I’ve slept at my mother’s house in El Salvador on a few visits since moving to Waukesha. On those occasions, I’ve had trouble falling asleep due to the heat, roosters crowing at 3 a.m., cats fighting over girlfriends on the roof of the house, and dogs barking almost all night. Things that didn’t bother me in the past now bother me when I stay at my mother’s house.
Our bodies adapt to new environments, and often returning to our previous surroundings presents some unsuspected challenges. At the end of May, I went to a meeting in El Salvador for a few days and slept at my mother’s house. My wife, as always, told me to be careful with what I eat and drink because my body was not like it used to be. I told her I would be fine.
It turns out my wife was right, and I became a little sick. I didn’t think I needed bottled water. Even my mom and sister told me not to drink too much tap water because it could make me sick, but I told them I would be fine. I was greatly surprised because I had never had this problem in all the trips I had made to my country. I thought my body could still handle it, but the reality is that my body now thinks Wisconsin water is normal and can no longer handle Salvadoran water.
Many of us have probably had similar experiences in our lives, in which our bodies react to environments that were once normal to us, but now they reject them as strange. This makes me reflect on the true change that occurs in our being when we truly follow the call that Jesus makes to all of us.
In order to follow Jesus, we need to be intentional about living in an environment that lifts up Christ-like values. And not just the friends and family we engage with, but the media we choose to follow. Computer-generated algorithms have become a frighteningly powerful tool of controlling our environments in many ways.
Following Jesus means that the things that were once normal and that damaged our being and our relationships with others are now strange and painful for us because we live under a new way of seeing life in Jesus. Injustice, lack of compassion, hatred, jealousy, resentment, persecution, war are and should be strange things for every true Christian. The Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
In a world struggling in the shadows of despair, division, and doubt, Christians are called to be a light that resonates with profound urgency wherever we stand. We are not called to exist passively, but to illuminate, guide, and bring hope to a world desperately in need of actively embracing and utilizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which empower us to manifest God’s character and love to those around us. God calls us to work to create an environment that lifts up these values, not just for ourselves, but for those that share our environment with us.
Brothers and sisters, as we continue to enjoy the beauty of summer in a struggling world, let us exercise the fruits of the spirit to create both an internal and external environment where hatred, war, division, jealousy, and resentment find little fertile ground to take root and flourish. Let us surround ourselves with these.
Pastor Edwin