"Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi"
"With your basket and my basket the people will live"
- Maori Whakataukī (Proverb)
In other words: "Team work makes the dream work".
I can work in a team easily, I can adapt to fit the needs of a team, I can help people focus on goals we need to achieve, I can lead a team openly or sit back and serve in whatever ways needed.
What I struggle with is healthy non-purpose driven relational teamwork, also known as friendship.
A couple weeks ago our team went on an outreach to a town called Ruatoria. This area is almost completely Maori peoples. It feels like going to a completely different island. The culture is different than traditional kiwi culture and the Maori language is predominant or equal to English.
In Maori culture Whanau (Family) is everything. You eat as a family, you go to school as a family, you live as a family, you fight as a family.
Before leaving for Ruatoria we were told to bring our full baskets, but our empty ones as well. We can observe, experience, learn, and take a basket full of what we learned back with us. I took that appreciation for family and healthy relationship with people.
Relationships are easy when they are surface level. When I don't have to be vulnerable, even if they are. I love making others needs known to myself, although I tend to neglect my own, this results in a therapy session, not a friendship.
In other words I make sure that others baskets get filled while I leave mine empty and neglected in the corner.
I am sure I am not alone in this. So if this is you I invite you to join me on my journey. One of bringing my basket, my needs, my worries, my dreams into the light and being open for it to be seen and filled. In this way we can have right, deep, and sustainable relationships.
Is it easy? No.
It means going against what the world says, "just get over it", and let our needs be known to those that care about us. It means accepting that people do care about me and how I feel.
In light of the recent horror that has happened in New Zealand I believe this is timely and vital. We all have the need to be loved, and sometimes it is up to us to bring our basket to the table for others and for ourselves.
We need to be vulnerable with others, let them be vulnerable with us, and set our sights on God. In this way we open ourselves to be seen, to be heard, and to be loved.
So I will bring my basket to the table, I will not leave it at the door on my way in. I will bring my basket before my friends, vulnerable to be filled.
I will bring my basket before God, and we all know what Jesus can do with just a few loaves of bread...(Luke 9:10-17)
Just a reminder that I am coming back to BC from April 14 - June 2 so please send me a message and lets meet up while I am around! So stoked to see all of you back home!
Thank you for joining me for this unusual update. It was something that has been on my heart and I thought it would be a bit more interesting than the usual list of things I am doing. I am also trying to be a bit more vulnerable and share my heart with you more. I love you all and am praying for you. God Bless!
