Enrique’s Journey
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist,
Sonia Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey is
a true story about a 17-year-old boy from Honduras who travels to the United
States in search of his mother. When Enrique is five years old, his mother,
Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United
States. Her plan is to send money back home to Enrique and return quickly. At
first, his mother promises that she would return around Christmas. Enrique is
waiting and waiting. He feels lonely, frustrated, abandoned, and angry. But
after eleven years apart, Enrique decides he will go find her. Without money, in
order to pass through Mexico and make it to the United States, his only choice
is to cling to the sides and tops of freight trains. He travels through
hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way through Mexico, he and other
migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. Gangsters control the
tops of the trains. Bandits rob and kill migrants up and down the tracks.
Corrupt cops all along the route are out to fleece and deport them. Enrique is
repeatedly arrested, beaten, robbed, and deported. I am still reading this
book. I don’t know yet whether he will be able to reunite with his mother. In
the chapter I’m reading he is now waiting
for a favorable time, making an eighth attempt to cross the border and find his
mother in the United States.
Disciples’ Journey
We find parallels between Enrique’s
story and today’s scripture reading. After the disciples met the risen Christ,
they expected that the Lord Jesus would restore the kingdom of God right away. They expected that the
paradise would come right away. They
said, "Lord, are you at this time
going to restore the kingdom of Israel?"But the Lord said to them, "Wait for the gift my Father
promised." After he said this, he was taken up into heaven by himself. The
disciples stood there, staring into the empty sky. They must have felt left all
alone, empty, lost. Then they heard the voice from heaven, "Men of
Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus will come
back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." The disciples had
to wait for 3 days for the resurrection of Jesus. They had to wait for another 10
days for the Holy Spirit. Then they had to wait for life for Jesus' second
coming. Like the disciples, somehow our life seems a life of waiting in the wilderness. We are anxiously waiting for the
day when our Lord will return and wipe every tear from our eyes. For me
personally, I can't wait the day when I will meet my grandparents again and live
together with them forever. Yes! The day will come when we will see our loved
ones and worship our Lord with them forever. But in the meantime our journey must
go on. In this regard, we can learn from the disciples' example how we may live
a life of "active waiting" here and now.
“Vertical” Active Waiting
While the disciples were waiting
for the Holy Spirit and Jesus' second coming, basically they did two things.
First of all, they prayed continually.
Acts 1:14 says, “All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.”
“Vertically” active waiting means being fully present in the moment, in the
conviction that we always stand in the presence of God. The disciples' whole
life was a life of prayer, especially
after they met the risen Christ. They prayed
to receive the Holy Spirit. They prayed before
making important decisions. They prayed
to overcome persecution and suffering. They prayed
all the time. All spiritual giants in church history have one thing in common: They spent so much time with God in prayer.
For instance, John Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer. He began at four in
the morning. One of his close friends wrote about Wesley as follows: “I have
seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of face next to shining.” John
Fletcher always said, “I would not rise from my seat, without lifting my heart
to God.” Martin Luther said: “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each
morning, the devil gets the victory through the day… I have so much business I
cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” Joseph Alleine
arose at four o’clock for his business of praying till eight. If he heard other
tradesmen working their business before he was up, he would exclaim: “O how
this shames me! Does not my Master deserve more than theirs?” Active waiting
means to be mindful of the presence of God by spending much time with Him
through prayer.
Praying continually, or spending much time with God is not about “how many hours” we pray. Rather, it is about "how intimately”, “how honestly”, “how fervently” we pray to God. Enrique and many other migrants carry small Bibles, wrapped in plastic bags to keep dry when they cross rivers or when it rains. Some pages are especially worn. For instance, the Twenty-third Psalm: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”[1] Perhaps Enrique prays this Psalm dozens of times a day. For me personally, vertical active waiting in my journey is to come to the sanctuary and kneel down and pray every morning. One of spiritual heritages from my grandparents and my parents is early morning prayer. They would always get up early in the morning and go to the church to pray for each of the church members before starting the day. This precious heritage was lost for a while, but now it has been restored in my spiritual journey. Afflictions and crises drew me closer to God. “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” (Ps 119:71, ESV) Prayer is to open our hearts to God, who is already with us, waiting for us with open arms. The other day I felt overwhelmed. I felt surrounded by troubles on every side – no way out, no hope. I felt like I was in a hell for that particular moment. I couldn’t feel God’s presence. Then, I silently but desperately cried out to God, pouring out my heart like water before God. I opened my heart to God. Then all of sudden, I felt God’s presence. I felt heaven was restored in my heart. Then I realized that God is always near and that it is my choice to have hell or heaven in my heart. Active waiting in our journey means to continually open and give our hearts to God in prayer.
“Horizontal” Active Waiting
Secondly, the disciples did actively bear witness to
Christ while they were anxiously waiting for their Master's return. "Horizontally,"
active waiting means being fully present in the moment, in the conviction that
we are the perfume of Christ. In Acts 1 while they
were waiting for the Lord, the disciples devoted themselves to prayer all the
time. And along with that constant prayer, they replaced Judas Iscariot and
chose a new apostle. There was a clear purpose for that. Acts
Enrique is able to keep moving forward because of the kindness of strangers – Christians in Mexico. He is clinging to the top of a freight train. As the train approaches – especially where it slows down for curves or bad tracks, people along the tracks bring food, water, or even just prayers out to the trains. The people who live near the rails are often the poorest. But they give. If they have one tortilla, they give half away. They throw sandwiches. They throw bean burritos. They throw oranges. They shout to the migrants on the train, “May God watch over you!”[2] I believe these people are the perfume of Christ. If we are the disciples of Christ, we are to send forth the aroma of Christ. Wherever we are in our journey, we can do at least one thing that advances the kingdom of God. We can serve and love others as well as we pray for them. Here is a challenge for us. Let us reach out to at least one person this week whom we haven’t for a while and do good to that person in Jesus’ name. This is the pleasing aroma to God. This is active waiting.
Our Journey
Yesterday my family and I attended
a Bike-a-thon fundraising event for Christian school. Grace was my buddy. We
did ride a bicycle for about five miles together. There were a lot of uphills
and downhills, potholes, passing cars, and blackflies. There were the moments
when Grace said, “Dad, I don’t think I can do it.” Each time I encouraged her.
I cheered her up. Toward the end of our journey Grace said something like this,
“아빠랑 같이 하니까 너무 행복해요. Dad, I am so happy to do
this journey together with you.”
So are we there yet? No, we are not there yet. We are still actively waiting for the Day. That means we may still have life problems to solve, we may get sick, we may have to say goodbye to our loved ones. But we have good news: God is with us all along the way. For now, that is sufficient. We don’t know the times or dates, but we do know where we are headed. And with God all the way to heaven is heaven. With God every moment can be heaven if we open up our hearts to God in prayer and faithfully do what he tells us to do.
Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens Lord, with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me
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