Mother Teresa used to say:
‘Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extravagant. What we need is to love without getting tired.’
I am the first to admit that I get so excited and my heart feels like it is going to literally burst when our teams come home from the slum communities, full of stories of healing and breakthrough, of victories won and families rescued.
I LOVE IT!
But I think what impacts me more, and demonstrates the power of love to me in even greater depth, is when that doesn’t happen.
When things do not go the way we hoped and prayed they would.
When children die.
When poverty seems to have the last say.
A couple of years ago, I arrived back into Uganda to the news that one of our slum children had died and it was utterly heart-breaking.
As I sat there that day and watched our team mourn, saw the tears fall and their pain expressed, as I saw once again the cost of loving in such a dark place, the great risk of believing for healing and daring to hope in the midst of in extreme hopelessness, I was profoundly impacted once again.
What I saw that day was a deep and genuine brokenness, yet I did not see defeat…
Instead, I saw a group of young men and women who although hurting, although feeling deep sadness and sorrow, courageously standing back up once again, loving Jesus with all they had and then climbing back in to one of our vehicles and heading back to those same communities to pour themselves out once more.
No surrender… No backing down… No giving up…
Another beautiful act of worship!
I know I have said it before, but I will say it again. The men and women I work with are my heroes of the faith.
Each day they get up and walk into some of the most dangerous and darkness filled places that exist in Uganda.
They love the hurting, the broken, the scared and the lonely.
They walk life with the poor, hand in hand, side by side, giving of themselves and revealing Jesus.
They don’t ask for recognition, they don’t ask for the stage, they are not interested in self-promotion, or becoming the next Christian superstar!
They just want to see the broken made whole.
As I was reflecting on this once today, I challenged once again in my own life of worship and reminded that worship is not about me.
It’s not about the feel-good factor or the ministry high that we experience when the sensational miracles break out.
It’s about selflessness… obedience… commitment… consistency… and surrender…
ITS ABOUT JESUS… AND MAKING HIM AND HIS HEART KNOWN.
Isaiah 42 “Take a good look at my servant. I’m backing him to the hilt. He’s the one I chose, and I couldn’t be more pleased with him. I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life. He’ll set everything right among the nations. He won’t call attention to what he does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant, but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right. He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped until he’s finished his work.”
