{"id":910,"date":"2010-12-04T14:06:54","date_gmt":"2010-12-04T21:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/?p=910"},"modified":"2010-12-04T14:06:54","modified_gmt":"2010-12-04T21:06:54","slug":"what-its-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/what-its-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What It’s Like"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Jon Post<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I asked Javan today what he thinks of our lives here in Maputo. I am always little anxious to hear thoughts and get reactions to how my wife and I live our lives. Maybe there\u2019s something in me looking for the validation that we\u2019re doing something right. Maybe there\u2019s something in me looking for a fellow American to tell me that life is pretty challenging here and all the effort I put into just living<\/em> is worth it.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s all a reflection in my heart of a deeper desire.<\/p>\n

Maybe\u2026 I just want to rest a weary head on my Father\u2019s shoulder and here a soft \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant. Come and share your Master\u2019s happiness!\u201d (Matthew 25:23). I really, really want to share my Master\u2019s happiness.<\/p>\n

Javan got the opportunity to share from the Bible at a men\u2019s Bible study that I lead on a weekly basis at the hospital with some men who live there as patients. He spoke of perfect and complete joy. I think that scene in Matthew, where the Master says \u201cWell done, come and share in my happiness\u201d is one that describes what I think perfect and complete joy is.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n

I see so much that is broken and incomplete all around me. I see a broken joy in the patient Jonathan at the hospital (he and I smiled and spoke at length at how happy we were to share a name), whose tumor above his right shoulder looms over him like a death sentence. I see incomplete joy in David, a soft-spoken man whose chemo-therapy treatments sap every bit of strength he has, to where his shell of a body simply breathes and waits for it to pass.<\/p>\n

Maybe Jonathan, David and countless others here and scattered throughout the world are all just waiting for that moment.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re waiting for our Master to invite us to share in His happiness.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n

So Javan, try as he might to share what he sees in our lives here in Maputo, didn\u2019t fulfill that longing in me. That longing that I have for the Master to smile\u2026 look into my eyes and say\u2026 \u201cWell done. Come and share my happiness!\u201d<\/p>\n

Perfect\u2026 Complete\u2026 Joy<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Jon Post I asked Javan today what he thinks of our lives here in Maputo. I am always little anxious to hear thoughts and get reactions to how my wife and I live our lives. Maybe there\u2019s something in me looking for the validation that we\u2019re doing something right. Maybe there\u2019s something in me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":912,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}