I’m sitting at my dining room table, contents of my bags still rather strewn about, 2 weeks of laundry mostly done and in a bit of a fog. Last night around 11PM, I arrived back at 8 Range Rd to conclude 40 hours of travel to get home. It’s so great to be home and it’s so weird to be home, it feels like I have been gone forever and as if I never left. I have been lying around all day, spending time with my family, trying to recover and not really sure what to do with myself.
Many things struck me about this trip, I was very moved each day when we would pray and read scripture as a team. I was very moved by the dedication to Christ of all the people I served alongside. I was very moved by the lives of the girls who are a part the anti-trafficking organization in Nepal. I was deeply impacted by the amazing Nepali guys I get to serve alongside on the construction site, and the pastors serving in a country hostile to them being there. Each of those things impacted me deeply and I could write significantly more about each one of them than you would ever want to read.
There was this one other thing, this sort of nagging thing which my whole journey home and all day today which just won’t leave me alone. My own insignificance. And to be clear, I don’t mean that in a have pity on me, I need some attention type of way.
This is not a realization because I already, or should already know it. I, like many people, am a rather self-absorbed person. My self-absorption would exist whether or not I lived in my culture which tells me every day that my own thoughts, feelings, experiences, and desires are the most important thing in the world.
I flew halfway around the world, then rode in a bus that felt like I was on a mechanical bull for 8 hours. After that bus ride, I hiked downhill for a mile and a half to a little village with the most beautiful mountain view I have ever seen. In that village, I found something very profound. People. Normal, everyday people, people who are hardworking, people who live off the land. People who are concerned about their lives, the lives of their kids and their homes. People whose lives go on whether or not I ever showed up. People who live and die, love, laugh and cry 100% independent of my existence. Isn’t that weird to think of? Some of you reading this are probably thinking… well it’s about stinking time you realized this.
Let’s be honest though, this is our human nature. You and I are so wrapped up in the minutest detail of our everyday lives. I’ve got to do this so I can accomplish that, if I don’t get this next promotion then I won’t be able to accomplish my goals. We are so focused on putting our best foot forward because we are so worried about what others think of us. I tend to get very wrapped up in how many likes I get and how I am perceived. By the way, this is not at all just an American problem. One afternoon, I had some spare time and I hiked up the side of a mountain to check out a Buddhist temple/monument that we could see from our team house. I got up there and was walking around and it was all open to the public. I went inside to see what it was like, there was a lot of artwork on the wall, a couple altars, some incense and a giant statue of Buddha. Those things were all interesting, but what was most stuck out to me was two girls posing for pictures and taking selfies with the statue.
As I flew over all of Europe, a lot of the middle east and into Asia, I could not get over how many cultures and millions of people were 40,000 feet below me. People whom I will never meet, my life will never impact either for good or for bad. People who wake up, struggle, laugh, cry, work, fall in love, be a part of a family and eventually die. I don’t know why that is so profound to me. I also don’t know why it’s not a lot more profound than it is. Maybe what I am beginning to understand is how much others matter. My country is fighting and its getting worse, people are disagreeing on so many things and neither side can seem to extend the simple kindness that is expected of kindergarteners. Haiti, another country I love is fighting again because of things far beyond my understanding. I heard several Nepali’s talk a lot about trying to get out of the country because it seems as if there is no future there.
I believe wherever you go on the planet, people are people. They are good, they are bad, they are just like you and they are completely different from you. They have fears, joys, worries, and dreams. They are created in the image of God but have lost that image and they long to be re-connected to Him. I am not the center of the universe and neither are you. People matter, important people and forgotten people. People matter whether or not I think they matter. People mattered before I ever realized it and will matter long after I am gone. People don’t matter because of their personality, heritage or what they accomplish. People matter because they are loved, even the people who are and feel unloved. People matter because they are created in the image of the creator and because of Christ’s love for them. That includes you, whether you believe in that sort of thing or not.
May you find peace and truth in that, may you realize others matter and you are not the center of the universe a lot easier than I am learning it. May your eyes be opened to what God is doing in others as well as how he is patiently waiting for you.
And hey, if you made it this far without dying of boredom, check out this amazing video put together for the Hope Force team by the leaders from our on the ground partners in Nepal.
-Stets
aaronstetson 
Beautifully written with heartfelt words, Amen.