by Christine, CBF field personnel
مرنة
Marinay—it’s a word I’ve learned well in Arabic recently, it means flexible.
What does it mean to be flexible, to pivot and change directions when things don’t go as planned. What does it look like to let God lead. To trust that the Spirit will show us what is ours to do if we slow down long enough to listen to the still small voice, or to notice the fire of the Holy Spirit in our belly. What does bearing witness or being the presence of Christ mean from afar.
For now, it looks like opening your home to a family fleeing from the violence of war, to provide a place of refuge and rest. It looks like blankets and pillows and hot meals, medical care, baby formula, raincoats, a listening ear, respite for the caretakers.
It looks like hosting other displaced expats, turns out we all need places of refuge and rest sometimes.
It looks like sending money, equipping and empowering someone else to lead in your absence, encouraging them to find their place and voice instead of relying on mine.
It looks like learning to see anew the face of God in unexpected places, to sense the nudging of the Spirit in directions opposite the ones you thought you’d be walking.
It means starting over. Again. An invitation to experience God afresh if we’ll receive it as such.
It’s a reminder that we aren’t actually in control, as much as we might like to think we are. And a reminder that God does in fact know what we need, even better than we know ourselves. Can we learn to trust that?
It means remembering and reminding over and over again that wherever we go, wherever we find ourselves, regardless of how we got there, God is with us.