Losing Myself in Jamaica

Losing Myself in Jamaica

by Norm E.

May 2015

I did not know what to expect in Jamaica. I was apprehensive on how things would go. What concerned me was that I was not going to set my own agenda. I mentioned that to a friend and
she said, “So you think you’re setting your own agenda now?” She reminded me that God has always been in control and the sooner I realized this fact the better life would go. And she’s right; it is clear that ultimately we are leaving this earth 100% in God’s hands. It’s an illusion that we are in control prior to that time.

I met Christ in the marginalized and he ministered to me through them. I met Christ in those who have dedicated their lives in serving others. I saw joy in their faces; I also saw the burden in their eyes. That’s the paradox of service: hard, emotion rendering work, time not your own but it is through selflessness that true joy is experienced. Time not their own: It reminded me of the counsel that God is in control. I felt joy in my meager mission of presence however, at the end of every day I was tired and beat. Yet, through the direction of and in the hands of others, I experienced a joy I never experienced Mission reflects the joy of salvation in that salvation requires a complete abandonment to God’s will so that, paraphrasing Christ, one finds life by losing himself.