I have flea bites.

Back to the "new humanity"...
Relationship is integral to ushering in the kingdom of heaven. One-on-one attention, face time, touch. And this both thrills and terrifies me.
I fear contamination. I don't want to get lice. I don't want to get dirty. I want to be cute and clean and comfortable. So God is calling me out of that, away from what I know and like and into the mess -- the mess of slums and brothels and stench and loveless families -- to meet with him.
I like the idea of it, but the reality is distasteful.
And why, for me, is it necessary to go so far and into such technicolor chaos in order to wrestle and learn? For some, having relationships with intellectuals, the Harvard professor-types, is their ministry. That's clean. That's comfortable, and you can even look cute (although after all-night conversations over countless cups of coffee you will eventually smell a bit, look a little rough, and need a shower and some sleep). (please know that I do not think any less of those called to this area. I'm merely lamenting the fact that I don't have a similarly lice-free, dirty diaper-free people group to work with.)
I feel drawn to kids who come up and ask me questions point-blank and who want some attention and who often want to play... and it goes so much deeper than that, in fact much deeper than I can imagine as of yet, but this is an entry-point. I don't feel on-guard with them. We make friends easily. And I love them easily, and I hurt for them and desire good for them. And the scruffy ones on the street in Latin America, the ones who have come up asking for money, the ones who are men and women in the bodies of children because they have seen, heard, felt too much pain and ugliness, the ones who squeeze themselves around me on the bench: for those, I dream restoration! I dream the freedom to play, to trust, to rest in the assurance of love and that a grown-up is going to take care of it! I dream for them what I was blessed enough to have: a childhood.
That they may grow up and offer the same gift to their children, and grandchildren. That through God's grace and my willing hands and heart (alongside many others) he can rebuild families that for generations have been broken, downtrodden, empty of hope. That a light will pierce through the darkness, a light which the darkness cannot comprehend (neither understand nor stamp out). And what is the mode of bringing this light? "The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14)
Face-to-face. Here I go, both now in Greensboro and next year in Bogotá.