In my previous post, I introduced you to the widows that taught me something about what living out the kingdom of God looks like. We’ve been home for 2 weeks now and as we find the time to process all that we experienced I think about many things. I think often about the widows we met in Rubongi. I think about how I was born in Canada and given many privileges and they were not and neither of us had a choice in the matter. We are different in many ways. Our skin colour is different. I have access to clean drinking water and electricity. My children have access to free education and medical care. My family has the basics necessities of life met and have extras like extra curricular activities, Christmas and birthday presents, a night out to the movies or dinner and we don’t think twice about buying meat for dinner. We have never witnessed war or have had to worry about disease like malaria or typhoid. And while I can sit and see all the things that make us different there are yet more things that make us glaringly the same. Things that seem to be more important than the things that make us different. When we went to visit the widows, we needed a translator. There was a language barrier but when I looked into their eyes I saw the very things that made me see they are no different than me. We shared a heart that cried out with the desire to give our children the best, to provide for them in every way and make sure they are cared for and safe. We never want to see them hurt or suffer. We want to give a roof under their heads, a warm meal to fill their tummies and clean clothes to wear. And we want to be loved. We want to have worth and purpose and we want to know that we are not forgotten. As we sat together, two people from two different worlds we held hands. One offering hope and the other offering inspiration from the strength and perseverance of their journey. We left both praising God for the work of His hand and His faithfulness in our lives. I came home with a new understanding of sacrifice, faith and love.
Now, as I sit at home in my “mansion” I think about the things that make us similar and believe that everyone deserves to have those things and the very things that make us different is what should cause us to act and close the gap so one day our worlds would be closer to the same than different. The second and greatest commandment in the Bible is to love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than this, besides the first greatest commandment of course =). When we think about our neighbors we often think about the person who lives next door, the person that sits beside us at church or the one down the street but we don’t often think about Alice, or Margaret, Phoebe, Jennifer, Solima or Tedi. They are our neighbors too. No matter where we are, whether we live in Canada or Uganda there will always be a person in need. There is always someone that needs to be loved and hear that Jesus loves them. There is always someone who we can help to close the gap. We are living in a nation where I think we have more that live in want than in need and I am challenged to think we are given a great privilege and responsibility to steward what the Lord has given us. The poor, the sick, the needy and marginalized are as much God’s children as we are and when one member of the family suffers we also suffer and so He asks me again “How will you love the one?”. He doesn’t ask us to save the world, but He asks us to love. When you think about all the people in the world that are suffering and all that need love it can be overwhelming so He tells me again just love one. And when you have done that you love another.
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AuthorJust someone who is excited to go to Africa with her family to do the work of the Kingdom! Archives
September 2016
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