As I reflect on our message today from our new church (of which my husband and I can now finally say has brought back a renewed excitement for “church” again), I meditate on this word, belief. Our pastor challenged us with, “Your beliefs are secondary to truth.” As I really let that set in, I come to a place where I completely and whole-heartedly, absolutely agree. And to further that thought, the next challenge came in the form of…our beliefs inform our behavior. How many of us can really say that our belief about who God is directly affects EVERYTHING about us…meaning what we choose as our occupation, to how we discipline our kids, to how we react when we question why we can’t have kids, to what we choose to do in our “free time,” to where we let our minds creep when we question why God would allow someone we love and prayed for to die, to how we respond when we are wronged, to how we react to that unexpected phone call of a broken-hearted friend…. to how we love our next door neighbor.
This brings my heart to Karama. I find that I continue to struggle putting Karama into words when new friends ask me to describe this sweet, new part of my life. (I think a lot of this will get easier when I finally get to go and experience this continent that I am constantly drawn towards.) But as I reflected this morning on my own personal belief of who God is, I found myself thankful that God chose me to play a small role in serving the precious women, men, and children of Africa. It renewed and confirmed my desire to help better the lives of our incredible artists by exposing people here in the States (most of which would otherwise buy similar products at Target) to the beautiful, handmade products that hold the story (and more importantly, the lives and souls behind the story). My belief that Jesus is everything that he claims to be (John 20:31) leaves me thankful that He is life and light for me…as well as for the sweet little woman in Ethiopia that dyed my Karama scarf that beautiful eggplant purple color.
So I move forward…wanting to do so much more than simply hosting a “Karama Party,” but knowing that this is a small step towards sharing the amazing story. Hopefully those women are now sharing the story too, and so on…. Thank you, Jesus, for Karama.
