Creating Space

" Then {Jesus} said to them:  Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23

     I have been thinking about space a lot lately, space in my heart, in my life, my home, my work, and my world.  The reason is my desire to serve God to the best of my abilities and with a full heart for Him.  In life we fill up a lot of space with trash.  This week we have been experiencing a garbage collector's strike.  I have never seen anything like this before.  In the streets, especially in the cancha (an outdoor market), there are huge piles of trash.  It is difficult to describe, but you can use your imagination. In Cochabamba, we have a large street dog population.  These dogs will not even go near the piles of trash to look for food.  In the morning, it is somewhat controllable, but by the time I am headed home from work it is rancid.  Even at the Guesthouse, where I live, we have a small pile that is starting to smell, but to me it is barely noticeable.  We are hoping that the strike ends soon.  I can't help but wonder, how long is it going to take to get caught back up. 
     Think about how this applies to our lives.  We fill our lives with trash and over time we stop noticing it, but others are able to smell that everything is not right.  I am pondering over just how blessed I am.  I am evaluating my own heart trying to clean house and remove anything that may be distasteful to others or may interfere with serving God appropriately.

     Last Friday, I started helping out some independent missionary friends with feeding the homeless.  There is a small plaza near the post office where the older gentlemen community of homeless will gather on Friday nights because they know they will get a sandwich and hot tea.  They hang around for a little while and talk.  It really amazes me how a small group of about five to seven jovenes (young adults) willingly come to help out and chat with these gentlemen.  I watched and was inspired.  This is not going to be my job through SIM, but am happy to help out and try to talk and become friends with people that the rest of the world may just want to ignore or pretend that they are not there.  Tonight, I will go back. 

   Please be praying for the Gore family.  They do so much in the community and are amazing people.  I am truly blessed to have them in my life.  Plus, their children now have adopted me, so I have some little ones to love on whenever I want to outside of work.