February 10, 2025 • 29 mins
You're invited into a conversation with Christian Boynton about his transformative experience serving in Guatemala with the Peace Corps. Through personal stories, he shares how the power of silence and community impacted his faith and understanding of God’s presence in daily life. If you are contemplating how you can listen for God more in your own life, don't miss this one! Special thanks to Christian for sharing his story and experiences with us!
NOTES:
- Looking to practice prayer and contemplation, here are a few resources to check out:
- Lectio 365: https://www.24-7prayer.com/resource/lectio-365/
- Dwell: https://dwellapp.io/
- Hallow: https://www.hallow.com/
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.online.church! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
Enjoy what you heard? Be sure to rate us on Apple Podcasts and click the subscribe button so you don't miss new episodes every Monday!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have
conversations about faith andhope.
Hope is one church made ofpeople living out their faith
through two expressions inperson and online.
We believe a hybrid faithexperience can lead to a growing
influence in our community andour world for the sake of others
.
Welcome to Hope.
(00:23):
Our world for the sake ofothers.
Welcome to Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast.
I'm your host, dave Falcone,and I'm excited to be here today
.
And here with me today isChristian Boynton.
Welcome, christian, thank you,it's a pleasure to be here.
Yeah, christian, you and I haveknown each other now, for I
don't know how old are you now25.
25.
All right.
So we've known each other forabout 13 or 14 years, dating
(00:56):
back to when you were in sixthgrade and I was the youth pastor
and you were a goofy little kidrunning around the building.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You saw me at my absolute lowest.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, yes I did, and if this podcast was longer, I
could share lots of stories.
So how many years have you beenout of college?
Two and a half, two and a half,and you graduated from.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
James Madison University.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Okay, and so for two and a half years you've been out
of college.
What have you been doing?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, I was looking at the job market after college
and just didn't see anythingtruly fulfilling.
I feel like, you know, the dataentry uh specialist, or like
marketing rep.
That just wasn't, you know,fulfilling for me.
So I applied to the peace corpsand uh got in.
Originally I was, you know,scheduled to be in the youth and
(01:46):
development sector working withkids, and as soon as I got the
letter of acceptance and that Iwas put in that sector, I was
thinking, I was like I don'tthink I have the energy to do
this for two years, like workingwith Guatemalan kids.
You know, the Spanish alone isgoing to be tough because I was
put in Guatemala and uh, then,three weeks later, you know,
(02:09):
after praying about it so much,uh, I got a call from the uh
director of the communityeconomic development sector and
she said they had a spot openand uh invited me in.
So I I gladly accepted becausethat's, you know, geared more
toward my strengths.
And I prayed about it so muchand I gladly accepted because
that's geared more toward mystrengths and I prayed about it
so much and I actually told mymom.
(02:30):
I was like I don't know if Ishould do this and she was like
what?
You've been so excited, whywouldn't you do it?
And I was like, all right, allright, I'm just going to pray
about it, and so you werestationed with the Peace Corps
in Guatemala.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You mentioned a few moments ago when in Guatemala
Totonicapan- so that's in thewestern region of Guatemala.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
It's actually the 42nd highest city in the whole
world in altitude, so it wassuper high and really rural.
Really, you know deep into theMayan heritage and also the new.
You know Christian, catholic orevangelical.
(03:30):
You know worship.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So, with that in mind , tell me a little bit about you
know.
What was the experience likefor you?
What did you learn?
You know, how did your faithgrow?
I'm throwing a whole bunch ofquestions out there to kind of,
you know, peek your brain intoyou know, just sharing about
your experience.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Sure, anyone who knows really anything about
Guatemala or has been there,silence won't be the first thing
that comes to your brain.
It's one of the loudest placesI've ever visited.
I was just talking to my sisterthe other day and we of the
loudest places I've ever visitedI was just talking to my sister
the other day and we were goingthrough all the countries that
we visited and you know visitingyou know 23, 25 countries this
(04:17):
one is definitely the top of thelist of the loudest experiences
.
Like, when my parents came,they were woken woken up at 5 AM
at by, you know, parades in thestreet and, uh, people, just
you know, singing and dancingand everything, and it's it's a
really loud place, but I found alot of importance in silence
(04:39):
and the way that it could beused and the way that, um,
people use it to create or todestroy, and what do you mean by
that?
Yeah, so I think maybe,starting with the creation part,
we can create so much withinourselves.
(05:01):
Well, god can create so muchwithin ourselves through silence
, and I've been doing a lot ofChristian contemplation and if
you don't know what that is,there's a very ancient practice
around this of meditating on theword of God and I think
(05:24):
creating just more spaces forGod to enter your life has been
so important to me in, you know,opening up and not, you know,
having to articulate anything,not having to you know, put it
into great words or a perfectsetting, you know with like
(05:46):
candles and blankets andwhatever, um, just opening up
the space and you know,sometimes even like grunt
praying, just like God knowswhat's on your heart and if you
just like, oh, like God knowswhat that means, god knows
what's going on.
You don't have to articulateanything beautifully.
Sometimes that distracts mefrom what the purpose of my
(06:12):
connection and the spaces withhim.
So I've been using the silencethat I now find really
abundantly in the United Statesto do that.
But I got really good at itbecause, you know, shutting out
all of the noise around me inGuatemala kind of forced me to,
you know, not be distracted byby everything.
(06:34):
I lived on the roof of my housein Guatemala and everyone puts
their dogs, their chickens,their you know whatever, on the
roof and you know, gives themfood, and then they just make a
bunch of noise all day.
Um, so I was, my neighbors weredogs and chickens and things,
so, um, so that was really funevery morning.
(06:57):
But, um, also there's there'sspaces to be silent, and I feel
like now in the United States,the silence around personal
dedication to religion has beenreally hard to navigate.
(07:21):
I feel like maybe it's thepeople that I'm surrounded by,
or maybe it's the, the thingsthat I intake in social media,
but it's really hard to um comeback to because some everyone's
so um, everyone's so forwardwith their uh dedication to the
(07:42):
Lord in Guatemala and, comingback, it's not, you know, que
Dios te bendiga, which is like,may God bless you, and they say
that everywhere.
They say primero Dios, like ifyou're having a conversation and
you know you hope somethinghappens in the future, it's like
you know God first, primeroDios, and it's just the center
(08:07):
of all conversations.
And you know, being being aChristian uh, my whole life.
I feel like that definitely hasa huge part in uh, in
everything that I do.
Um, and just like I was sayingbefore, with um the job search
after college, I wanted to dosomething that was uh, directly
(08:31):
in step in lockstep with God,cause I know that creating my
own fortune and creating my ownperson and trying to promote
myself isn't isn't gonna get meanywhere.
Um purposeful that's not goingto lead me anywhere.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Purposeful that's not going to lead me to a
purpose-filled life, and itseems like that goes back to
what you were saying, thatSpanish word.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
One was primero Dios, and the other one was que le
vaya bien.
Or bueno, now I'm just talkingin Spanish.
Que Dios le bendiga.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So which one was God first, primero Dios.
Okay, so you said and I don'tknow if you hinted at this or
just kind of just came out andsaid it, but this mindset there
of that that you know, god befirst, not God is here to serve
me yeah, want to throw that onAmerica, but you know, I think
(09:23):
that we as Americans often leantowards the ladder there of you
know God's here to serve me,which is not true, you know.
So we're clear on the podcast.
You know it's the other wayaround, it's God's will first.
And so you know, how did you,how did you navigate that idea
(09:44):
within within your experience,within the challenges you had in
Guatemala?
As somebody who has been aroundthe world like you have, I've
also been abroad a number oftimes.
I've done numerous missiontrips over the years.
We're actually planning amission trip to Malawi coming up
(10:07):
in June.
You know, one of the thingsI've always found incredible
with these missions experience,especially missions abroad, is
how you experience God so muchmore uniquely in these
international locations, thesevery different cultures.
(10:30):
You know how people view Goddifferently the same God, the
same faith, but how they viewhim differently.
You know, I feel like that's sounique for anybody that's
listening that has never beenabroad or experienced that, you
know.
I don't know if there'sanything you can talk in regards
(10:51):
to that as well.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah.
So, first things first, youknow God serving you and you
serving God and having thatharmony between your purpose and
your relationship with God.
And I have a tendency not touse the word religion anymore
(11:17):
because it's very scary, it's avery scary word, it's very scary
.
It's a very scary word.
Um and uh.
I feel like relationship withGod better describes my, my
experience in this world.
Um, but yeah, it's alwayssomething that I tended to go to
(11:38):
after.
After the fact, it was somethingthat like, oh no, this is going
wrong, like now I need theemergency plan, gotta call God.
And it's not like okay, so I'mthinking about this and I'm
praying about this and somethingthat I can go to first.
And that was something.
(11:59):
And that was something thatreally changed the way that I
just walked, like I had a 20minute walk to work every day
and I just prayed.
I just prayed on my walk towork and tried to, you know,
walk in prayer, tried to live inprayer, like throughout my day.
(12:19):
I now see this experience, thishuman experience.
As you know, we're not just inour house or on our walk to work
or on vacation, we're living onthe biggest altar to God that
(12:52):
that exists and we should act assuch.
Um like this, this earth, this,um the earth that that we walk
even you know, in in factories.
If you're walking around afactory right now listening to
the podcast, that's holy groundand um, cause, all of this earth
is holy ground and um, you know, we should, we should use it to
worship, uh, the one who gaveus this life.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, and you know, I hear, I hear so many times uh,
from people that, um, I remembera conversation, uh, this woman
was having with her physicaltherapist.
I just happened to be in aphysical therapy room and she
was talking about her church andhow that Sunday, her pastor
(13:32):
preached about how God wants allof them to start their own
businesses and, to you know,make a lot of money and to use
it to you know, whatever.
And like I'm just listening toit, I'm like, all right, this is
, this is the prosperity gospelthat I've heard about.
That is just so wrong, you know, and it's like no, like you
(13:55):
know, that is distorting thefaith of you know what.
What we truly should believe inis that, yeah, god wants what's
best for us, but it's notnecessarily what we think is
best for us.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
So the second point that you brought up was finding
God in more vivid ways or morevisual ways in service abroad,
and I feel like that was so true.
We get caught up in our dailylives here because, you know,
(14:32):
we've lived in the United Statesour whole lives, some of us and
it's really frustrating to youknow, go go to work, drive the
same roads, eat the same food,um, and just be focused on the
same things every day, Um, andyou can change it if you want.
We have, you know, the mostamount of opportunity that there
(14:55):
appears anywhere in the worldand, um, you don't really.
I feel like I didn't reallytake a take a beat to just
appreciate what was around meuntil it wasn't there, and the
reliance on God and hisblessings, um, and his divine
(15:20):
intervention in whatever task itmay be big or small was more
apparent and my need for himbecame so much greater because I
was praying for my daily bread,because I often didn't know
where my next meal was going tocome from, where my next meal
was going to come from.
(15:41):
I feel like there it's so muchmore apparent, the presence of
God, because people still livelike they don't know what's
going to happen tonight withfood, and they don't.
(16:01):
It's not like they're justimagining this and they don't.
It's not like they're justimagining this.
They often don't.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's not like they're staring into the pantry going
we don't have anything to eat.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
We have wheat thins, but I prefer Triscuits and they
do pray for their daily bread,which is so encouraging to see
that form of life, because we'velost all sense of dependency on
God, because we can holdourselves up.
We can now hold ourselvesstable and just lock ourselves
(16:34):
in and order DoorDash, orderUber Eats and just, you know,
not do anything or depend, or ifyou don't feel called to do
something, you don't have to.
You really don't have to.
You can create everythingonline, but, as Pastor Rick said
(16:54):
this past week in his sermon,unity is so important and, um,
that sense of connection issomething that doesn't come from
.
Uh, you know things that youcan get just in your, in your
room.
You need physical contact, youneed to be able to have a
(17:16):
conversation with someone orhave a purpose and, you know,
live a purpose-driven life,which kind of, you know, brought
me into this kind of walk.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So what I hear you saying is that we need God, we
need to draw closer to Him.
What I hear you saying is thatwe need others and we need to
draw closer to others and be incommunity.
Amen, all right.
So let me hit you with somerapid fire questions.
We need to draw closer toothers and be in community, amen
, all right.
So let me hit you with somerapid fire questions as we close
(17:52):
out this podcast.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
First question what's the most beautiful thing you
saw in Guatemala.
Well, this was beautiful for alot of reasons, but my
girlfriend Sophia and I we gotthe chance to hike Acatenango,
which is a volcano thatsurrounds Antigua, guatemala,
and it was so gorgeous.
We hiked Acatenango oneafternoon, camped there at a
(18:17):
base camp and then hiked therest of the way up to the top at
like, starting at like 2 33 inthe morning, and I had a
parasite and I just pushedthrough it.
I just pushed through itbecause I was like there's no
way I'm missing this, becauseright across the, you know the
skyline, maybe a mile away is,uh, volcán fuego and you can see
(18:40):
it erupting.
So all night we were watchingFuego erupt and you could see
the lava coming out the top andfeel it under your feet because
the two volcanoes are connected.
So in the morning, with thesunrise and the eruptions, it
was just gorgeous.
That's awesome.
A lot of breathtaking.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
What's the thing you're going to miss most?
Uh, after being back, my hostfamily.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Um, my host family is just so sweet.
Um, my parents got a chance tomeet him and I'm so happy they
did because they're so, sospecial.
Um, like I would their theirfamily's really big in
Totonicapan.
It's their, their family'sreally big in Totonicapan it's
it's not the biggest town butthey occupy a lot of the
(19:27):
citizens there and I wouldalways see someone that's part
of my family on the way to workand it was really beautiful
because they would, you know,invite me for a coffee or they
would invite me for a littletreat or whatever they.
They don't have much, but theywill give whatever they have
because they know what it's liketo be a foreigner in a foreign
(19:48):
place.
A lot of them have gone to theUnited States to make money or
to you know.
All of them have been out oftheir normal walk of life and
they know what it's like to be astranger.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah, you mentioned work.
Did you have a job there or wasit really connected with the
Peace Corps?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
So that really was my job.
The Peace Corps does a reallygood job at connecting you with
host country nationals andsomeone to support your work and
guide you and integrate youinto the society or community or
wherever you find yourself.
So I was actually working withwomen, like women's empowerment
(20:33):
groups to that are focused onteaching them skills on how to
create your own business.
You know, if God's you knowcalling them to do that, then we
provide the resources to dothat, and what I was able to do
was create a grant with my workpartners and we got 12 laptops,
(20:57):
two batteries, wi-fi Internet,microsoft subscriptions and a
bunch of other like a huge hostof other resources to create a
digital literacy course focusedon entrepreneurship skills.
So they could, with all of thethings that they have on paper
because a lot of them managetheir businesses just on little
(21:19):
note cards and little receiptsin paper form they can now go to
the they call it the Centro deNegocios.
They can go to the mine centerof business and log all of their
data or analyze what's goingwell, what's not going well, and
just be helped by all of thepeople there that are working
(21:43):
with the Ministry of Economy,the Global Network of Indigenous
Entrepreneurs.
They have a whole host ofreally good resources.
I was so blessed to be a partof that network.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, last question what was the most profound thing
God taught you while you werethere?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I think the biggest thing that God taught me while
while in Guatemala was how muchI'm dragged down by my own
chains, that I have forgedmyself, own chains that I have
forged myself.
(22:25):
How many things in my life Idon't need but have around me
that are just weighing me downfrom the progress that I seek.
I wrote this down before comingto the podcast because I knew
this was going to be Reallysomething that might come up,
(22:45):
and it's Psalm 50, 17.
It says you hate my instructionand cast my words behind you,
and I feel like I've heard theword my whole life and I became
accustomed to it.
I became so used to it andnormalized, and it never just
(23:07):
dug roots into me until recently.
Um, within the past six months,seven months, and uh, then it
all became real and I feel likewhen you have a transformation
like that and you realize thatthere's nothing that you can do
(23:29):
on this earth, there's no amountof money, no amount of time, no
amount of good that you can doto please god, the only thing
left to do is accept his life,and I feel like now, finding
(23:58):
this real there's, and not justa collection of stories, not
just the things that I heardwhen I was younger in Sunday
school.
This kind of love implores, itdemands a change of life.
(24:19):
It demands a change of selfBecause if you really love
something or someone, yourperson is going to change, your
character, your way of being.
There's going to be sacrifice.
There's going to be massivesacrifices that you're going to
(24:39):
have to make, and I feel likethe sacrifices that I'm going to
be making in my life are goingto scare a lot of people,
including my mom and dad,because they just want the best
for me.
But I'm not going to be takingan orthodox route after the
(25:07):
Peace Corps here.
I feel like this is now not mylife.
This is God's life, to do whathe wants with it.
These are not my wants anymore.
This is God.
This is now God working throughme.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Knowing your parents, I think they'll be okay with
that.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Yeah, they just want the best and God bless them.
They put up with a lot with mysister and I, but this is, you
know, getting back to Psalm 50,17.
This is, I feel, like me beingcalled to not cast his word
(25:48):
aside and hate his instructionand hate is a strong word here,
but it's just to, you know,create contrast.
You're supposed to hate yourlife because of how much you
love God and I feel like I'vereally liked my life.
It's comfortable, I need fornothing, I don't pray for my
daily bread, but now, seeingthat in Guatemala and that need
(26:11):
um and his presence, the Holyspirit flowing through me, it's
demanding a true change and Ifeel like that's what, uh, God
has has really called um into myheart over the past couple of
years.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Awesome.
Well, I appreciate you sharingthat.
It clearly is something that isdeeply rooted into your soul
and still fresh for you.
So thanks for sharing yourheart and your passion and your
experience.
You mentioned silence earlierin this episode.
(26:48):
How did you begin the practiceof silence, the discipline of
silence, in your life?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
So getting started with silence wasn't easy.
I feel like there was adivision of who I was and who I
wanted to be as a morecontemplative or intentional
person, and that wouldn't comewithout a true change.
Like I said before, and I thinksilence was a way into that,
(27:20):
there's so many thingsdistracting and with a new life
in Guatemala, I feel like therewas always something to keep me
busy and distracted from thatchange that I wanted to have
happen within me.
So it's just intentionally likestarting with five minutes a
night, starting with fiveminutes and you know, not really
(27:41):
having maybe having anintention, maybe not having an
intention, but just doing itevery night and making it a part
of my day before going to bed.
And then that grew into 10minutes and then that grew into
20 minutes and, um, as the thelonger I did it, the less time
it seemed like I was doing itbecause I had so much to get off
(28:02):
my mind that I was just holdingback.
I feel like there was a divisionbetween who I was and what I
gave to God and what I held backfrom God.
I said that my life was for him, but did I give everything to
him or just the things that Iwas comfortable with giving to
(28:26):
him.
Um, so, completely beingtransparent with God was really
freeing, and that only camethrough silence.
So, uh, that was a completelynecessary practice for me.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Um so, christian, I really appreciate you giving of
your time, um, I appreciate yousharing your story and all that
you've learned, and I hope thatthat will benefit our listeners.
And if you are out therelistening to this, thank you for
listening.
And don't forget to like andsubscribe and all those good
things that you do with podcastsand check us out next week as
(29:04):
we bring you something just as,if not more, exciting, to the
podcast world, and check ourshow notes for anything that we
talked about, referenced,highlighted, for some more
details.
See you next week.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we
continue our conversationsabout faith and hope.
If you don't already, pleasejoin us for worship on Sundays
or on demand.
You can learn more atmeethopeorg or find us on
socials at meethopechurch.
Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have
conversations about faith andhope.
Hope is one church made ofpeople living out their faith
through two expressions inperson and online.
We believe a hybrid faithexperience can lead to a growing
influence in our community andour world for the sake of others
.
Welcome to Hope.
(00:23):
Our world for the sake ofothers.
Welcome to Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast.
I'm your host, dave Falcone,and I'm excited to be here today
.
And here with me today isChristian Boynton.
Welcome, christian, thank you,it's a pleasure to be here.
Yeah, christian, you and I haveknown each other now, for I
don't know how old are you now25.
25.
All right.
So we've known each other forabout 13 or 14 years, dating
(00:56):
back to when you were in sixthgrade and I was the youth pastor
and you were a goofy little kidrunning around the building.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You saw me at my absolute lowest.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, yes I did, and if this podcast was longer, I
could share lots of stories.
So how many years have you beenout of college?
Two and a half, two and a half,and you graduated from.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
James Madison University.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Okay, and so for two and a half years you've been out
of college.
What have you been doing?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, I was looking at the job market after college
and just didn't see anythingtruly fulfilling.
I feel like, you know, the dataentry uh specialist, or like
marketing rep.
That just wasn't, you know,fulfilling for me.
So I applied to the peace corpsand uh got in.
Originally I was, you know,scheduled to be in the youth and
(01:46):
development sector working withkids, and as soon as I got the
letter of acceptance and that Iwas put in that sector, I was
thinking, I was like I don'tthink I have the energy to do
this for two years, like workingwith Guatemalan kids.
You know, the Spanish alone isgoing to be tough because I was
put in Guatemala and uh, then,three weeks later, you know,
(02:09):
after praying about it so much,uh, I got a call from the uh
director of the communityeconomic development sector and
she said they had a spot openand uh invited me in.
So I I gladly accepted becausethat's, you know, geared more
toward my strengths.
And I prayed about it so muchand I gladly accepted because
that's geared more toward mystrengths and I prayed about it
so much and I actually told mymom.
(02:30):
I was like I don't know if Ishould do this and she was like
what?
You've been so excited, whywouldn't you do it?
And I was like, all right, allright, I'm just going to pray
about it, and so you werestationed with the Peace Corps
in Guatemala.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You mentioned a few moments ago when in Guatemala
Totonicapan- so that's in thewestern region of Guatemala.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
It's actually the 42nd highest city in the whole
world in altitude, so it wassuper high and really rural.
Really, you know deep into theMayan heritage and also the new.
You know Christian, catholic orevangelical.
(03:30):
You know worship.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So, with that in mind , tell me a little bit about you
know.
What was the experience likefor you?
What did you learn?
You know, how did your faithgrow?
I'm throwing a whole bunch ofquestions out there to kind of,
you know, peek your brain intoyou know, just sharing about
your experience.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Sure, anyone who knows really anything about
Guatemala or has been there,silence won't be the first thing
that comes to your brain.
It's one of the loudest placesI've ever visited.
I was just talking to my sisterthe other day and we of the
loudest places I've ever visitedI was just talking to my sister
the other day and we were goingthrough all the countries that
we visited and you know visitingyou know 23, 25 countries this
(04:17):
one is definitely the top of thelist of the loudest experiences
.
Like, when my parents came,they were woken woken up at 5 AM
at by, you know, parades in thestreet and, uh, people, just
you know, singing and dancingand everything, and it's it's a
really loud place, but I found alot of importance in silence
(04:39):
and the way that it could beused and the way that, um,
people use it to create or todestroy, and what do you mean by
that?
Yeah, so I think maybe,starting with the creation part,
we can create so much withinourselves.
(05:01):
Well, god can create so muchwithin ourselves through silence
, and I've been doing a lot ofChristian contemplation and if
you don't know what that is,there's a very ancient practice
around this of meditating on theword of God and I think
(05:24):
creating just more spaces forGod to enter your life has been
so important to me in, you know,opening up and not, you know,
having to articulate anything,not having to you know, put it
into great words or a perfectsetting, you know with like
(05:46):
candles and blankets andwhatever, um, just opening up
the space and you know,sometimes even like grunt
praying, just like God knowswhat's on your heart and if you
just like, oh, like God knowswhat that means, god knows
what's going on.
You don't have to articulateanything beautifully.
Sometimes that distracts mefrom what the purpose of my
(06:12):
connection and the spaces withhim.
So I've been using the silencethat I now find really
abundantly in the United Statesto do that.
But I got really good at itbecause, you know, shutting out
all of the noise around me inGuatemala kind of forced me to,
you know, not be distracted byby everything.
(06:34):
I lived on the roof of my housein Guatemala and everyone puts
their dogs, their chickens,their you know whatever, on the
roof and you know, gives themfood, and then they just make a
bunch of noise all day.
Um, so I was, my neighbors weredogs and chickens and things,
so, um, so that was really funevery morning.
(06:57):
But, um, also there's there'sspaces to be silent, and I feel
like now in the United States,the silence around personal
dedication to religion has beenreally hard to navigate.
(07:21):
I feel like maybe it's thepeople that I'm surrounded by,
or maybe it's the, the thingsthat I intake in social media,
but it's really hard to um comeback to because some everyone's
so um, everyone's so forwardwith their uh dedication to the
(07:42):
Lord in Guatemala and, comingback, it's not, you know, que
Dios te bendiga, which is like,may God bless you, and they say
that everywhere.
They say primero Dios, like ifyou're having a conversation and
you know you hope somethinghappens in the future, it's like
you know God first, primeroDios, and it's just the center
(08:07):
of all conversations.
And you know, being being aChristian uh, my whole life.
I feel like that definitely hasa huge part in uh, in
everything that I do.
Um, and just like I was sayingbefore, with um the job search
after college, I wanted to dosomething that was uh, directly
(08:31):
in step in lockstep with God,cause I know that creating my
own fortune and creating my ownperson and trying to promote
myself isn't isn't gonna get meanywhere.
Um purposeful that's not goingto lead me anywhere.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Purposeful that's not going to lead me to a
purpose-filled life, and itseems like that goes back to
what you were saying, thatSpanish word.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
One was primero Dios, and the other one was que le
vaya bien.
Or bueno, now I'm just talkingin Spanish.
Que Dios le bendiga.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So which one was God first, primero Dios.
Okay, so you said and I don'tknow if you hinted at this or
just kind of just came out andsaid it, but this mindset there
of that that you know, god befirst, not God is here to serve
me yeah, want to throw that onAmerica, but you know, I think
(09:23):
that we as Americans often leantowards the ladder there of you
know God's here to serve me,which is not true, you know.
So we're clear on the podcast.
You know it's the other wayaround, it's God's will first.
And so you know, how did you,how did you navigate that idea
(09:44):
within within your experience,within the challenges you had in
Guatemala?
As somebody who has been aroundthe world like you have, I've
also been abroad a number oftimes.
I've done numerous missiontrips over the years.
We're actually planning amission trip to Malawi coming up
(10:07):
in June.
You know, one of the thingsI've always found incredible
with these missions experience,especially missions abroad, is
how you experience God so muchmore uniquely in these
international locations, thesevery different cultures.
(10:30):
You know how people view Goddifferently the same God, the
same faith, but how they viewhim differently.
You know, I feel like that's sounique for anybody that's
listening that has never beenabroad or experienced that, you
know.
I don't know if there'sanything you can talk in regards
(10:51):
to that as well.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah.
So, first things first, youknow God serving you and you
serving God and having thatharmony between your purpose and
your relationship with God.
And I have a tendency not touse the word religion anymore
(11:17):
because it's very scary, it's avery scary word, it's very scary
.
It's a very scary word.
Um and uh.
I feel like relationship withGod better describes my, my
experience in this world.
Um, but yeah, it's alwayssomething that I tended to go to
(11:38):
after.
After the fact, it was somethingthat like, oh no, this is going
wrong, like now I need theemergency plan, gotta call God.
And it's not like okay, so I'mthinking about this and I'm
praying about this and somethingthat I can go to first.
And that was something.
(11:59):
And that was something thatreally changed the way that I
just walked, like I had a 20minute walk to work every day
and I just prayed.
I just prayed on my walk towork and tried to, you know,
walk in prayer, tried to live inprayer, like throughout my day.
(12:19):
I now see this experience, thishuman experience.
As you know, we're not just inour house or on our walk to work
or on vacation, we're living onthe biggest altar to God that
(12:52):
that exists and we should act assuch.
Um like this, this earth, this,um the earth that that we walk
even you know, in in factories.
If you're walking around afactory right now listening to
the podcast, that's holy groundand um, cause, all of this earth
is holy ground and um, you know, we should, we should use it to
worship, uh, the one who gaveus this life.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, and you know, I hear, I hear so many times uh,
from people that, um, I remembera conversation, uh, this woman
was having with her physicaltherapist.
I just happened to be in aphysical therapy room and she
was talking about her church andhow that Sunday, her pastor
(13:32):
preached about how God wants allof them to start their own
businesses and, to you know,make a lot of money and to use
it to you know, whatever.
And like I'm just listening toit, I'm like, all right, this is
, this is the prosperity gospelthat I've heard about.
That is just so wrong, you know, and it's like no, like you
(13:55):
know, that is distorting thefaith of you know what.
What we truly should believe inis that, yeah, god wants what's
best for us, but it's notnecessarily what we think is
best for us.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
So the second point that you brought up was finding
God in more vivid ways or morevisual ways in service abroad,
and I feel like that was so true.
We get caught up in our dailylives here because, you know,
(14:32):
we've lived in the United Statesour whole lives, some of us and
it's really frustrating to youknow, go go to work, drive the
same roads, eat the same food,um, and just be focused on the
same things every day, Um, andyou can change it if you want.
We have, you know, the mostamount of opportunity that there
(14:55):
appears anywhere in the worldand, um, you don't really.
I feel like I didn't reallytake a take a beat to just
appreciate what was around meuntil it wasn't there, and the
reliance on God and hisblessings, um, and his divine
(15:20):
intervention in whatever task itmay be big or small was more
apparent and my need for himbecame so much greater because I
was praying for my daily bread,because I often didn't know
where my next meal was going tocome from, where my next meal
was going to come from.
(15:41):
I feel like there it's so muchmore apparent, the presence of
God, because people still livelike they don't know what's
going to happen tonight withfood, and they don't.
(16:01):
It's not like they're justimagining this and they don't.
It's not like they're justimagining this.
They often don't.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's not like they're staring into the pantry going
we don't have anything to eat.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
We have wheat thins, but I prefer Triscuits and they
do pray for their daily bread,which is so encouraging to see
that form of life, because we'velost all sense of dependency on
God, because we can holdourselves up.
We can now hold ourselvesstable and just lock ourselves
(16:34):
in and order DoorDash, orderUber Eats and just, you know,
not do anything or depend, or ifyou don't feel called to do
something, you don't have to.
You really don't have to.
You can create everythingonline, but, as Pastor Rick said
(16:54):
this past week in his sermon,unity is so important and, um,
that sense of connection issomething that doesn't come from
.
Uh, you know things that youcan get just in your, in your
room.
You need physical contact, youneed to be able to have a
(17:16):
conversation with someone orhave a purpose and, you know,
live a purpose-driven life,which kind of, you know, brought
me into this kind of walk.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So what I hear you saying is that we need God, we
need to draw closer to Him.
What I hear you saying is thatwe need others and we need to
draw closer to others and be incommunity.
Amen, all right.
So let me hit you with somerapid fire questions.
We need to draw closer toothers and be in community, amen
, all right.
So let me hit you with somerapid fire questions as we close
(17:52):
out this podcast.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
First question what's the most beautiful thing you
saw in Guatemala.
Well, this was beautiful for alot of reasons, but my
girlfriend Sophia and I we gotthe chance to hike Acatenango,
which is a volcano thatsurrounds Antigua, guatemala,
and it was so gorgeous.
We hiked Acatenango oneafternoon, camped there at a
(18:17):
base camp and then hiked therest of the way up to the top at
like, starting at like 2 33 inthe morning, and I had a
parasite and I just pushedthrough it.
I just pushed through itbecause I was like there's no
way I'm missing this, becauseright across the, you know the
skyline, maybe a mile away is,uh, volcán fuego and you can see
(18:40):
it erupting.
So all night we were watchingFuego erupt and you could see
the lava coming out the top andfeel it under your feet because
the two volcanoes are connected.
So in the morning, with thesunrise and the eruptions, it
was just gorgeous.
That's awesome.
A lot of breathtaking.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
What's the thing you're going to miss most?
Uh, after being back, my hostfamily.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Um, my host family is just so sweet.
Um, my parents got a chance tomeet him and I'm so happy they
did because they're so, sospecial.
Um, like I would their theirfamily's really big in
Totonicapan.
It's their, their family'sreally big in Totonicapan it's
it's not the biggest town butthey occupy a lot of the
(19:27):
citizens there and I wouldalways see someone that's part
of my family on the way to workand it was really beautiful
because they would, you know,invite me for a coffee or they
would invite me for a littletreat or whatever they.
They don't have much, but theywill give whatever they have
because they know what it's liketo be a foreigner in a foreign
(19:48):
place.
A lot of them have gone to theUnited States to make money or
to you know.
All of them have been out oftheir normal walk of life and
they know what it's like to be astranger.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah, you mentioned work.
Did you have a job there or wasit really connected with the
Peace Corps?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
So that really was my job.
The Peace Corps does a reallygood job at connecting you with
host country nationals andsomeone to support your work and
guide you and integrate youinto the society or community or
wherever you find yourself.
So I was actually working withwomen, like women's empowerment
(20:33):
groups to that are focused onteaching them skills on how to
create your own business.
You know, if God's you knowcalling them to do that, then we
provide the resources to dothat, and what I was able to do
was create a grant with my workpartners and we got 12 laptops,
(20:57):
two batteries, wi-fi Internet,microsoft subscriptions and a
bunch of other like a huge hostof other resources to create a
digital literacy course focusedon entrepreneurship skills.
So they could, with all of thethings that they have on paper
because a lot of them managetheir businesses just on little
(21:19):
note cards and little receiptsin paper form they can now go to
the they call it the Centro deNegocios.
They can go to the mine centerof business and log all of their
data or analyze what's goingwell, what's not going well, and
just be helped by all of thepeople there that are working
(21:43):
with the Ministry of Economy,the Global Network of Indigenous
Entrepreneurs.
They have a whole host ofreally good resources.
I was so blessed to be a partof that network.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, last question what was the most profound thing
God taught you while you werethere?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I think the biggest thing that God taught me while
while in Guatemala was how muchI'm dragged down by my own
chains, that I have forgedmyself, own chains that I have
forged myself.
(22:25):
How many things in my life Idon't need but have around me
that are just weighing me downfrom the progress that I seek.
I wrote this down before comingto the podcast because I knew
this was going to be Reallysomething that might come up,
(22:45):
and it's Psalm 50, 17.
It says you hate my instructionand cast my words behind you,
and I feel like I've heard theword my whole life and I became
accustomed to it.
I became so used to it andnormalized, and it never just
(23:07):
dug roots into me until recently.
Um, within the past six months,seven months, and uh, then it
all became real and I feel likewhen you have a transformation
like that and you realize thatthere's nothing that you can do
(23:29):
on this earth, there's no amountof money, no amount of time, no
amount of good that you can doto please god, the only thing
left to do is accept his life,and I feel like now, finding
(23:58):
this real there's, and not justa collection of stories, not
just the things that I heardwhen I was younger in Sunday
school.
This kind of love implores, itdemands a change of life.
(24:19):
It demands a change of selfBecause if you really love
something or someone, yourperson is going to change, your
character, your way of being.
There's going to be sacrifice.
There's going to be massivesacrifices that you're going to
(24:39):
have to make, and I feel likethe sacrifices that I'm going to
be making in my life are goingto scare a lot of people,
including my mom and dad,because they just want the best
for me.
But I'm not going to be takingan orthodox route after the
(25:07):
Peace Corps here.
I feel like this is now not mylife.
This is God's life, to do whathe wants with it.
These are not my wants anymore.
This is God.
This is now God working throughme.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Knowing your parents, I think they'll be okay with
that.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Yeah, they just want the best and God bless them.
They put up with a lot with mysister and I, but this is, you
know, getting back to Psalm 50,17.
This is, I feel, like me beingcalled to not cast his word
(25:48):
aside and hate his instructionand hate is a strong word here,
but it's just to, you know,create contrast.
You're supposed to hate yourlife because of how much you
love God and I feel like I'vereally liked my life.
It's comfortable, I need fornothing, I don't pray for my
daily bread, but now, seeingthat in Guatemala and that need
(26:11):
um and his presence, the Holyspirit flowing through me, it's
demanding a true change and Ifeel like that's what, uh, God
has has really called um into myheart over the past couple of
years.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Awesome.
Well, I appreciate you sharingthat.
It clearly is something that isdeeply rooted into your soul
and still fresh for you.
So thanks for sharing yourheart and your passion and your
experience.
You mentioned silence earlierin this episode.
(26:48):
How did you begin the practiceof silence, the discipline of
silence, in your life?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
So getting started with silence wasn't easy.
I feel like there was adivision of who I was and who I
wanted to be as a morecontemplative or intentional
person, and that wouldn't comewithout a true change.
Like I said before, and I thinksilence was a way into that,
(27:20):
there's so many thingsdistracting and with a new life
in Guatemala, I feel like therewas always something to keep me
busy and distracted from thatchange that I wanted to have
happen within me.
So it's just intentionally likestarting with five minutes a
night, starting with fiveminutes and you know, not really
(27:41):
having maybe having anintention, maybe not having an
intention, but just doing itevery night and making it a part
of my day before going to bed.
And then that grew into 10minutes and then that grew into
20 minutes and, um, as the thelonger I did it, the less time
it seemed like I was doing itbecause I had so much to get off
(28:02):
my mind that I was just holdingback.
I feel like there was a divisionbetween who I was and what I
gave to God and what I held backfrom God.
I said that my life was for him, but did I give everything to
him or just the things that Iwas comfortable with giving to
(28:26):
him.
Um, so, completely beingtransparent with God was really
freeing, and that only camethrough silence.
So, uh, that was a completelynecessary practice for me.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Um so, christian, I really appreciate you giving of
your time, um, I appreciate yousharing your story and all that
you've learned, and I hope thatthat will benefit our listeners.
And if you are out therelistening to this, thank you for
listening.
And don't forget to like andsubscribe and all those good
things that you do with podcastsand check us out next week as
(29:04):
we bring you something just as,if not more, exciting, to the
podcast world, and check ourshow notes for anything that we
talked about, referenced,highlighted, for some more
details.
See you next week.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we
continue our conversationsabout faith and hope.
If you don't already, pleasejoin us for worship on Sundays
or on demand.
You can learn more atmeethopeorg or find us on
socials at meethopechurch.
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