backstage...

Every week (almost) I sit here and try to think of what I should tell you... What might inspire and encourage and give you insight into my journey while helping you on your own... What view of the world do I have to offer today?

Most times it's not anything at the forefront of my life that comes to mind -- it's the backstage wonderings and ramblings that seem to emerge as most important. -- setting the stage for all other things that happen to me. What's behind it all? What's underneath, beyond the obvious and the superficial... What are the connections I'm not making, between the divine and the everyday?

My daily life at the moment, front and center, has become a random chain of happenings jumping from place to place. Worlds that used to be quite separate all blur into one. I find it surreal that I can sit here in a cafe in the middle of America, with a cup of coffee and my laptop and free wireless, and be connected to all of my worlds. There's my friend the aid worker fighting sweat and sand in the Sudan... my creative team working 7 time zones away in Switzerland... my colleague pondering his future from Germany... my Mom waiting for emails and spring in Alaska... I can chat with four countries at once, handle my job, organize my life and the people in it, all through an invisible electronic connection.

Behind it all... beyond my present wandering exile and multitasking life and future, there is something bigger at stake. My comfort, my privileges, my everyday happiness... All of that is playing out for the sake of a storyline far more important.

Sometimes I forget. How did I get here, again? Why are most of my worldly possessions across the sea in an empty bedroom and the rest of them in a suitcase? What is the reason I'm not pulling a paycheck or looking for homeowner's insurance? How did I get myself into this?

As I'm sitting here in ostentatious comfort in this oversized cafe chair, with everything I could possibly need and more, I remember... Somewhere in the world there is a girl who hasn't looked in a mirror for years because she can't stand to see her own face. Somewhere there is a boy who can't walk because he didn't get the right shot at the right age. Somewhere, a mother has stopped crying for her starving children because she has no more water for tears. Somewhere, another heart is breaking for being forgotten.

One of those somewheres is a country called Liberia. Right now, at this moment, there's a ship there full of people meeting a land full of need -- one person at a time. Their stories come to the surface, brought forward through the eyes and ears of living human connections...

They remind me that this is what I'm about. This is why I'm here and there and everywhere. This is what I'm working toward and what I'm called to.... To take people backstage. If only their faces could be seen and their stories told... surely the world could never forget.

Here's one look backstage...

:: "What we see depends mainly on what we look for..." - John Lubbock