St. John and Smiles

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)

I once lived on St. John, a US Virgin Island. 

Worked at the Mongoose Restaurant in Cruz Bay and lived with friends on the other side of the island, near Saltpond Bay. Work days started and ended as hikes across a beautiful mountain top (when my efforts at hitchhiking weren’t productive). My off days were spent exploring luscious trails, gorgeous beaches and meeting new friends – one time even a famous one (Peter Gabriel – though youngsters may need to google him). It was a place where old, weathered island men still played dominos in the town square and the faint sound of calypso music mixed with the warm Caribbean breeze. A place where no one ever seemed to worry or be in a hurry.

I once lived on St. John, a US Virgin Island. 

Worked at the Mongoose Restaurant in Cruz Bay as a mathematically challenged waitress and bartender and lived with my always drunk ex boyfriend and some people he’d happened to make friends with a couple of months before my arrival – with $50, a back pack and return ticket my only possessions. Sharing a cramped space with strangers and their one jeep, I made long treks across a dangerous mountain back and forth to work…often walking at night and alone. Riotous living got me messed up with some native islanders, pretty nasty drug dealers that put very little value on human life, and it’s only by God’s grace that I got off that island relatively unharmed.

“My smile hides a dark story,” said my cashier with joy in her eyes. 

Checking out at Big Lots the other day, my cashier had told me she liked my Jesus pin. I happily told her my story of redemption and she - just as happily back - told me about her and her husband’s recent redemption, about a month earlier. How their lives had gotten way off track and how people often smile to cover up deep pain, a story that others would never know if they didn’t take the time to stop and find it out. Covering up the deeper story that God wants to use to help others see hope…the hope that only He can provide in this broken, sinful world where pain, death, and fear reside, behind half-truths in “I’m fine” replies, FB pictures of you at the beach, and those deceptive smiles... 

But (now GET this folks!) God gives you the power over your past story or your present story because He specializes in renewed beginnings, clean slates, and happy endings. Tweet this! Praise be to Him.

“Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.” Psalm 107:2 (NIV)

“I used to wander off until you disciplined me; but now I closely follow your word.” Psalm 119:67 (NIV)

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:38 (NIV)

“You are my refuge and my shield; your word in my source of hope.” Psalm 119:114 (NIV)