Hosanna

Hosanna.  Anybody reading this is likely to have heard this song. It's a great one to be sure, written beautifully, poetically describing God's glory and power to save. But until we sang it today, in Spanish, I had never quite captured its true meaning.

To me this song had always simply been a song of praise. It's a guaranteed tear-jerker, always a heart-mover, and overall a great song to throw in after an especially convicting sermon.  The explanation of the song has always been simple enough: We sing words like "Hosanna" because that's what people shouted to Jesus as he entered Jerusalem. We're just lifting Him up in the same way. We can see in Matthew 21:9 how the people hailed Jesus,

"Hosanna to the Son of David!" 

     "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"  

          "Hosanna in the highest!"

We all know what Hosanna really means.  Or at least we think we do. Your Bible will tell you that "Hosanna" was a Hebrew word that meant "Save" and that it later became an exclamation of praise. So we could say that what these people are actually shouting is, "Praise you Son of David!"; "Praise you Messiah!"; "Save!"
(By the word "Save", they were actually acknowledging Jesus's power to save, effectively acknowledging Him as the Christ or Messiah.)

As we sing the song, we echo the very words of those Jews on that famous day. "We praise you, God!"; "Save!"; "Glory in the Highest!"  In every chorus, that is what we sing, and this sentiment, that God is worthy of praise and mighty to save, is central to its message.

However, as we sang this song today, my attention was drawn to the bridge, and as I listened, the true meaning behind what we were declaring suddenly became very clear to me. I like the Spanish better than the English version of this song, because in it all the poetic qualities of the original are diminished, and we are left to see the very heart of what we're singing.

"Heal me," it says. "Clean me. I want to see Your works with my eyes. I want to love You just like You love me."  

It was like a smack in the face: Heal me? Clean me?  This person is broken! This person is dirty! They struggle to see God in their lives, and they can never love God as much as He deserves, no matter how much they try! They don't have it all together! They're not even close! That person is...well, that person is me.

And I cried. I cried not because of how dirty I think I must look in God's eyes, but I cried because of the person's reaction: They recognize that they are filthy and broken, and yet what is their response?

"Hosanna!"


When I heard these words, I had to cry. My tears were tears of love and tears of joy, because I realized that the debt is paid, and all that matters now is "Hossana, God! Hosanna!" 


When I'm dirty, God, "Hosanna!"; When I least deserve you, God, "Hosanna!"; When I fail to recognize your greatness, God, "Hosanna!"

"Hosanna."

It's all that matters. In your life, in every moment, even in the moments that we feel so bogged down by sin that it seems God by all reasonable standards should not keep His promises to us because we are a lost cause, God has already made us holy. God has already made us worthy to stand in His presence, because it is no longer our sinful selves who stand before Him, but his own sons and daughters, made pure and counted sinless by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so now, having already freely received the most costly gift while we could not pay for it, the only thing we can possibly give back is a life of praise to the One and Only One Who is Worthy of it.

"Hosanna."

Fearing God's Ways...Literally

"God, please help me to make the right decisions."; "God, please let me know what you want me to do."; "God, please help me choose the right path for my future."; "God, let whatever I do be in accordance with your plan."

Have you ever prayed a prayer that at least somewhat resembled one of these? If you were raised in a Christian home, then from the time you were two you probably prayed something like, "God, pwease hewop me to do good."

If you've ever been caught in a situation where you just don't know, or if you're like me and you've caught yourself thinking about what in the world your going to do with your life, then you've probably prayed something like, "God, Give me a sign" or "God, just let me know..."  

I think we've all asked God for guidance at some point in our lives, whether it's because we've hit rock-bottom or because we honestly have no idea what to do! And that's great! We should always seek to make God's priorities our priorities in our lives.

Lately, I've been freaking out about how I'm starting my last year of high-school, and will soon be going off to college!  That idea seemed so simple just a couple months ago. "I'm just gonna' graduate and go to college! No more. No less."  Now it's more like, "Dude, this is that last year I'll be with my family..." and reality is starting to sink in as I realize that, after this year, I'm going to be living my own life, making my own decisions; and in a way, that's flipping scary.

It's not all bad, though. I also think about all the stupid things I'll do with my friends at four in the morning. I fantasize about getting my band together and jamming whenever we find time, buying that drum set that I want so bad, having a job again. I even look forward to things like serving in the Youth Group at church, as a sponsor this time, working together with awesome people like Chad Monahan, or helping out with the worship team, making music to my heart's content.

Maybe these thoughts seem a little premature. After all, I still have a year of school ahead of me. But of all the years, I know that this one will fly by faster than I can say "Smitty Werbenmanjenson."

When I think about how quickly college will descend upon me, two feelings overtake me. The first is that I desperately want to not let the future distract me from the now. The second is that I could do what God wants with my life.

No, let me rephrase that. The second is that I really don't want to do the wrong thing with my life. I'll often think about the things I'd love to do with my life, then only to find myself thinking, "But what if that's not what God wants for my life?"; "What if God has something else in mind?".

Now this especially goes out to other teenagers, but have you ever felt the same "fear" to go down God's path? I always reassure myself immediately, "Yeah, but if it's God's plan then it'll be what's best. And I'll probably really like it!" This is true, but do I really believe that? After all, if I truly trusted God, would I feel any doubt about following His plan? Would I even be worrying about tomorrow? Jesus Christ, God of the Universe incarnate, even takes His time to tell us not to worry about what will happen tomorrow. And yet I, being human, always manage to find ways to do just that. And yet, don't I trust Him?

Let me quickly show you what I had written as my next paragraph. In an attempt to analyze my irrational fear I wrote,

It's not that I'm scared to please God. If anything, I'm scared of the consequences of not following Him with my life. I'm not scared that it won't be "fun", or that He'll make me do what I hate most. Rather, it's that constant "what if?" that keeps...

And then it hit me like a wall of bricks. That "what if" reads, "What if it's not fun?"; "What if I have to do what I hate most?"; "What if I really don't want to do the thing God calls me to?" 

That "what if" is the image of the very fear I was so quick to denounce.

And so it is that I find myself in a conundrum of trust: "I really want to serve God with my life, and I say that I trust Him...but what if?" It seems that no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to overcome that tiny little little voice in the back of my mind saying, "Yeah, but what if?"

You see, in a situation where I have no idea what to do, my first reaction after worrying is to say, "God, please remedy this situation," or "God, please show me exactly what you have in mind so that I can do what you want." 

But what if what God is saying is not, "I want you to do this," but rather, "I want to do this in your life. Trust me." What if in all my worrying and wondering "what if?", I have actually missed the point of it all, that God simply wants me to trust Him? 


I think that in all of life's worries, it is much to easy to take the emphasis off of God, off of His unending grace, His undying love, His undeserved affection, and instead place it on ourselves. Let me explain.

God says, "I want to do this, and you're just going to have to trust me." but we say, "Okay then, what can I do?"; "Give me something I can do, God. I don't want to just trust you, I want to have some sense of control over the matter.  I promise to do whatever you say, but I want to do it. Just tell me."  And while we should definitely ask God what He wants us to do, there are times when all He is asking us to do is to trust Him, and sometimes that's not enough for us.  We are creatures of worry, and we do not easily put our trust in someone else!

Instead of trusting in His plan, I ask Him to reveal it all so I don't have to feel uneasy. Instead of asking God to do simply what He wants in my life, I have to ask Him what it is that He wants me to do. And the answer the whole time is simply, Trust Me.  Do you get it?  Trust Me.  


Trust God, and all the conundrums disappear. Trust God, and I won't have to see His whole plan in order to follow Him. Trust God, and I will be free not to worry about the future.  Trust God, and I will be able to serve Him fully in the now. Trust God, and I can ask God to do what He wants with my life.

For those of you out there who are like me and have trouble trusting God with our lives, God has some words for you in His message to us. Perhaps among the most well-known is Jeremiah 29:11,

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

And for those of us that still have no idea how in the world it is that we begin to trust God (This is me all the way!), the very next verse is especially appropriate! (Jeremiah 29:12-13)

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 

It's as if God knew exactly what we'd ask when asked to trust Him. If we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him. The next verse says, "I will be found by you." And whatever God promises, we can be sure He will fulfill it. In Numbers 23 we read (v.19),

God is not human, that he should lie,
 not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
   Does he promise and not fulfill? 

God has never, in all of eternity, ever, ever, ever, not done what He promised. And He promises to see us through, and not only that, but to prosper us, if only we would trust Him.  So instead of worrying about what I'm going to do with my life, I think I'm going to trust that He already knows what He's going to do with it. In fact, it's all already planned out. I know. I know because He's told me so.

The Island Life

Costa Rica. A green, luscious paradise. The name is often homologous in our minds with words like rainforest, beaches, paradise, exotic, beauty, and island. And with good reason. We certainly have some of the most beautiful cloud-forests that can be seen anywhere (which are different from [and colder than] rain forests, by the way!), our beaches are second-to-none, and—well, okay, you might find better beaches along some uninhabited coastline in some undiscovered reach of the ocean, but I think you'd still find ours to be pretty good!

By all means, Costa Rica is a tropical paradise in every way. But if your list of things that come to mind matches the one I wrote above, I'll slap ya 'cross the face!

Please, let it be known to all and shouted from the rooftops: Costa Rica is NOT an island!!!

One of the most common questions I get when people ask me about Costa Rica is, "What's it like living on an island?!"  To these people I like to say, "I don't know! You should totally ask someone who lives on one!"

Now, to be fair, this is an honest and common mistake. Another common misconception ( and yes, I've had people ask me this as well) is that we are part of the USA. That is, that though we're not officially a state, we are a US territory. This is also false and further supports the conclusion that many of us in Costa Rica have effectively come to: People think that we live in Puerto Rico.  Now, this at least makes a little sense. Puerto Rico is indeed an island nation, and it is also a US territory, meaning its people can vote and be involved in US politics. We can even do a phonetic breakdown of the two names and find that they are indeed quite similar. However, they are not the same. They never were, and they never will be. Costa Rica is not an island!

I can see that some of you are still scratching your heads.  "Huh'?", you're saying, "But how...I thought...island...", yadayadayadayada.  "Green. Oceans. Landlocked... Does not compute."; "How can a place be so jungle-ey and not be an island? It's like on Madagascar..."  All these things and more you are asking yourselves! And so allow me now to broaden your minds and further clarify your doubts.

*Clears throat*

In order to clarify and erase any further doubts concerning the possible island nature of the Republic of Costa Rica and its relation, if any, to the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, a step-by-step analysis will be carried out concerning both of the items in question, with the understanding that, should the results yield contrary to the reader's understanding, the reader will blindly change his understanding so that it is in accordance with the results of said analyses.

Okay, with that done, let's look at the definition of an island:

island: a freestanding kitchen cupboard unit with a countertop, allowing access from all—Wait a second. Sorry, that's not right. Ah, here we go:   

island: a land mass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water.

In the following photo I have clearly marked both Costa Rica and Puerto Rico on the map.

Keeping in mind our definition of an island, let us observe Costa Rica. It is certainly a land mass, and we can see that it is indeed a great deal smaller than a continent! Let's take a closer look at the picture.  Notice how Costa Rica is bordered on two sides by the nations of Nicaragua and Panama, while only the other two are bordered by water! What is this?! It seems that we cannot by reasonable standards call Costa Rica an island.

Let us now go to Puerto Rico: We notice that Puer-to has two syllables, much like Cos-ta, and that in the same way Ri-co and Ri-ca are identical save their last letters. However, any notion that they are the same nation can be dismissed on the premise of their distinct geographical locations. In fact, if you look at Puerto Rico, you will notice that it is not bordered by Nicaragua or Panama. What's more, upon further investigation, you will find that it is not bordered by any country, but is surrounded by water on all sides! And since Puerto Rico is smaller than a continent, we can confidently say that Puerto Rico is an island!

No more need be said on the subject. We have successfully come to the very conclusion that we set out to prove. Reviewing our points we find:

1. Costa rica is not an island.
2. Puerto Rico and Costa Rica are not the same.

VOILA! It is my hope that this post has clarified beyond a shadow of a doubt any misconceptions you may have had about my island life. 

Whelp, I'm Posting. And I'm in Costa Rica.

I'm sitting in my room, listening to K-Love on the speaker set that I had forgotten about, given to me two Christmases ago after a pair of wireless headphones failed to deliver.  My feet are cold, but that's only because I'm wearing flip-flops, something I never used to wear before and only wear now as a matter of convenience, quicker than sneakers and cooler than slippers. Below them is the floor, of course, but unlike the tile in the rest of my house, it's made of wood. It marks the upstairs master bedroom of our new house here in San José, Costa Rica, the beautiful, green country that's been home for the last seven years. Rain is pattering on the corrugated plastic roof that is so very typical of houses down here. Perhaps more typical than the citizens' particular preference in roofing is the rain they're designed to keep out. It rains seven months out of the year here, and then some. You wanna' talk rain-clouds? You haven't seen one until you've seen a Costa Rican October sky.  No, no, not that kid with the rockets, I mean RAIN.  I think if the sky literally let loose a bombardment of cats and dogs onto the unsuspecting city, it would still be quieter than a typical Costa Rican downpour. The thin roofs don't help, leaving you better off to learn some basic sign-language than to try and verbally communicate with one another during a good drizzle.

Could we afford a little less rain? Yes, I suppose we could, but then everything might not be so green. Green. That was my first thought as I entered the country. Costa Rica is to Green as Kansas is to Wheat. It dominates all. Life is everywhere. It covers the mountains make up most of our horizon. It's estimated that Costa Rica has over 9,000 individual vascular plant species. I'd be curious to know what they call the one where they just shove a lifeless stick into the ground and let it sprout and grow into a tree. (We observed this behavior once on a treeless boulevard and had to laugh out loud! They're now full-blown trees.)

We live in the Central Valley, along with about 4 million other people that populate San José. Mountains surround us on all sides, so vision is always limited to a couple miles at most. Just as lively as the 9,000 plants are the people here. The lifestyle is so laid-back it would make you think you were in the United States 50 years ago. In fact, it's been noted that in many ways Costa Rica is almost like a time capsule, with modern technology side-by-side with old-fashioned cultural characteristics. Ticos is what they affectionately call themselves. The name comes from a diminutive they like to put on words. Whereas a foreigner might call a kitten a "gatito", Costa Ricans might call it a "gatico" instead, hence their nickname. (It's a fitting name, as Costa Ricans do not tend to be people of great stature.)

As I wake up in the morning, the sunshine streams through my window. It's an early sunrise here, usually around 5:30. I'll open my blinds and look out at the beautiful mountains all around. To the extreme right of my view is one they call La Carpintera (meaning carpenter), supposedly named after an old woman who use to live up there in a cabin. Straight ahead and a little to the left is one of the tallest mountains surrounding the Central Valley, actually a volcano, named Irazú. On a cloudless day I can see all sorts of radio antennas sticking up from the peak, taking advantage of it's height, but it's more often than not covered in a thick cloud layer. As I look out over the houses, they're stuck together, sharing walls. Someone said to me once (and if you're reading this, I'm quoting you, big guy), "Whoa, those aren't like, shops?!...Looks like a mall!" No, they're not shops. Just my subdivision! 

You know, I love this country.  I love everything about living here.  The laid-back lifestyle, the people, the green, the weather (It likes to hover in the "feel-good zone" there in the low 70s), the language (No, we don't speak Mexican. That's called Spanish.), all of it!  When I'm here it's so easy to see creation and blessings all around. I live just a couple hours from world-destination beaches, rain forests, hot-springs, volcanoes, and that's just the start! When I think about what my life would be like had I never come to Costa Rica, the result is flat-out boring in comparison! I've seen more in 17 years than most people will in their entire lives! One inevitably gets homesick now and then, and that's part of re-adjusting to a foreign culture. However, when I look around at the things around me, think all the things I've seen, all the people I know because I live in Costa Rica, every melancholy feeling can be replaced with a blessing from around me! So I don't give in to those feelings, because Costa Rica is awesome, and I truly love it here. :o)

I love my life.  And I'm glad that I am a missionary kid in San José, Costa Rica.


Here I've decided to include a couple amateur pictures, for the benefit of the reader. ;)

 The view from my window, looking to the left on a very cloudy day. This mountain actually looks pretty huge in real life. (I know. I just went up to my window and checked. It's enormous.) Just to the right and slightly overlapping this little guy would be Irazú, the volcano I mentioned. (Worry not. It's dormant.)

The wood floors of my empty room. You know, for illustration's sake.