What is True Joy?

John 15:7-12 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing... If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As my father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Hola! Buenas noches from Tambo Grande! Man, do I have some thoughts to share with y'all today! I hope you're ready and have time, because tonight it is just me, my computer (a charger), and lots of stars. Our time in Tambo Grande has been about as perfectly scripted as it could go. I keep telling Will and Alex I am waiting for something to go wrong because this can't be a perfect trip. I mean I am working with new people, building friendships, getting my tan on, and growing in my walk with Christ. I just don't know if it can get any better. Also I am lobbying for Will to play football again. This kid has some hands on him. Lets be honest, if he can catch my wobbly passes on a consistent basis here on the futbol fields of Peru, there is no telling what him and Johnny Football can do teamed up together! Excuse me one second... I just threw up in my mouth! Just kidding... I can support Texas A&M now. I mean they did run off to the SEC because of our tv network that is in a whopping 300 homes across America. Definitely helping our recruiting ;) but that is enough of that rant.

You are probably thinking I put the scripture from John 15 in my blog today because I am working with tree branches and mangos and lots and lots of fruit. Yeah that was initially what stood out to me. But after going into a deeper place of thought and digging into this scripture something else stood out to me. Verse 11 says, "I have said these things so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete." I think we all can grasp somewhat the joy of His. I think Jesus finds joy in seeing us live by the gospel. I think he finds joy in seeing us love the less fortunate, or choose him over something more pleasing to our worldly flesh. I know Mikah 6 says, "Seek Justice, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with your God" (paraphrased), and I believe a walking man of christ looks like that exactly. And THAT, is something that brings joy to our Savior. But Jesus goes on to say, "that your joy may be complete."

Have you ever imagined yourself actually sitting in a room talking to Jesus. I mean literally close your eyes and go to that place. (Well, open them back up real quick and read this. Then I suggest you do this technique right after). Go to a place, I like to think of a huge library, full of books. Tall shelves, elegant lights, nice comfy chairs, and sweet statues. Each book is about something in your life. Hobbies, childhood stories, nightmares, church sermons, football stadiums you've played in, parties you've gone to, girls/guys you've dated, books you've read, and the list goes on. Isn't that cool? A library of your own. Design it however you want! This is your own "Inception movie", create it how you want! But one factor is important. Standing there waiting for you when you walk in is the man you had scheduled an appointment with that day. That man is Jesus. Y'all walk through your library and then take a seat over in the corner. He then looks at you and asks you in his deep yet calming voice, "My beloved child, where are you finding your joy in this world?"

That is where I was when I read this chapter. It was an awesome tactic my new friend Micah was talking to me about a few nights ago. When I really could feel that situation, and I could look at all these stories about me in my own "library", I really had to ask myself what I find joy in. Initially I had to be honest. I have built football up in my life so large that it had become an idol and everything revolved around it. So I instantly thought I find joy knowing that I was the last qb for a long time to storm Kyle Field and win the most monumental game I have ever played in. As I replied that back to Jesus, he gave me a look that basically said that's about right, that's why I put your tail in Peru all summer. But then I started searching the depths of my heart. What do I truly find joy in? I find joy in making my two brothers proud! Nothing makes me more happy than one of them telling me they love me, proud to be my brother, or anything along those lines. Something about sharing blood with those two and being the youngest, I constantly do all I can to make them proud to share my name. I find joy in hearing my mom pray. I always give her a hard time by asking her to keep it short before meals, but honestly I can see a woman who is devoutly chasing after her Daddy. I always took it for granted waking up in the mornings early before a 6 am workout in high school, when I would look over the railing down into our living room and the lamp would be on, a cup of coffee on the side table, and my mom reading her bible. She is the ultimate definition of joy in my life. I find joy having a Dad that tells me how much he loves me on a day to day basis. Do you know how unheard of that is? I never knew that until I got to college and had teammates that never did and never will experience that. I find joy in getting a text from my best friend back home, Jordan, that said this...

Jordan: I wanted to tell you that I contacted my dad last week and asked him if he wanted to come have lunch while I'm back... So he's coming into town and we're gonna meet and have lunch! Pretty crazy news, so I've been getting my mind right and praying hard on it!

Me: Broooo, that is sooo awesome!! Man I'm freakin pumped for you!

Jordan: I know man... My mind has been trying to comprehend it all and get stuff in perspective... I am not going to go about this in a harsh revengeful way but in a forgiving way. I just feel that after this lunch I'd like to move forward with our relationship and not look back!

How crazy is that? A guy who wants what I have always had and am just now realizing how much joy it actually does bring me! May our prayers be with my boy Jordan, as he goes about his day with his dad tomorrow! I know where his heart is and know what he wants. He finally has found his Father in Heaven, but for the meantime he needs his daddy here on this earth!

Another thing I find joy in is helping people. I love putting a smile on peoples face. There is just something about seeing someone with much less than I have, for one small instant, feel more blessed than I am. I guess what I am trying to say is I love having compassion for people. Not only does it bring joy to them, but also lots of joy to myself. I am reading a book called Tattoos on the Heart the power of Boundless Compassion by Gregory Boyle. The best story of compassion for me comes from one of Jesus' miracles. In this book "G" rights a meaningful paragraph...

"Compassion isn't just about feeling the pain of others; it's about bringing them in toward yourself. If we love what God loves, then, in compassion, margins get erased. "Be compassionate as God is compassionate," means the dismantling of barriers that exclude.

In Scripture, Jesus is in a house so packed that no one can come through the door anymore. So the people open the roof and lower this paralytic down through it, so Jesus can heal him. The focus of the story is, understandably, the healing of the paralytic. But there is something more significant than that happening here. They're ripping the roof off the place, and those outside are being let in."

We are called to be the men ripping the roof off and lowering people into the house to experience Jesus. So often we just talk about helping the less fortunate, or say things such as, "I'll get to that when the right time comes". Who are you to decide when the right time is? This blog is not to toot my own horn by any means, but I can say this is the worst time possible for me to be in a foreign country. But when God stirs in your heart a prayer to pray Anything, then you better be willing to pack your bags! We are tearing roofs down daily! Our job is to let people inside that house! And it won't get overcrowded trust me. As we see, He will move to another house, a much larger house if needed, only expecting and wanting us to come rip the roof off it! Because that is where he finds joy as well! Are you catching this metaphor?!?! I hope you are. But by no means do I find joy in showing compassion for my own good. Yes it makes me feel all warm and gushy inside, but there are plenty of other things that can cause that same feeling. I am in Peru because that is where I believe we would have found Christ today. Literally in Peru? Maybe not this exact town in Tambo Grande, in this exact hotel, working in this exact field, but I definitely believe he would have been somewhere serving someone less fortunate than him. I read an interview between Mother Teresa and Times, when asked about her greatest hope for her work in India, her response was short and simple, "To give Jesus to all", Times then shot back by saying, "But you do not evangelize in the conventional sense of the term." Mother Teresa had it figured out, she replied, "I'm evangelizing by my works of love..." That my friends, is breaking down the roof! Tearing it piece by piece, causing a commotion because you are not scared, you are not shy about your God, you are not worried what the others already inside might think! No, you know that when Christ looks up at you through the roof, it won't be the look that I got in "my library", but more so a look of "Well done, my good and faithful servant!"

But do you want to know what my ultimate true joy is? All these are great, but all these will come and go and be blown away by the wind. My true joy was found while sitting in that library. I could hear my saviors voice! I could see his face! I just wanted to reach out and hug Him! You are probably thinking that I am smoking something over here or just plain crazy, and maybe I am crazy, but after I read that scripture I was in a place I had only been one other time in my life. I could honestly feel the presence of God all around me! Nothing in that moment mattered except my eyes focused on him. My heart sank into my chest, and I was full of joy. That is true joy friends, being in the presence of Jesus. I can't wait to be in Heaven and live in that joy for eternity! Singing and dancing and praising the one true king!

The problem is, I'm still on Earth, in South America, in Peru, in a small town called Tambo Grande, working in an even smaller town called Malingas, cutting down trees... That sounds like the opposite of heaven haha. So for the time being, these other joys shall hold me over until that day comes. A day that I hope to be a celebration. A day I will join up with my grandparents and cousins that have already passed on.

I am all about action. It is great if a coach draws up the best play, but if it doesn't work, the crowd is booing him (or boooing me). So after reading this blog today, I hope you actually take a look into your life. What are you finding joy in? To find out if it has to do with Jesus, ask yourself this. Think of everything in this world you love! Think of Heaven, paint it in your mind. What you visualize will be the best there is He has to offer, because that is what He promises us. You see the streets of Gold, you see the Kingdom and the Gates (I play a lot of mindcraft so this is really easy for me). Put it all together and ask yourself this, "Would I accept a free invitation here for the all eternity knowing that Christ would not be present?" Where your joy lies, so does your heart! Lets start tearing down roofs, Ready, Set, Go!

P.S. It is not letting me upload photos on here so feel free to follow me on Instagram! @CaseMcCoy6 Will thinks he is a professional photographer so we are having fun with the camera throughout the day.

And On The Second Day... They Rested

As the Mumford and Sons ringtone blared at 6 am our conversation was short and not sweet. Will: "My head is killing me." Me: "I can't move, my back is broke." Then we threw water on our face and caught a ride to the mango farms. You see, I can brag on us "Gringos de Americano" as they call us here. We actually worked extremely hard yesterday on day one. As we have quickly realized, only being here for five days so far, the Peruvians don't believe that white Americans actually work. All they ever see of us over here is a business man in a 4 wheel car with a cell phone up to his ear directing orders in a very accented North American broken spanish. With that being said, as we stepped off the plane in Piura, we were already at a disadvantage. One vow we made to each other was not only are we here to help these fellow citizens of ours (because that's what love does), but also we want to help our culture and our country out by changing the view of America as a whole. Yes, we worked hard one day getting dirty with several other workers, but anyone can do that. We are here for nine weeks and it is going to be a grind to keep up with them and continue to be servants to them just as Jesus was when he walked the streets of this earth. Isn't that our ultimate goal? Isn't that our calling? Love one another as Christ loved us? If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times, but it never really rang in my head like it has here. How can we even try to express his love for us through words. All I can even try to put onto paper is that he left the RIGHT HAND of GOD! Why would any of us ever want to leave that position? That is so inhuman it is scary. I know the day I walk the Streets of Gold, there is not going to be a single ounce of my spirit that would want to turn around and come to this place we call home. Not only did he do everything I just mentioned I wouldn't do, but he did it all the while knowing he would ultimately receive the wrath of God and die the cruelest death known to man. Speaking of the cross, have you ever stopped to think, "Jesus actually had my name and every sin I would ever commit, whether small or large (since we are humans and rank our sins), and still decided to bare the nails for me?"If that doesn't bring tears to your eyes then maybe you should really take a check into your walk with that Man that did bare those nails for you. Because if you didn't know, HE DID! This whole idea that I had heard about for 21 years through hours of sunday bible school, longgggg boring sermons (so I thought), and even a Mel Gibson produced movie, didn't actually sink in and take a toll on my life until this year. Why is that such a downfall for so many people of my generation that are raised in the church? The only thing that I have come up with (not scripturally based) is that I never needed God. As Jennie Allen talks about in her book Anything, God was just a plastic God to me. He sat upon the shelf and my family lived for him. They loved him, gave him pretty much all they had, but for me that's all he was. Therefore I never needed him. Everything in my life was taken care of for me. I was a good athlete, made good grades, didn't do drugs, and was in church every Wednesday and even TWICE on Sundays. It wasn't until tragedy hit, that I actually had to get on my knees and seek God. Truly seek him! No longer could I just pray a prayer for forgiveness and to bless my family and the food I am about to eat three times a day to this plastic God. I had to open up myself and stop hiding from this God that was supposedly still pursuing me. WHAT?!?! Pursuing me? Why the heck would he be doing that?
That, my blogger friends, is what this blog is about. That is what Love Does. It is, it really is! There is no greater story in the history of mankind that can outdo this love story! No Nicholas Sparks story can even be put in the same breath! Sorry ladies. But it is true! So why would I not give up everything I had going for me in the states and come love people that need it. Is that not our commandment? Is that not what we just agreed He did? What if everyone started loving the way we are commanded to love? It seems like such a cliche, but seriously! If we all decided to put one foot outside of our comfort zone and decide to try this word called love, I promise we will all be dancing before you know it!
As for the rest of our day today, yes once again my ADD kicked in, we were able to ease off on the manual labor and count trees for a new plot of land we are about to contract out. It was interesting because my two amigos and me are still trying to brush up on our spanish. With that being said we had to find out which trees were healthy and which were not. Oh and somehow find a way to count up to 563 in spanish. Also today was the first day we got to experience the sun and heat of Peru. So of course I wanted to get my tan on. I took my shirt off and am now going by a nickname I am not proud of. "Baywatch" has been given to me and I am quickly trying to put it to rest. The problem is Will and Alex loved it so lets just hope we can leave it here in Tambo Grande when the trip is over. Haha. All in all, this trip is building up to be all we had hoped for. We have to get up early in la mañana to go back to the field and grab a shovel and get back to work before calling it a week. But for now I got to get back to our competitive card game. Still praying for all those affected by the awful weather in Oklahoma! Always sad to hear, but we have to trust that there is a bigger picture. He must've needed some new Angels :)

In the Beginning...

So yes, I am officially a blogger. As I sat on my back porch looking over a local soccer, eating gold fish, and drinking coca cola my two amigos started blogging. I felt a bit left out, so I sprayed some mosquito repellent on and joined the world of blogging. I am in Peru. Yes you are probably thinking what in the world is this kid doing there? Don’t I have a team to be with back home? Shouldn’t I be training? Yes, yes, and yes! Over the course of the next nine weeks I will be blogging about my trip here in Peru, posting pictures, and sharing what I have learned both culturally and even more importantly spiritually.

            So lets get started. I got this wild idea back in January to accompany my cousin on a journey to South America. I had no clue what I was getting into just knew I couldn’t have picked a better person to travel with. I knew that if he was making the effort to come all the way here, it would have something to do with serving the Lord, loving people, serving people, playing sports, and eating REALLY good! Doesn’t that sound like the most fun trip? If you know me, you know that I love to eat, and I love to love. There is just something about that word. If you don’t love to love then you will probably not love or even like this blog. I will go more into this these next couple of weeks but for now I got to stick to the plan…. Yes, I’m ADD, ADHD, and ABCDEFG.

            After talking to Will about this trip I learned that another girl from his College Ministry there in College Station would be making the trek here as well and her name is Alex. Alex is already awesome and such a trooper. I can’t wait to keep growing in my relationships with these two. So what are we doing here? We are here to help on a Mango Farm. Yes, the great mangos you buy from your local HEB with soon be coming from the small town Malinga right outside of Tambo Grande. Tambo Grande is also a smaller community about and hour and a half from Piura where we stay on the weekends. The John Mark Davidson family lives there and are hosting us for the time being. And lets just say, this family is awesome! It doesn’t get any better than these guys! The have completely made this trip all it is worth, and I can’t wait to keep learning more about these guys. John Mark and Tara have FOUR kids. Three boys Kellen, Kase, and Mack, and one girl named Parker (excuse the spelling if it is wrong :/) These kids are nuts and it is so fun to be around some americans and talk a little English in the afternoons.

            I should probably wrap up my first blog now by giving my intro into love. I am reading a book right now called Love Does. It is basically a bunch of crazy stories about love and how extreme it needs to be! I want that love in my life! I want to experience the love that Christ has, has had, and always will have for me, with everyone I come in contact with. To find that love I packed up my bags and traveled as far away and as different as I could find from the life I was living. You see, to me being normal was being like everyone I was around. I was cool, had things going for me that I ALWAYS took for granted, lived in a nice house, drove a nice car, had the best electronics, an unbelievable family, and plenty of food and water! I was tired, in a rut, and needed to experience something more! So here I am, outside getting eaten by mosquitos because my repellent has worn off, out of clean water, and running out of battery, but most importantly completely in love with love! Why am I here you ask again? Because that’s what love does!