Longing

I don’t know how many of you keep up with the news these days, but if you don’t know the situation in Northeast DRC is very unstable. A group of rebels who defected from the army and some defectors from the Rwandan military have teamed up to form a movement known as M23. Their formation took place out in the bush on March 23, 2012, hence M23. I know some of you might have been thinking that they named their rebel group after Michael Jordan and stood for Michael 23, but if you thought that you would be very wrong.

            I remember well where I was March 23^rd, 2012 even though it had nothing to do with rebels. On March 23^rd I woke up from my bed in the Himbi Quarter of Goma, DRC (the Capital of the province North Kivu, in Northeastern Congo) with a pretty bad stomachache due to the spigot water I drank the day before while playing some basketball with my players. I jumped on my bike and rode 10 kilometers into the center of town to set up for the inauguration of the basketball court that PJB had just finished constructing. We spent the day setting out chairs, finishing up some paint jobs and preparing the court for inauguration games. The day was filled with excitement as we presented our finished product of a basketball court to the people of Goma.

            Though within the capital of the province we were celebrating and watching basketball, up north a rebel leader, Bosco Ntaganda, was rallying troops to fight against the Congolese military. Now it is almost 4 months later and I am sitting on the comfortable white couch perched in the corer of our extremely small but cozy living room in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Meanwhile my players, my friends, and people who took me in as family are going about their daily life in Goma except they know that any day now a group of rebel soldiers (now stationed just about 10 km outside of the city) could take to their town and turn it in to a war-zone against the Congolese military.

            Have you ever longed for something so bad that it makes you feel sick to your stomach thinking about it? It’s not really even a bad thing, even though you feel sick, but it’s that you want something so bad that your body physically reacts just at the thought of that one thing. It is a common occurrence in my life. Even though I seem to be laid back and unemotional, I long so much for things to go well and things to be right that almost daily I feel queasy at the thought of what I want to accomplish.

I can put it in perspective for those of you that are athletes, artists, or just performers on any stage in life. It could be a concert you playing in, a business meeting you are speaking at, or a couple free throws you are about to take before the buzzer sounds at the end of the game. At some point in life you have probably had that feeling where you feel like you are going to throw up in a pressure situation. Now I know we could go into the scientific and psychological reasons for this feeling, but that’s not important. Many people explain this queasy feeling as something that is triggered by fear or nervousness. I beg to differ as I see it as a feeling of longing.

            Longing is defined as a strong persistent yearning or desire. You could substitute words like hunger, thirst, and crave to describe the feeling of longing. Longing is the same feeling you get when your so hungry and your stomach hurts, or that you just crave a piece of pizza so bad that you could just throw up. To long for something though does not mean that you have to be fearful or nervous of it not occurring. Longing for something should be that you want it so bad that your body and mind react together to accomplish exactly what it is that you want. Just like when you are hungry you will probably go to the kitchen and cook something up, or if you crave pizza you will drive down to Little Ceasars and pick up a Hot-N-Ready.

            Daily I have been waking up with my stomach in knots. I fall asleep longing for information from my friends in Congo, telling me that they are fine. I crave the feeling of waking up in the morning with a purpose to work and be productive. I hunger to meet new people and reconnect with people I already know so that I can leave a lasting (good) impression on their life just as I know they will mine. I thirst for the knowledge and love that can be found within this world through learning, relationships and prayer.

            It is a daily occurrence that I feel all of these things. My longing to be great and to change the world has led me to so many great things, and I am so impressed daily by the wonders of this world. I hope that each and every person that reads this (and I hope a lot of you do) can have the same passion for life that I do!

            Now it is my time though to ask for prayers for those I left behind in Goma and the surrounding areas. It should never be forgotten that there are people who live in a world that their only longing is for safety and comfort, whose only hunger is for a hearty healthy meal, whose only thirst is for clean and healthy drinking water, and who crave a better life. Though the people of North Kivu have lived through a couple decades of this same situation we cannot let them leave our thoughts and prayers. It is my longing that one day we will find a way to end war, to end poverty, and to end injustice so that the world can live happily in peace as a community of global citizens who crave to change the world for the better.

May the world great you with a smile every morning. And may you smile right back!