India 2024 Reflections

Travel is such a time warp, and it was wild to get off of light rail this afternoon and not be greeted by auto rickshaws, cows, bicycles, motorbikes, and lots of horns. After I arrived home, I was grateful to see a few neighbors, catch up on some work, and share some stories over dinner with Jason.  And I have been grateful for time tonight to reflect a bit more on the trip to try to capture the essence of this past week.

As a way to reflect on my time in India this past week, I thought I would use the structure of Lectio that I used for morning devotions with the kids since that is so fresh in my mind from that daily practice.

I used the first three steps of this Lectio practice below to guide our times this past week (generally we did not have time to read it a 4^th time, so we just did the first 3 steps).

•       Preparation (Silencio)

•       Read 1st time (Lectio) – READ- Listen for a word or phrase that is addressed to you. What sparkles?

•       Read 2nd time and reflect (Meditatio)- MEDITATE- How does this speak to you? In what way do you hear an invitation from God through this reading? Ask God, “What do you want me to learn from this today?” Ask your heart, “Why this word, here and now?”

•       Read 3rd time and respond (Oratio)- PRAY- What is your response to God based on what you have heard?

•       Read 4th time and rest (Contemplatio)- CONTEMPLATE- Listen a fourth time and reflect on the passage once again.

•       Resolve (Incarnatio) – Incarnate (live out) the Word of God

So, tonight, I re-read all the posts and poured over the hundreds of pictures downloaded, and I responded to the first three prompts the best I could in my semi-groggy state from jetlag.  

READ (Lectio):

Thank you, God, for the things that sparkled in this past week…

Thank you for spices ground up daily which made for such incredible flavor and for something that tasted like love at every single meal around the Thota table.

Thank you for contagious joy in a room full of bubbles, and thank you for mothers who were crowned with glory and honor for an evening.

Thank you for Energizer Bunny reserves that showed up despite very little sleep, for throwback moments with kids and parents with old favorite pictures shared, and for early morning walks with cows, monkeys, goats, and chickens as companions.

Thank you for the honor of bearing witness to the stories I heard and the people I met- for their deep commitment, their incredible resilience, their grief over unspeakable loss, their delight in one another, and their fierce and abiding love.

Thank you for the ways that I saw my heart being broken yet softened by these stories.

Thank you for belly laughter and the comfort and security of family relationships.

Thank you for the reminder that we are made of more than us, that we belong to one another, and that the kingdom of God is a beautiful web of relationships.

Thank you for ways I saw your presence so clearly in my life and in the world around me, and thank you for anchoring and grounding me more in your love.

 

MEDITATE (Meditatio):

What’s the invitation?

The invitation this past week was all about paying attention to the stories shared with me and affirming the beauty I saw in their lives, in essence saying, “I see you. I hear you. I celebrate you.”

The invitation was (and will continue to be) to lean into relationships with the kids over the last 14 years in India (and 30 years in Kenya!) and to keep building on the richness of what is there.

The invitation is quite simply to keep asking the question, “What’s the invitation?”

 

PRAY (Oratio)

My response is one of gratitude and celebration for the sights and sounds and colors and stories from this ridiculously joyful week.

My response is to keep in step with the Spirit so that I won’t miss what is in store for this work as we try to do the next faithful thing in India and in Kenya continuing to support and love the students well.

 

This prayer that I pieced together for the beginning of the week is a good response to keep coming back to:

Turning to the day and to each other,
we open ourselves to the day and each other.
This is the day that the Lord has made
and a day we’ll make our way through.
Whether with ease or pain,
With energy or exhaustion,
with patience or anxiety,
with joy or sorrow,
with celebration or disappointment,
may we find opportunities for generosity
toward others and ourselves.
May we find moments of encounter
even in isolation.
May we always know that we are held in Your love, 
and may that love spill over into the people before us.
May we see others as You see them with deep delight,
and may we remember that we belong to each other.
May we begin again
where we have failed again.
Because this is a way of living
That’s worth living daily.
-adapted from Padraig O’Tuama’s Opening Prayer from Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love and from my Kenya post-trip prayer.