The hardest thing in the world

You know if something’s valuable by whether you’re willing to move everything around to make space for it. 

The day Julie moved in we hauled furniture up and down the stairs. We rearranged and rearranged and rearranged the tiny bedroom she now calls home.

She’s worth it, of course!

But it was also worth moving furniture around for this tiny new item weighing less than a pound.

It was a Christmas gift, a long cylindrical package, and it had the kids crouched around in curiosity. What is it?! 

Jeff and I smiled at each other, knowing.

We pulled off the wrapping and slowly unrolled, and there it was …

The world.

The kids were thrilled. We are all map-lovers and quickly began scheming furniture rearrangements in order to make wall space for this new view of the world.

The really big map already hung downstairs, in the hall (SEE HERE). This new one found a home up in the learning loft, at a height easily accessible to little eyes and tiny pointing fingers finding new frontiers. It took a lot of rearranging and we had to get rid of some less important items, but it was worth it.

Why?

Because of the world outside these walls. 

Because the hardest thing in the world is to make myself care about just that–the world outside these walls.

Because I know myself and every human heart and our bent toward all things Me. And life in my middle-class American bubble can lull me to spiritual sleep and I need a daily reminder: There’s a whole world out there that God loves. And surely loving others is not so easy to hanging a map on the wall, but we do not naturally think of other cultures, other countries, other places a world away from us that need the same good news, the same love, the same hope, the same truth.

The same Jesus.

And so the same way that I love having Julie live here because she daily reminds us of a way different world than the one we’ve ever known, I love living with maps on the walls because it daily reminds me that there is so much life outside those walls and I can chill out about the insignificant irritations and petty things that plague me and I get the daily view I need so desperately:

Life outside myself.

The hardest thing in the world is to live outside ourselves. Beyond ourselves. But what about protecting our children? Yes, absolutely! Let’s protect our children from the greatest dangers–the familiars: Sin and selfishness and our heart’s natural tendency to curve in on itself a thousand ways each day.

So, do maps on the wall cure selfishness? Of course not. But our children (and us!) are shaped most by what we continually put in front of their eyes, so perhaps we can pick the marginalized instead of the movie stars, the downcast instead of the Disney channel, the poor instead of the popular. Not in a guilt-mongering, finger-wagging way, in a joyful upside-down kingdom way. Because joy comes from living outside ourselves.

And I want that joy.

{And so, in step with this, I will be returning to regular posts (1x/week) about the beautiful lives of those impacted by Gospel for Asia and World Vision. For the sake of turning our hearts continually outward, to the world God loves. I pray you’re having a blessed week. Thanks for reading.}