Madison Hur

Weeks before the India trip, I was especially struggling with the unbelief of God's goodness over my life. While the busyness of my life was distracting me away from the joy in the gospel, another storm of temptation was quickly approaching my way. This temptation was triggered only a few days before our departure date, we found out that there were some delays with Katie's (my sister’s) and my ability to travel.  The temptation to dwell in unbelief and lack of faith slowly and discreetly spread throughout my heart like a disease as the trip quickly approached. Before I realized it, I had completely lost hope that Katie and I were going to make it to India. I began to rest in the idea that maybe because I committed this sin, and that sin last week, last month, that God was deciding to teach me a lesson by not sending me. Feeling more distant and disengaged from the Lord than I had felt in a long time, I made the decision to visit the India Consulate in San Francisco with a few of the team members.

Throughout the two weeks in India, God continued his lesson about faith in my heart. This trip was unlike the previous two times I was in India, mainly because we were with a new organization, which meant that I was going to have a completely different experience. With this new organization, our team had to travel daily to host a Christmas program in different group homes. Traveling in the second most populated and dense country in the world, we encountered, drove by, and walked alongside hundreds of locals daily. After the first few days, I was already overwhelmed with a sense of sadness knowing that multitudes of them do not yet know Christ. It would have been easy to feel sad and helpless and remain in a hopeless place throughout the remainder of my trip. However, as God spoke to the Israelites of his everlasting covenant in Hebrews 8:10-12, I was overwhelmed with hope that can only spring from Christ:

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

11  And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

12  For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

This passage powerfully spoke to me while I was in India. This was a passage that I was reflecting on while I was preparing my heart before missions and the power of the gospel was reaffirmed through this passage even during the trip. The Holy Spirit provided an even more overwhelming sense of hope just by knowing that God is sovereign and loves unconditionally and justly.

In the past, I was always apprehensive about giving my life to following His call. But something that God has changed upon my return is that my life is about following His call whether I'm living in the same city back home or living across the globe. My future is not any more certain than before I went on this trip, but one thing is sure: I want to live my life faithfully in response to the gospel.