Expanse

I am looking out the window at the Sahara Desert. Weird and awesome. The flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi takes us over Sudan and Libya - essentially the heart of the largest, hottest, and most famous desert in the world. I'm a little surprised that the Sahara isn't made entirely of rolling yellow sand dunes as far as the eye can see. Sometimes the sand is more salmon in color. Sometimes it's white. Sometimes the dunes don't really seem to be rolling so much as rippling. Sometimes there are no dunes - just sand. Scattered here and there in some of the flat areas are large networks of rock formations. There is even a handful of roads. All in all, I'd say that the scenery down below is a - brace yourself for this one - taupe kaleidoscope. If you couldn't tell, this is all derision. When I look out the window, basically it's blue on the top and yellow on the bottom. Still, I wanted to stay awake for this part of the flight so I could say that I've seen the Sahara Desert.

It's fascinating to me that there are more people cooped up in this giant flying tin can than can be found in thousands of square miles of earth directly below us. It's such an immeasurably vast expanse that it can only truly be described with repetitive redundancy. I think about the 20 million sardines - I mean people - in Mexico City and I kinda wonder why half of them don't just move to the Sahara. Seeing an expanse like this from the air makes me want to defenistrate anyone who complains about how over-populated the Earth is. We have plenty of space. We just like to assert our right to personal space over that of others. You can't demand your space if there's no one around from whom to demand it. So we all go to LA, NY, Tokyo, and (for who knows what reason) Mexico City to complain about it.

On the other hand, have you ever tried to envision just how many people there are in the world? Doesn't it just make your heart break? I've literally seen tens of thousands of people today that I will never see again, and each one of them has their own great need in the midst of their own brokenness. Most of them don't know it, and most of those that do don't know how to find it. I can't possibly have given each one of them a hug, and even if I did, most of them would have been offended at the invasion of their personal space. Furthermore, how am I supposed to make a difference in their lives when I'm so preoccupied with my own? Knowing the answer to this question and being able to effectively live that way are two very different things. Fortunately, I'm on a collision course with growth in this very area, and somewhere on this plane is a man who does it very very well. Ed knows, whether by God-given understanding, life-nurtured wisdom, innate ability, or lots and lots of practice just how to do this. He has already had one soul-nurturing conversation with a seat companion on a previous flight, and he is engaged in another right now. I am excited to see how God will use him to awaken more hearts this trip. Funny how seeing a huge, un-populated mass of desert has awakened my heart to the needs of hearts around me. I only hope I can get out of the way.