the dirty hands of a boy playing in the streets.   Time is measured by the rise and fall of a garbage worker's hoe as he digs through plastic bags full of trash, searching for recyclable treasures of metal, plastic, or wood.  Time is measured by the screams of the combi drivers as their voices pattern the streets of the city but are muffled by the cluttered noises of other combi buses raging past, the murmur of pedestrians, and the steady beat of horns.  Time is measured by the slapping and tapping of barefeet, echoing the bumping and thudding of the soccer ball on the cement court.

My prayer is that this summer I understand the simplicity of time.  That numbers and tick-tocks on a machine are not the definers of time but rather the people that live it out.  I am spending a long time here in Peru, yet God has been speaking to me about how I spend my time, how I measure it, and where I invest and add to the time.  All of the ministries have been great to see and become a part of, and I hope to get some pictures up soon of the people, their culture, and their joy.

One of my favorite measures of time is one that is often overlooked as I review my day.  It's not overlooked because it wasn't important but simply because it wasn't cultural and extraordinary.  I have been able to spend a good amount of time each morning with God-- talking, praying, reading His love letter to me, and submitting my day to His will.  This-- my time with God-- has been a measure of time that helps in the measurement of all other time during the day.  In other words, as I am able to devote and discipline myself in spending time with God each morning, all the other time in the day tends to be sweeter, more vivid, and expanded.  My time with God has become the ruler for measuring life, and He has continued to encourage me that He will do exceedingly and abundantly more than I ask and imagine.