While I’m being cliche, let me add that I’m happy for families. I have a pretty great family. They taught me to love Jesus, care about lost people and love learning. My family’s not perfect, but I when I look at the struggles of others and the benefits I’ve received, I can’t imagine being raised anywhere else.
In my experience, Jesus never spoke truer words than these:
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.”
Though I never set out to leave my family, I have been doing my best to follow God’s leading, first to college in Arkansas, then internship in Georgia, and now various opportunities to serve him in Texas. In my travels, I’ve found homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields and persecutions.
I started singing with some guys in High School, spending weekends staying up all night practicing and playing Goldeneye, and their families took me in. One day in college I looked around at the people I spent every single day in choir with, and it suddenly occurred to me that I could stop trying to be cool and make friends, because, when I wasn’t looking, these people had become my family. I remember I started making Facebook friends, and one young lady marked me as “family.” I can’t tell you how many couches I’ve surfed or floors I’ve called a bed.
There’s one guy who calls me almost every week, and we laugh and rant and hold each other accountable. There’s a few others that go out of their way regularly to check on me from across the country. There are families who have let me share their holidays with them. Then there are small groups from churches, with whom I’ve eaten, watched my favorite TV shows, cried when I’m broken hearted, and played hours of telephone pictionary.
And although I haven’t experienced anything like the persecution of my brothers and sisters in India and elsewhere, it hasn’t been easy. But I know for a fact that my family, or any of the others I’ve obtained while chasing the dreams God has given me, have been there and will be there when those persecutions arise. And for that, I’m thankful.
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