beautiful things <3

or those of you who know me, you know that one of my favorite things in the entire world is music. God just really speaks to me in the beauty of music and I often find peace and comfort in lyrics. The song “Beautiful Things” by Gungor has been really heavy on my heart throughout this ministry and I just wanted to share the words and how they have been working in my heart.

 

All this pain

I wonder if I’ll ever find my way

I wonder if my life could really change at all

 

These words are literally all over the bars here in Phuket. There is so much pain and so much darkness here. As we walk up and down the streets at night God has been telling me to look people in the eyes. At first I thought it was just a really strange request, but I’ve come to realize that God is giving me glimpses of the pain and brokenness in their eyes. They are so lost. These women and men are looking for something to fill a hole in their hearts. Something to stifle their feelings of inadequacy and give them value. I feel like so many of them are just stumbling around in the darkness searching for a way out but it seems just hopeless. I remember a few years ago doing the same thing, and I want so badly to tell every single one of those men and women that their lives can not only change, but that they can be transformed and new and whole and beautiful.

 

All this earth

Could all that is lost ever be found?

Could a garden come up from this ground, at all?

 

Bangla Road is I think the most lost place that I have ever seen. It is filled to the brim with darkness and every single time I see it I realize how far out of my reach it is…but God is reminding me every time I’m there that not only is it in His reach, it is in His hands. All the lost hearts and pain on that road is going to be taken care of because the battle is already won. When I hear this part of the song I close my eyes and literally picture flowers rising out of the ground on that road. These beautiful, bright, captivating flowers bursting through the darkness and I can’t help but smile because I know I serve a God that can make that happen.

 

You make beautiful things,

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

 

God is bringing life to this place… I love that. I love that He can make beauty rise from the ashes and take all of us undeserving people who are filled with all this worldly ugliness and make us so crazy beautiful. He brings us out of that darkness and pain and hurt and turns us into life-giving, hope-bringing, beautiful servants.

 

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos life is being found, in You

 

Chaos literally FILLS the streets here. It’s all over the place and it’s so easy to get overwhelmed by that. To feel inadequate. To lose hope. But hope is here, and we are the ones who have been chosen to bring it. All this chaos can’t hold my God down. He is changing lives and softening even the hardest of hearts in the midst of so much craziness. When I am walking down the street with my group and get to see someone stop to look at us because they can actually SEE the love of Christ in us, He is reminding me to remain hopeful. The enemy can’t ever take the hope away from this place, and believe me he does try. God is just revealing to me that we have to always remain hopeful, even in the darkest of darkness.

 

You make me new

You are making me new

You make me new

You are making me new

 

When I let Jesus become the person who leads my life I thought that I was all shiny and new, but God has just really been showing me that I will never be done being made new. He is constantly refining me and stretching me and growing me, and that fills me with such an inexpressible joy. While I know that I am not called to be in Thailand forever God is using this trip to make me new, to make me better, to prepare me for His marvelous and beautiful and perfect plans for my life. He is making these women and men new too, and I LOVE that I was chosen to be a part of it. This ministry is doing, and will continue to do beautiful things in Thailand.

 

So happy to share my heart with ya’ll and miss and love you so much!

 

Living in pursuit of Him,

Rach <3