A Call to Collide: Reflections After Uganda
As Sarah Lambert reflects on her time in Uganda, she explores what it means to stand in the space between gratitude and grief, clarity and confusion, and abundance and need. How can a heart be awakened by both the beauty and the brokenness of the world? This is not simply a travel reflection. It is a call to let the collision between comfort and conviction shape us.
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A Call to Collide:
Reflections After Uganda
By: Sarah Lambert Hinkle
Somewhere in the intersection of “the already” and “the not yet.”
This is where I find myself.
In a place where my thankfulness, my joy, and my hope no longer just coexist with my sorrow, my longing, and my grief– but collide.
And it happened somewhere between where the bumpy red dirt roads of Uganda met my paved (but still bumpy) roads of Jackson, MS.
It has wrecked me and changed in a way that I don’t think I’ll ever recover from, and I don’t think I’ll ever want to.
I have held lots of feelings and emotions at the same time. This isn’t a new concept for me. I have tried to allow each emotion to have the attention it deserves—always one at a time. But now it feels like I forgot that my right hand was holding all my thankfulness, and my left hand was holding all my heartbreak…and I clapped. It’s all intertwined now, making quite a beautiful mess. I feel a little disoriented as I feel safe and secure in my faith but also a little confused by it. It’s heavy to not know how to help in this world but freeing to lay it down at the feet of the Father–who hung on the cross and carried the full weight of it all.
Somehow just an ocean away, two very different worlds exist.
The one of Uganda and the one of America. Worlds that prove we are all living somewhere in the intersection. The intersection where the “not yet” is found in sickness, death, limited to no education, skewed priorities, and extreme spiritual and physical poverty. The “not yet” proving this is not the way that God wanted it to be. The whole world longs for the final redemption that will come when Jesus comes back. For now, the “not yet” is heartbreaking and can leave us questioning, “but how long will we wait?” Yet I find so much hope in “the already.” It is all around us like little glimpses of heaven on earth. These are the moments that God shows us he is still moving, speaking, healing, forgiving, redeeming. He has shown me that I don’t always have to understand the why behind the ways He moves, just believe that He is moving in goodness.
In Uganda I got a glimpse of God’s mercy and provision as we helped commission two new water wells. Josh, my husband, returned from a water well survey and told me, “Sarah Lambert, I saw a place where a whole village was getting their water from nothing more than a hole in the ground. If our dog got in it, I’d make her get out.” Something in me broke when I heard that. But through the hands of His children at Show Mercy International, God is already moving and extending love. That same village will soon have clean water. At each commissioning we got to share that Jesus not only sees them and loves them, but He is the only source of Living Water. Just like the woman at the well in John 4, we have never gone too far or done too much to be past His desire to have a relationship with us. He offers us an even greater gift of “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” How sweet it was to lock hands with the people of Uganda and tell them that Jesus was giving them clean water on Earth and pursuing them to come to Him as their Lord and Savior and source of Living water. How merciful is He to extend grace and kindness when it was us that deserved the cross.
I got a glimpse of God’s unconditional love and joy as the Show Mercy team welcomed us like they had known us forever, as we went to homes and schools, and the moment Josh and I met the child we have been sponsoring and his family. He even offered an extra measure of joy and laughter watching Josh and Matthew race down the street of Bakka after our runaway goat (Yes, an actual goat…not a metaphor!). I saw that while we get an opportunity to stand in the gap, God fills it.
I got a glimpse of God’s saving power, redemption, and forgiveness as I witnessed souls saved as people stepped into new life with Him. Testimonies of life change unfolded before our eyes in real time. I saw it in the prison, the church, and the moment I got to speak life and blessing over high schoolers in His authority using my testimony that Jesus gave.
We may be living in a time when some are content to allow these worlds to merely coexist, but my plea is that you would earnestly pray for the collision to change everything. We can choose to ignore, or we can choose to be moved. I know one day we will live in a world filled with already and no more of the not yet. Until then, I want to be motivated by the “not yet.” I want to be moved out of guilt into conviction to repentance. I want the tears of holy discontentment. I want the testimonies to see and share. I want to walk in the truth that God is the same God in Uganda and in America.
During a group devotional in Uganda, a leader asked, “Do you change the way you surrender in the presence of others?” I paused and thought about my answer and realized I didn’t like what that answer was. I want to walk in surrender in the same way publicly and privately. He showed me where the Spirit of the Lord is, there truly is freedom. The Holy Spirit showed me time and time again that I will never regret saying yes to Him and that He will always show up and give me everything I need as I seek Him. I feel like this season is catalytic. I know God will get His glory and that I want to walk willingly in step with Him. Bold. Not because I’m strong, but because He is.
With all this stirring in me, I pray:
Jesus, lead us to know when it is time to stay and when it is time to go.
Help us discern Your quiet whispers and see the world through Your eyes.
Jesus, lead us to know when to pray, when to act, when to speak.
Teach us to speak Your promises over the problems we see.
Jesus, help us shut off the noise and sit still in Your presence.
Let humility mark our steps, and faith steady our hearts.
In the hills and valleys, you are always in control and always near.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
