Deloze

Deloze. It means "lay it down" in Haitian Creole. It is pronounced, 'day-low-zay'.

As some of my readers know, I recently spent a week in Haiti and I just got back last Wednesday. The whole trip was amazing-the kids, the food, the music, just the people and culture in general were both shocking and fascinating. But for some reason it felt so normal to me. Minus the poverty, it seemed that the Haitians were thriving. Even the ones who were not Christian appreciated the things they had and the kids were very joyful and playful even though they probably had more life experience than any kid their age should. I thought, "Wow, this is the way we should all be living. Being thankful no matter what." I really miss them.

In Haiti, I prayed for God to show me something specific and help me pay attention and remember every single thing. I wasn't about to let the entire week pass and not get anything out of it, especially after working as hard as I did and paying 1500 dollars to go.

All week I was looking, and even though I was seeing new things, nothing had just jumped out at me yet. Tuesday night, the last night we were there, was when I finally saw it.

It was worship night at the Mission of Hope, and all the Haitians and even Americans were singing and clapping and by the end of the night there were hundreds of them all out in the rows and in front of the stage dancing, jumping and shouting. They sang a song I hadn't heard before (sometimes you can recognize the tune of American worship songs). It was a loud song and it just kept repeating at the end, "deloze, deloze, deloze, deloze." I could hear them all yelling it. Then I saw the English translation on the screen, and my mouth dropped.
I knew right then that God wanted me to lay everything down and let them go. Let go of people I hadn't forgiven, memories I held on to, things I feel responsible for, even the things I like that I maybe like too much. These people put us Americans to shame when it comes to sincerity and faithfulness to Christ. I was glad I could help them, but they also helped me learn some really important things about life.

Laying our things down is something that's really hard for humans to do; we grip our pennies so tight that we don't see that Jesus is offering us gold. I'm still working on it, but I've been able to let go of a lot of things since Haiti. Life is so much less painful when you choose to trust and let God take care of things that aren't in your control. I'm not perfect by any stretch, but because of him I have a much better chance and so do you.

Deloze.