It's Not The End, It Is The Beginning

Yesterday, the world lost a very special person. Miss Kelsi Little left this world and joined the angels up in heaven. Her life may have been short, but she lived it well. Being brutally attacked by cancer is never an easy thing to go through, but Kelsi fought like hell and truly left her mark on many people. God was able to show her just how widely and deeply she was loved in a way only he could have planned perfectly on just the right day. Without knowing when Kelsi's last day might be, many of her friends and former students put together a small gathering to celebrate Kelsi's life and to tell the many memories they had made with Kelsi. They called it "Kelsi Little Day" and what more appropriate of a title could that have been for her last day here on earth. The loss of Kelsi is not easy to comprehend to anyone who was touched by her life but Kelsi did what she needed to do here on earth so that she could be in her eternal resting place in heaven. Losing the life of such a sweet, encouraging person brought me to thinking just how precious life is and how quickly is can be taken away from us. We like to think of death as the end. A scary, sad reality that our time here on earth is over and we will never return. Bur death is only the beginning. We are simply living on earth, our temporary home, anxiously desiring our true home; heaven. It is hard for us to accept this reality though. We view death as a sad and heartbreaking thing when really it is something to rejoice over because a loved one if finally going home. It is hard for us to look at the world the same after someone we love so deeply isn't in it anymore. But this isn't our home. Earth is not where we belong, we belong to something so much greater. Somewhere so much more divine and eternal; heaven. We exist on earth only for a short period of time for a purpose. We are here to love people and to make forever friends and we try the best we can to make something of ourselves and this one shot at life we have been given. But we have to continually remind ourselves that death is not the end, it is the beginning. The beginning to something beautiful and everlasting. God has a plan for each of us and as cliche as it sounds, it is true. God knows what we are going to accomplish with our one life, he knows the children of his that we are going to grow to love, and he knows the number of days each of us have on our temporary home. The amount of time God gives us may seem short, like in Kelsi's case, but I have come to realize that it is not the number of days we have in our lives, it is the amount of living we do in each of our numbered days that matters. Each one of us, as God's children, have a different mission to accomplish within our numbered days. We are all called to a life of loving unconditionally and furthering God's kingdom. We shouldn't fear death, we should welcome it with open arms as a new rebirth to something bigger than any of us could ever imagine. When my time comes, I don't want people to be sad that I am gone, rather I want my life and the things I did to be celebrated. I want my loved ones to rejoice in the fact that I am finally where my heart belongs. I want there to be a "Reya Martinez Day" and for people to celebrate about the life I lived. None of us know when our own time will come to depart this temporary home for our eternal home which is why we have to continually thank God for the people we love and for the chance to see another day. We are only given one life but if we live it right, one life is all we need.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

 This quote by Oscar Wilde couldn't be more true. We tend to think only about the end and all the things that go along with it. We get so wrapped up in the idea that once life is over here, its over. But life starts when we get to heaven. What we have here on earth is all temporary, but God wanted us to have the chance to make something of ourselves and leave something for the world. We can't let our life go on before our eyes merely thinking about the end, rather we must truly live our life and not take for granted our years on this earth. We must always be pursuing a greater purpose and always striving towards our true home. Heaven.

 

The World Race Gap Year

I'm excited to say I think I am starting to see the future God has called me to. The past couple of months, and really a large portion of my life, I have felt the call to serve others and to be Christ to others. I've always had a deep love for people and a desire to be able to meet their every need. I've always known I wanted to do mission work some time in my life but I wasn't really sure when I would. I had always thought that I would live the typical life, go to college, meet my husband, get a job and have kids and somewhere I would fit in time for mission work. I never would have thought that God may be calling me to take a year in between to do his work instead of going to college straight after graduation. The idea seemed crazy to me at first, and I figured it would probably sound even crazier to my parents who have always taught me how important my education was. So when I brought up the idea, it was safe to say I was completely shocked by their response: that sounds like a great idea. I think that would be a really amazing opportunity for you Reya. The call seemed to be coming so loudly ever since the first idea popped into my head and I was thrilled but fear crept in occasionally. My mind was overwhelmed with thoughts of leaving home for a year and traveling the world to do the mission work I'd always wanted to do.

So I began the search. I would be on the computer for hours on end trying to find a gap year program that could satisfy the desires that had been placed upon my heart a long time before. The search continued and it seemed like I was never going to be able to find a program that I was either eligible for, or one that I actually wanted to go on. I was starting to lose hope and just figured that maybe I would just go to college like everybody else and leave the silly thought behind. I started college applications and all the stress of it seemed to be taking over my life and oddly enough the only thing that could make me stop worrying was thinking of mission work and helping people. God was placing these thoughts on my heart because he was calling ME. He was continually trying to make me realize that I'm not made for an ordinary life but I refused to listen. Somehow, God always brought me back to that thought and I knew I couldn't just continue to ignore it and try and make my own path for myself.

So i began the search again, but this time with a new mindset. I decided I would let God show me where he wanted me to be, not where I wanted myself to be. My sweet friend Delaney and I decided one day in the summer that we would make a day out of it and go to morning mass together then head to barnes & Nobles to research different gap year programs. I knew it the minute I watched the video and read the description that I had found where my heart belongs. The World Race Gap Year. A nine month mission trip spending three months in Central America, three months in Southeast Asia, and three months in Africa. Days would be spent visiting orphanages, doing construction work, teaching and tutoring children, door-to-door evangelization and many other things. Every day bringing a new surprise and way to learn to love all of God's children.

From that moment on, I knew I had to go. I just felt the call so strongly that this was the program God wants for me and the people I will touch are the ones that God wants me to help. Everything seemed to be falling together. An amazing program, the most supportive parents I could have ever asked for, and the opportunity of a lifetime. Since that day, there hasn't been a day that goes by where I don't think of the opportunity God has placed in my life. I pray every day that I can have the courage and the faith to be bold and to live a radical life for the sake of spreading the kingdom of the God I love so deeply. Every time I picture a child in need, I know I must go. I believe God has called me by name to see the pain of the world in a unique way and want to do something about it with the gifts he has given me. Nothing brings me a greater joy than thinking about the possible life God has planned for me after this year. I'm so thankful that I serve a God who is so much greater than all the hurt in the world and wants to use me, an inexperienced, adopted child of his and use me to accomplish great things on this earth. Every time I tell someone my future plans to take a gap year and then go to college I get a different response. Mostly good, hopeful responses that think it's a good idea but I also get the occasional bad responses that tell me I shouldn't do it and that it's crazy. And it is crazy, it's crazy to leave home for 9 months to places you've never seen before and help people you've never met but the though has never scared me, it's only excited me. Every time I let the the reasons of why I shouldn't go creep into my mind, they are completely shut down by the multitude of reasons why I should go. The good far outweighs the bad in this situation. I know this is what I am called to do and this is the live that God wants me to live. I pray that I can fulfill the task and just love people big. After all, Bob Goff said,

Love's plan is pretty simple: Everybody, always.

My job is simple. Follow the path God lays before me. Love and show compassion to every one of God's children. Use this life God has given me to do something great. Make a difference in people's lives.