By Annie Strother, InterHigh Mentor, Senior @ UC Berkeley

I just got back from a mission trip to Tecate, Mexico and it was amazing.  We got to go to a church with many people who were recovered drug-addicts, and it was incredible to hear the passion in their voices as they sang praise songs.  We also got to eat a lot of delicious authentic Mexican food which has left me utterly spoiled; I think it will be a long time before I can eat La Piñata again.  But one of the things that impressed me the most were the teenagers we worked with.  The woman running our trip, Ana, had two sons, Frankie (age 17) and Reuben (11), and another guy Davis (16) who was living with her.  These guys were fantastic.  Frankie was in charge of construction and was even able to teach a bunch of dingbats like us how to repair the homes we were working on.  Davis was also helping lead the construction projects, and Reuben was our translator and helped out with the painting when he wasn’t busy.  These guys were invaluable to our trip and always worked hard and never complained.

But what was even more astounding was what they had gone through to be there that week.  Frankie and Reuben’s father died two years ago, and Frankie has had to take over as lead for the construction projects since then.  Davis has two brothers who ran into some trouble doing drugs and he no longer lives at home.  On our first night Ana said it’s a struggle not to fall into drugs for many people in Tecate. Davis has to fight against this temptation all the time, even during his walks to church three days a week.  She called Davis up and asked him why he keeps going to church, despite the temptations he faces.  He answered simply, “I want God’s things in my life.”  So simple, so clear and confident.

Too often walking with God seems so complicated, with so many things to do, outside pressures to fight, all the while trying to look like we’ve got it all figured out.  But what if we just paused for a second, took a step back and refocused on what really matters: God, His love for us, and how He has changed our lives.  Maybe then we too would find that we simply want God’s things in our lives.  If you’re like me you’ve spent far too much of your past seeking the things of this world, and have found that they all fall short of what God wants to give us.  So I encourage you, make your faith simple.  Go back to God daily in prayer and in reading the Bible, and reaffirm that all you really want are God’s things in your life.  Let all your anxieties and worries about what you’ve got to do fall away and learn to seek Him out of a genuine desire to serve the One who died for you and loves you so much everyday.