Me, two + Me too.

Chelsea Chaisson
Aug 15, 2018
11 min read

Psalm 46: 5, 10 “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns…Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

This morning I woke up to an unexpected email. A job I had applied for last fall re-opened up and I was requested to take the position. It’s funny when things shift and your gifts make room for you, but even funnier when you can’t make any move in that direction because you aren’t there anymore, you are physically elsewhere. Though the position seems ideal, teaching music, I cannot say whether I can even take this position or not when I return stateside this December. Why do I share this? Because, I think it captures the season I am currently in. I am being "still" while God is in fact orchestrating a nearby shift come 2019-2020 year. Literally, many options and opportunities and possibilities are opening up or are capturing my imaginations but I am unable to fully commit or move on those just yet…but something is coming. When I know, I’ll let you know. Currently, I am spending around 20-40 hours on (BCC) Bible School homework while attending Bible classes weekly and still teaching weekly evening English classes at our Youth Development Center (YDC). God has ushered in a new rhythm while living here in Cambodia with the BCC. Further, my beloved missionary best friend will be joining me in two weeks and I can “smell” God all over the shift He is about to usher in with her even coming. For now, I am still in process, studying, working hard, and waiting. While waiting I want to share what God has been brewing these past six weeks I have been in the intensive Bible Class. I am in an incubator of sorts. What I am really learning right now is the power of the saying, “me too” as well as “me, two”. When I say “me too”, I mean I am learning about compassion. Throughout these past few weeks, especially with recently having had a “lice epidemic” at our base, I have learned that God desires for us to not be shaken but to be moved* to compassion to showcase His love. While nit-picking a friends hair this weekend, I couldn’t help but notice that through my Bible class, I am literally nit-picking the Word of God, while simultaneously God is nit-picking my life. He is literally weeding out any of the “little foxes” that are in our relationship. He is working on my character and integrity. Why is nit-picking important? Because if you don’t take the time to sit there, wait it out, and allow each strand to be finely tooth-combed and cleared out of all debris/ nits, then the lice will spread, multiply, grow, and the cycle will continue. You have to take the time, do the work, and clear the hair of all traces of lice eggs. Especially because we live in community, it's like being in a fish bowl, we have no room to let anything fester or go unnoticed. The unspoken standard of life here is to get those nits out and to make sure they stay out. To paint this picture for you spiritually speaking, God has been combing through my character and integrity and He especially hasn’t allowed me to take anything that isn’t mine. He has made we ask even in regards to, in my option, the smallest things. Interestingly, they all revolve around what I can “ingest”. With the word of God becoming my “daily bread” the Lord is carefully and faithfully training my hands to uphold the highest standard of humility, compassion, and integrity.

For example, the Lord has had me apologize for researching and finding some Bible Class material from the internet rather doing the thumb-work myself. He has also had me ask for forgiveness for taking some coffee and creamer reserved for our Burn nights. He has had me ask for permission before borrowing a French-press, eating leftovers, and has had me walk the literal 5 minute distance I would have otherwise rode for 1 minute on the moto, after being advised to wear a helmet each time I rode the moto and I didn’t in fact have a helmet. I am sharing all of these examples from the past few weeks to highlight that everything we do under the sun is seen by God. If I am learning anything from having read already 27 books of the Bible in these past 6 weeks alone, I am confident that God desires righteousness, holiness, truth, justice, integrity, compassion, and commitment. He is having me exercise my righteousness, holiness, truth, justice, integrity, and character by not allowing even the smallest things to “slip by”. No, He wants me to be holy as He is holy. At times, this seems tedious or daunting, but each time I choose His way, I choose to walk in humility. I choose to die those little deaths in order to clearly hear His voice, and walk in His ways. Especially finding myself in a season of waiting, I am desperate to hear His whispers. If he can’t trust me with the small, how in the world can He trust me with those big decisions that are soon to come? Luke 16: 10, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” All of the decisions hanging out for my 2019-2020 year are overlapping and all good ideas, but they require commitment, and I don’t want to just do something good, I want to follow God. Only in following God can I confidently make a decision in faith and stick it out, which requires even more faith. So I'm choosing courage to face even the smallest sin as though it were a nit that requires death. Currently, I am marinating in His Word and asking for direction to hit me like fire. I believe, with my friend joining me for the last three months of this extended outreach here in Cambodia, God will reveal many things I couldn’t have even dreamt up or manipulated to make happen. He will cause His way to be made clear and I will walk the good path He has prepared for me, like I've been walking. Because the options are coming quickly and demanding commitments I am unsure about, He has me equally in a position where I actually can’t move on these choices just yet. I am still waiting and praying, marinating and listening. This is a time that God is refining me and perfecting me that much more, not so that I can become legalistic, no. I serve a holy God who is my father, best friend, and the deepest love of my life, but again, He is holy. He desires that I would be holy as He is holy. Equally so, whoever you hang out with, you will become just like. When he looks at me I want him to say, “me, two…” When I say “me, two”, I mean, that God would see Himself in me, like saying, “Hey, it’s me, but in two.” Like when Adam saw Eve, He saw himself (he could say of her, “me in two” and to her, “me too”). Genesis 2:23-25, “And Adam said, ’this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

Naked, for me right now, looks like integrity, and not carrying any shame, but confessing and correcting, working on character and trustworthiness. James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” I’ve had some fun this past week, face timing faith friends from Louisiana. I always love how when we talk the Holy Spirit has us all on some similar journey to where every other word we debrief and process together ends in one of us saying, “hey, God’s doing that here too”, or “He is showing me that too,” or just simply, “me too!”. Two weekends ago, I spent some time with a house-mate here also named Chelsea. She is actually, Lord willing heading to New Zealand soon (my friend Janea too, and soon, Lord willing, “me too”…#Mission2Pacific, but all in God’s timing). Being with her for a weekend in Battambong, debriefing life and enjoying simply being a child of God was refreshing. It was like being with me but in two. We were able to share so many things God was teaching us both, we continuously stopped one another mid-conversation to say, “hey, me too!” We two actually lead a time of intercession this morning for our YWAM base. Doing life with others, even co-leading, is so nice because we are able to rest and trust one another in a sort of ping-pong, tag-team manner. For two to be one, like minded, on the same page leading, they must both die (kind of like in marriage, like with Adam, his bones coming out, to multiply which also required rest-incubating, a season of waiting…). Furthermore, we, as a base took time to wait for ten minutes and listen to God. From this place we corporately prayed. Waiting and listening seems to be the hardest part. It is easy to do and to open our mouth, but to be still and know…this is harder, but most necessary for effectiveness and precision. This is how it is to live life with God. We may make our plans, but He directs our steps. He actually died already, and lives again so that WE TOO can die to live. This is a process and we are all in it. It is Him in the first place ushering in the opportunities, the newness, and may we never forget it, or think it is in our own strength that things have come about for our favor. Our gifts will “make room for us”, but God is the one who will receive all due credit. Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” More notable ‘me, two’ and ‘me, too’ moments: “me, two” : Janea coming, again like me in two people, because of the “me, too”. God has done a similar work in our lives and we are unashamedly living our lives in God’s hands, truly relying on Him for our daily bread, daily needs, and open doors. Our lives are up to Him. We incubate, marinate, and wait and then move when He says move. We move to where He leads, when He speaks. He told me, “Hey, Chelsea, I am in Cambodia.” I have ever since March/ April been invited to say back to him, “Hey, me too!” “me, too”: Living in the same building and remaining, weekly, as most Cambodian people here do, is helping me say to this people and nation, “me too”. All have markets at the front of their houses and they remain in the same space all day waiting for customers. In a way, I can have a deeper compassion for the Cambodian people as I am remaining in the same building hours upon hours, in fellowship and community, which makes doing homework actually easier and more fun, while also, welcoming in the public for our times of English school. They come to us. I am not 100 % sure how to describe why I believe this is important, but the main thing is, I feel I am incurring a deeper sense of compassion and understanding for the people of Cambodia. Their markets being in their house keep them up inside all day, each and every day. Not to mention it is rainy season and we just read Genesis, making the Bible that much more real, like I feel like I can say to Noah, “me too”. (Living in base and remaining here to study constantly and working from inside has felt like an ark in a way, especially because it rains daily.)

I was growing out my hair, then we base ladies found lice and nits in our hair. I had lice a lot growing up and have even had a few scares while camp counseling when I had long locks. Based on my past, what did the Lord require of me recently? He reminded me that my hair is short for a reason. Especially after nit-picking my own hair and finding a live louse, I was able to say with the ladies, “me too!” So, I shaved my hair again and felt God moving me to compassion to help insure that all the lice from my friend’s hair, all of those nits were to be picked out and gone. Today, after many hours of nit-picking, I can finally say, “it is finished”, no more lice. In our classroom, we have 10 international, & 10 Khmer students. The lectures are half in Khmer and half in English. Especially when a teacher is Khmer, the lecture is then translated into English, and it can be hard to understand various concepts as well as get the full picture. Thus, we know what it feels like for the Khmer when we have lectures and various things in English then translated to Khmer. "I don't understand"...“Me too”. Mad respect to those who speak second languages as well as for those who learn English. Something cool happening, because I am incubating in Bible and Khmer community, I am, without even trying, continuing to pick up on Khmer coversations while growing in deeper friendships with my Khmer BCC peers and YDC students. At the beginning of my time here, we came to serve them, the Khmer, as if we were the “hero” and they were “victims”. Personally, I'm ashamed to say I did this in my heart, but now God has us together in the balance, we are on the same page, same level, just students, both waiting for translations and/or getting lost in translation (literally and Biblically speaking). This give and take relationship has required patience from all of us but it is worth it. As of today, I officially become head of the base worship. Having been leading worship with Khmer peers for the past month, I am growing in new ways as a worshipper and worship leader. We do one Khmer song for every English song or vice versa. These songs bounce off of one another, like the game of ping-pong. It requires more waiting, but it is showcasing the greatness of our God. Equally, in this way, we are all humbling serving one another. Dying to live. We are all on the same boat (ark), and it actually draws us closer to submit and serve.

Us, Khmer and international students, laugh together and pull long hours color-coating the Word, reading through one book around five times in a week, preparing charts, interpretations, and writing out applications based on what we read. This blog in a way is a result of an application to the book of Jeremiah. Just as God instructed Jeremiah to write down on scrolls what He was speaking through Jeremiah, so do I feel instructed to write down and make public the things God shares with me. Matthew 10:27, “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” What He shares in secret, He has me publish to make known to those following this journey, to inspire, and motivate others to trust Him too. I want you to read this and say, “me too”. “I want to follow God too, or teach abroad, or take a Bible class, or live in a third world, or muster up courage to confess my sins to one another, or live a life of integrity, or to blog and document what God speaks and shares with me, too”. So do it, incubate, marinate, wait, and die, because it takes two. God already did it, will you?

Hi friends and family, pray about partnering with me and what God is doing in, around, and through me financially as well as spiritually (prayer warriors). You can directly donate to my PayPal chelseachaisson@gmail.com

I also am praying into coming to Louisiana in December, Lord willing for a season to share stories from the field. I will be raising support for this and also will be marking off my schedule to speak on circuit. For more details, and if you would like me to come share at a Bible study, service, or a special event, and if you want to share your prayers (prayer warriors), send me an email chelseachaisson@gmail.com