Awhile back I was driving home from Juarez. On the car in front of me was a sticker that I am sure you have seen. It has become one that I see on quite a regular basis. It is the little boy Calvin from the famous comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. I remember when I was a boy sitting around the breakfast table waiting for my parents to finish with that particular section of the morning paper so that I could read the comics. Calvin was one of my favorites. I cringe now when I see him on the back of someone’s car, for what started out as someone’s clever way to state their loyalty to one car company or another has become a way to put down anything or anyone that causes us pain. By now I’m sure you have seen the mischievous little boy standing with his back to you looking over his shoulder while he urinates on something we are to assume the driver of the car does not like. On the car in front of me this particular day he was urinating on the words EX-WIFE. My heart sank as I read the words. I couldn’t understand how someone could come to hate someone that they used to love with such venom as to post it for all to see. As a sat there I realized that this is all too common a thing for us. You see I really don’t think he hates his Ex-wife I think he hate the pain he feels because of the relationship that they failed to hold together. We all hate pain. I don’t know anyone who truly likes it. I remember the pain that I felt when my high school sweetheart of three years broke up with me. I can’t say I felt much different than then the person sitting in that car in front of me, and looking back now I wish I had handled it better then I did. I don’t like pain anymore then the next person, But I have learned that if we let it pain can make us grow.
I guess that is why it love the work I do with Amor so much. When you really take a close look at one of our mission trips you realize it is full of pain. You are out side in the elements, the hot beating sun, the wind blown sand, some rain now and again, and on the rare occasion snow. You work all day to come back to camp only to find that you have to set up your tents because the wind has knocked them down. Someone one your team is going to hit themselves with a hammer sometimes repeatedly. You can bet the more then a few will have bad sunburns. You have to use an outhouse that you can’t stand to breathe in. Flat tires, broken down vans, cuts, scrapes, aches and pain it all goes hand in hand with one of our trips.
So why would over 25,000 people choose to put themselves through this every year. Why aren’t they running from the pain? Why don’t you see Calvin urinating on Amor’s name, or any other mission trip organization? Maybe it is because with Jesus we grow through our pain. Jesus endured an excruciating amount of pain to show his love for you and me. These groups endure a small amount of pain to show their love for Jesus and their fellow man. When we start to realize that we are not the ones that matter but instead we serve the one the matters. Pain is just a side effect, a passing event that will be replaced with joy. At the end of nearly every trip I see smiles on faces, on the families that receive and the groups that give. I have yet to see any amount of pain ever take that away.
