Focusing Our Hearts: Tayt Thomas

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”

My first month of summer after the Spring Quarter was spent on a mission trip in Ethiopia with nine other people from The Wesley. When the mission trip was first announced and the sign-up sheet was put up, my immediate reaction was not to put my name on the list. At that point in time, I already had a few ideas for how I was going to spend my summer: I was going to work and make a lot of money, or I was going to take summer classes to catch up on my schedule, or I was going to do something else that I felt was not going to be as difficult as going on a mission trip. Although the idea of spending a month in Ethiopia was intriguing, I had other things I could do. There was also the matter of needing $4000 to go, which I was not confident in my ability to obtain.

Even though I had these reasons, I was given some pretty good ones for why I should go anyway, and after being motivated by many people, I eventually decided to go on the trip. I was still expecting it to be uncomfortable, with lots of growing pains and stresses, but now I also believed that even with these things the best thing for me to do was to go on this trip.

All these expectations did come true, but they were not as often as I had anticipated nor as difficult as I had thought they would be. A common event for me on this trip was: I would be called to a situation that would require me to do something I thought would be uncomfortable; then, when doing whatever the situation was, I realized it was not as bad as I thought it’d be; finally, when it was done, I normally had satisfaction with whatever it was that I was doing.

It was very interesting to me that I was getting so much satisfaction and joy out of something that my heart was telling me was going to be the opposite. Another thing I thought was interesting was that I had noticed in the last few days before we left that I had not thought about my future in America whatsoever while on this trip, which was something I often thought about while home and was a source of some anxiety. Overall, despite what my heart had led me to believe, I was having a much better time in Ethiopia than I had ever had when I was in the States, and this had sparked some thinking, and I eventually came up with some answers as to why this was the case.

I think the reason I was so content was that I had no chance to be discontent. Since my focus and attention were on the things around me instead of on things back home or in the future, my heart was satisfied. I believe the desires we have in our heart are often influenced by things we see on a daily basis. Part of the reason why ads exist is so companies can manufacture desire for an object that we never really wanted or needed before we saw the commercial and would really be fine without. I also believe that the heart can give us desires as a sign that something is missing from our lives. But on this mission trip, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

If I had to say I learned anything from this trip, it would be that I have better learned to love wherever I am in life and that managing our desires is a very important way to do that. A large part of managing our desires is showing our hearts the things we want it to focus on. While in Ethiopia, almost all of my time and attention was spent on spiritual growth, serving those around me, and doing work to the best of my ability. My heart had no chance to think about and desire other things, whether that was an immediate desire or one for the future. I don’t believe that this is the cure-all for every conflict between what the heart wants and what the mind knows is better, but I do believe that working and spending time on the environment around you instead of abstract things can help a lot.

Tayt Thomas is a senior at Louisiana Tech majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies. Kind, patient, and easygoing, Tayt’s presence at The Wesley is a constant source of encouragement to our community. He enjoys camping, bird watching, video games, and sci-fi media. Tayt is a tremendous blessing to us, and we love him dearly!