Small

Have you ever felt how big the world is?  No, not thought.  Felt.  I’m talking about the feeling that you get when you imagine you are just one drop in an ocean, that feeling of immensity, of infinite.  It’s the feeling you get when you look down into an abyss, or up at the stars, or into the eyes of the person you love.   There’s just something hugely indescribable about it, isn’t there?  There comes a moment where you have to pause, look around you, and marvel at how BIG everything is. 

Ok, take a deep breath and come back to normal.  Everything is as it was before.  Now, this time, I want you to feel how small the world is this time.  Think about how easy it is to fly across the ocean.  Think of how many times we’ve visited the moon.  Think about how fast you can hop in your car and drive to the nearest coffee shop.  Think about your loved one whom you Skyped with not moments ago.  I am 3,200 miles away from most of you and yet here we are chatting. 

My mind jumps to all of the people I’ve met in my life, years ago or moments ago, and how suddenly they’ve connected me to places I had never been before, places I never even cared about.  Now, I have friends living in Houston, Abuja, Târgu-Mureș, Mexico City, Cairo and Santo Domingo (and many others!) and those places mean something to me.  I also now care about Sioux Center, Iowa because of all the Dordt people I’ve come to know and love.  I think about my friends spread throughout Central America and Mexico, their pueblos meaningful to me.  I think about my family all around the globe, and how strangely their homes are important to me.  Me, little ol’ me, is connected to places everywhere.

So in my mind, the world is small even though it is big.

This week I had the opportunity to feel just how small the world can be.  I had the privilege of attending the international conference Synergy 2015 in Guatemala City (http://cmtguatemala.org/synergy-2015-realities-opportunities-challenges/).  It was a gathering of men and women from around the world to talk, discuss, dive into and celebrate one thing: God and the City.  Voices that spoke a variety of languages came together to talk and to laugh and to share.  We walked the streets of Guatemala City, experienced the love Guatemalans have for their people, and participated in loving their city with them.  We learned of the pains Guatemalans continue to endure, but we also saw the joy Guatemalans have in the abundance of their beautiful country and their God.  I can’t speak for anyone, but I daresay that we all came away from this conference inspired.

What truly took my breath away during this conference was the diversity of the people gathered there in that conference room, eating meals and drinking coffee together.  Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Romania, Korea, Central America, North America—faces from many places.  We prayed in Spanish, English, Creole, and a myriad of other tongues and dialects to the same great God above.  And in that moment, the world didn’t seem so big.  In the hands of God, the world seemed very small indeed.