Beginnings

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It's crazy sitting here staring at this little red suitcase that holds way more than I will probably ever need for only being gone a week. Tomorrow I embark on an adventure to Seattle to minister to individuals that I come in contact with every day. Not through approaching people and telling them about the Gospel, but to simply be the light of Christ through my actions and attitude. I am blown away by the simple fact that God has made a way for me to go on this trip. The reason is simple: I would not have chosen me to go on a missions trip to minister to broken people. I have had to remind myself over and over again that, yes, I am headed to Seattle on a missions trip. Yes, God has opened doors so I can be on that plane tomorrow. And, yes, God chose me to join an amazing team of Christian leaders to show Christ's amazing love to hurting people. 

I still didn't understand why until I was reading the information packet we received at our first meeting. There is a section that is headed "Our Culture" and it explains the history and vast diversity that makes up Seattle. The last sentence of that section still brings me to tears. "In two words, Seattle can be summed up: beautiful and broken." Beautiful and broken. This is why God is calling my heart to this missions trip and to Seattle. I cannot tell you the number of times over the past year that my heart has been ravaged with these two words. Beautiful and broken. In the last six months I can guarantee that I would have used broken to define myself more than beautiful. All I could see was the brokenness that I thought surrounded me. Finding the beautiful among the broken pieces of what you took from God's hands and shattered is no easy thing. But I have found that I cannot see the beautiful on my own. It is His amazing, crazy, incomprehensible love that makes the broken beautiful. 

By definition, incomprehensible is "difficult or impossible to understand." I don't understand our Heavenly Father's love for us and I am so thankful that it is impossible for me to understand. The very fact that I will never understand the depth of His love and character is the best characteristic of all. He loves our brokenness, He loves our beautiful. I am so thankful He loves Seattle and He has called me to minister to the beautiful people living there.