Alice in Colombia

For those of you who don't know, I just got back from a week in Colombia. 

Why did I go to Colombia? 

I have no idea. 

God told me to go, so I went. With just a simple promise that "I have something to show you." 

And show me he did. 

Hiking in Guatapé, Colombia. Incredibly beautiful.

It's really amazing the way God shows up when you let him. 

While I was in Spain, God started teaching me a lot about dropping everything and just going, whenever and wherever he called me to go. So, Colombia only took me a few days to determine that it really was his voice I was hearing. And only a few hours after that certainty hit me, I had a plane ticket purchased.

The "pre-photo" before we took the real photo we were trying for: a picture of Love Does in Colombia!

God did something big. I'm still not even sure what it is that he is teaching me, but it is big. And awesome. I can feel it. Because he called me to Colombia, with no agenda, no plans, no expectations. Cy asked me a few times what my plan was, what I wanted to do. And my answer was always the same, "I have no idea." 

I didn't care. I wasn't there to see anything, I had nothing I wanted to check off my list. I didn't even know anything about Colombia other than that they use pesos. We could have sat in the apartment all day, and I would have been totally content. (Though I'm glad we didn't, because I met so many wonderful people and saw some really incredible places.) Because my purpose was not to see a place, to have an experience, or to do anything. My purpose was simply Jesus, and Jesus showed up in spades.

Chacos in a beautiful place. Always. 

That's the thing. I didn't realize God had been teaching me this, but for the last year or so he has been teaching me to quit having an agenda. Quit having a plan. And now not only am I not trying to have one, I just don't. It's not in my mindset to have one. It's quit being a habit, quit being a way of life. Because I have seen God come through in some incredible ways, and I have seen what happens when you pick up and go when he says, "Follow me."

Who wouldn't want to go to Colombia?

True faith changes everything about you. God is bigger and better than we realize. And he wants to use us in incredible ways. We just have to be willing to say "yes." I am only truly beginning to understand what God taught me this week, but I can tell that it was something truly amazing. A subtle shift that has moved the whole mountain. All because God has mercifully taught me over the last year (and all over the world) that faith doesn't bind you, it sets you free. 

Free to drop everything and leave the country for a week. To have no agenda, no plan, no expectations, and end up seeing more God than my agenda ever showed me before. Free to spend a week being more encouraged by a dear friend than I had any right to be, and to be blessed by complete strangers that I am now so proud to call friends. 

God is constantly speaking. What would it do to your life if you stopped looking for reasons to say, "no," and instead looked for reasons to say, "yes?"

If you're like me, you'll find yourself in Colombia. But whatever it looks like, it'll be amazing. And you'll encounter a bigger God than you've ever known. 

The question is, will you say yes?