Mile 3: A Messianic Message

Beloved People of God,

After a few weeks home, it was time to fly back to Cameroon. With a new visa in my passport and a new semester ahead, I was ready to get back to work. I also had a new lease on the days ahead of me. I didn’t want to miss “why” I was in Yaoundé. We all have reasons. I realized I need to reshuffle mine. Some reasons we know. They’re written in billboard sized letters. Other reasons we think we know, but they ultimately have little real purpose in our lives. They sound good but are written in invisible ink. And, of course, there are other reasons we are largely unaware of. They are the small print, hidden under a footnote, found only in an appendix. These reasons are small but can have a massive impact on how we live.

Living in Yaoundé before my visa fiasco, I was just living day by day, school assignment by school assignment. I walked and taxied in and out of places without really being present. Knowing that I was in Cameroon for a reason, not just to finish eleventh grade, I wanted to live my faith intentionally with renewed vision. I began to see things that were too easily missed; like Lahadi.

Lahadi was a guard at a gate. I greeted him every day as I passed by. He worked for the Bible translators I was living with, but he himself didn’t know Jesus. As we talked—really talked—I wanted to share with him something in my life that’d been lost in the footnotes. I went and bought him a Bible as a gift. I started to learn a little Hausa. At first, it was just a handful of greetings, to show him how much I cared about him, that I would attempt to speak his language; but as we talked more about Jesus, I began searching for the meaningful words of faith so we could anchor this vision of the Messiah in Lahadi’s heart language. Walking with Lahadi, I wanted Jesus to join our conversation.

Friends, this is exactly what Jesus does! He meets us on our roads to Emmaus. He asks us questions, listens to our answers, and answers us from within His revelation. He speaks His heavenly truth in our earthly languages! He translates glimpses of His eternal glory into the red clay roads of our lives. 

This week, take a walk with someone. Let’s find Jesus on our way to Emmaus.

For His Name’s Sake,

Brett