Best Life Ever?

By this time we're all very familiar with the "Best Life Ever" expression. But sometimes I worry when things and expressions get used excessively, they can lose meaning. So I'm going to take a few minutes and talk about the impact "Best Life Ever" had on us in Guyana.

If you'll remember, that was originally the title of a video wherein they interviewed a sister who had up to that point been spending her life as a need-greater. It was backed by the Best Life Ever song which emphasized the points being made in the video. Of course, everybody around here immediately loved the video. Emails went around to nearly everyone ensuring everybody knew about the video and watched it. You can see it instantly got a link placed on my blog, which has remained to this day. Why? Because the lifestyle we'd spent so much time telling all our friends about (and anyone who would listen whatsoever) was getting heavy advertisement on jw.org. This video showed how incredible this lifestyle can be, and now it wasn't just us saying it. Because seriously, we want everybody to experience this.

Now obviously, the video, the song, and the eventual hashtag that has come of it doesn't apply solely to the need-greater life. But we still want you to give it serious thought. Go ahead and keep using the #bestlifeever hashtag on all your field service related stuff, but don't overlook how amazing of an experience it can be to move where the need is greater, to move to a foreign field, anything like that. Sure, it's a leap of faith. But that's why we get this message in Malachi 3:10...

"Test me out, please, in this regard," Jehovah of armies says, "to see whether I will not open to you the floodgates of the heavens and pour out on you a blessing until there is nothing lacking."

So here's the proposition I'm making. Come to Guyana. Come spend, if nothing else, just one week in Orealla. One morning we'll wake up at 5 AM and walk to our neighboring village Siparuta. We'll spend the entire day preaching nonstop to every single person we meet. You'll use your Bible more than you've ever used it before. You may even place your personal Bible. Finally before it begins getting dark, we'll walk back to Orealla. We'll arrive between 5-6 PM, and we'll march straight to one of the village's white sand beaches. You'll jump in the river and swim (or if you can't swim, wade) until all the soreness and aching is gone from you, then you'll go back home and collapse and sleep the sweetest sleep you've ever experienced. Then the rest of the week we'll spend doing whatever you want to do.

Wander through the savanna?

Play in the mud?

Hike the craziest hills you've ever seen?

Rather spend your time doing more field service? Which would you like to do most? 1) Start a Bible Study on the initial call at every single door (or tree)...

... 2) Have an entire family gather around to watch as you show the Why Study the Bible? video...

... or 3) Play the dramas and various other audio productions for older ones who can't see well anymore?

Hmm, I suppose you could do all three....


But all this... it sounds fun, but is it worth it? If you're not convinced, ask my last roommate Dustin Reynolds if his time here was worth it. Or ask my roommate before that, Charlie Brohard. Or ask my first roommate Micaiah Young. Or the couple that got me here, Michael and Lara Alston. Or Tom and Michelle Sanches. Or Sam, or Dan, or Cortny, or Melanie, Olivia, Carys, Isaac, Dan, Levi, Steve and Emma, Chris and Fern, Dale, Amy, Faith, Abbi, Lisa, Jackie, Yvonne, Sarah, Felicia, John and Janet, Dania, Hermicar, Luke and Laura, DC and Sarah, Grace, Cassandra, or any of the other bazillion awesome I've met since starting this lifestyle. Ask any single one of them if it was worth it.

There's your invitation. As the song says, "Come with me. You'll see. This is the best life ever."