Puerto Rico Reflection

By C. Mae Waugh

3/22/06

I was searching for God in Boston. In my heart, I knew he was here, but sometimes I just did not feel him.

Amid the hustle and the bustle of city life and college life vying for our attention – studying, working, busy schedules, busy people. Trying to get it all done: papers, homework, reading and still be able to get a little bit of sleep before tomorrow’s 8 o’clock class.

It is all too easy to get caught up in life and forget why we live.

I live to serve God. But it so much easier to serve myself – satiate my wants and cravings instead of helping those around me and doing God’s will.

I tried fasting. I fasted for a week, hoping every hunger pain would remind me to pray and remind me to seek God. And yes, I prayed and I was reminded of God’s presence, but it wasn’t enough and I worried I had lost him.

God was not lost, however. I found Him in Puerto Rico. I felt God in Puerto Rico.

There’s something about sitting on a hot tin roof, 25 feet off the ground and hanging on the edge for dear life as I paint the trim of a poor Puerto Rican church that reminds me God is near.

There’s something about complete strangers welcoming you into their church and their lives and their hearts that reminds me God is inside us.

There’s something about 12 girls painting an entire church in three days, exceeding expectations, that reminds me God is at work.

God is at work through us.

God is at work in Puerto Rico. A place I can only describe as some sort of mixture between Florida and Mexico, Puerto Rico blossoms with beauty and wealth next door to poverty. Pricy resorts line the shore, as bars protect the windows of homes farther inland. Tourists lavish money in upscale restaurants, while vagabonds beg for it on the corner of streets in Old San Juan. The place itself is a paradox: even its people speak in two different tongues.

But the people of Puerto Rico know God. They do not rush from here to there, as we do, worrying about late appointments and to-do lists. They skip work in order to help us paint. They live island time and work in island ways and will not hesitate to pick up a hymnal and begin to sing before returning to work.

The people of Puerto Rico don’t just sing – they expose their hearts through praise to God and that is most beautiful. They clap, they sway; they raise their voice and worship. They make you want to worship too.

And when you are around these people, you cannot help but feel God in their presence. Their very being exudes his love and you can’t help but just stand there and let it wash over you in waves.

I felt God in Puerto Rico. And being there I realized something: God is everywhere, yes. He is omnipotent, with us all the time. But the majority of His Spirit is where he is needed most. God dwells with the poor, the sick, the faint-hearted, the weary, the needy and He dwells with us. Don’t feel Him as strongly right here, right now? That’s okay, it only means someone lese, somewhere else need more of Him than you do.

I was searching for God in Boston. I found Him in Puerto Rico and I would have brought him back with me, but I didn’t need to: He was already here. All I needed to do was open my heart and guess what I found:

I found God in Boston.

C. Mae Waugh is a journalism major at Northeastern University, Boston, where she is active in Lutheran-Episcopal Campus Ministry. In 2006, as an “alternative” spring break, she participated in a service project in Puerto Rico, sponsored by her campus ministry group with the support of a grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Waugh also traveled to Kenya this past winter.