Guatemala City, Guatemala

Guatemala City, Guatemala

our journey lead us from Mexico City, through Panama City, through Managua to Guatemala. the flights were long and the air was ripe. i complained a bit, and then wiped the sweat and grease off my beard realizing that i was contributing to the atmosphere. i just finished 'Home Economics' with an amazing encore. Some brilliant musings about the effect of local community on our local and global economics. i've been processing those thoughts and hope to post them when they're clear. there's no use to talk about tiredness. that seems redundant - and redundancy = boredom. I will say that instead of coffee, i found a modelo especial to encourage the contemplation of community and it's value on our well being. son las 8 a la manana. that was a record for me! never had a beer that early before. all these flights will do that to ya.

we had some down time today while staying in some apartments nestled in the jungle hills around guatemala city. it was odd to be still after moving so much. i took my computer out to the balcony and looked at my girls. they looked back at me. they are growing so beautifully. behind them, the jungle and a Guatemalan man hard a work hacking weeds with a machete.

there's an interesting translation for Romans 12 VS 2-4 in the message. the verbiage goes something like "Don't become so well-accustomed to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to it's level of immaturity." Being here has made me realize how American i am, in the positive and the negative sense. A lot of my guttural responses are pretty nasty. I don't think any culture has arrived anywhere worth bragging about, but the stuff i'm seeing ain't purty.

I love intentionality. Taking faith into culture in contrast to a whimsical hope that these two concepts will find intersection. The latter feels much more accidental and random like throwing darts. i find that when my tongue is active in prayer, i follow God in situations where i otherwise would just choose one of my instinctual emotions. in the aforementioned, i actually start doing things that have a lasting impact for the benefit of others and subsequently see sun rays of hope in the otherwise darkness.

i'm struggling to root my life on these words, cause i'm used to living comfortably in the popular tide of American Culture which has no use for them… but feel the tug boat of greater oceans pulling me into unchartered unorthodox waters of the Kingdom of God. in these places, there is no rote.

The parts of Latin America that have stayed small and focused really get into the soul. The cities can feel like a copy of a copy of westernization, with malls, billboards and consumerism. After flying over a shack town like parts of Manaqua you realize the effect of all our consumption options and one starts to wonder where the discipline of simplicity has gone, and question the effects of it's absence.