Ruthie and Hagar and You and Me

This is Ruthie.

Her life was changed in an instant last week and I got to watch.

She’s paralyzed on one side and for 22 years has had to walk along with the rest of her community to get dirty water every day.

Walk. To haul water. Not clean water.

Water for cooking and drinking and bathing and dish-washing…

The child mortality rate is 20% in this area of Zambia. 10% is due to water related diseases like Malaria and Cholera.

But last Wednesday that changed.

We got to watch as World Vision dug a bore hole - the first step towards a well with a pump and clean water.

World Vision workers and community gathered to pray before they started digging. And then the women started to dance and sing as the machine dug. When they hit water the women really kicked into high gear making us Americans look like slackers in the joy department.

I was standing off to the side with Ruthie whose legs couldn’t dance but her eyes sure could. Her face was radiant.

When the women started singing “Come and see what the Lord has done.” Ruthie just kept shaking her head in wonder saying “He has answered us! He has answered us! It is like a dream. I survived and God has answered our prayers.”

As I listened to Ruthie it seemed like what she also was saying was, “God has seen us.” And I thought of Hagar, another woman by another spring of water who had almost lost hope.

After God has promised Abraham and Sarah many descendants but Sarah hasn’t gotten pregnant she suggests that Abraham sleep with her servant, Hagar in order to help God out with His plan.

Never a great idea to try to do God’s work for Him, especially when it involves having your husband sleep with another woman.

Sara gets bitter and jealous and starts to abuse Hagar. So Hagar runs away. She is in the dessert literally and figuratively when she stops by a spring.

But God meets her there and promises to bless her with a son and many descendents. In Genesis 16:13 Hagar says, “You are the God who sees me. I have seen the One who sees me.”

Amazingly, the same God who saw Hagar, also sees Ruthie in rural Zambia and you and me wherever we are in whatever circumstances we find ourselves today.

And the clean water we’ve been able to provide through World Vision is a reminder to Ruthie and her whole community.

God sees her and He has answered.

Missing It

Ever just totally miss it? 

Walking outside our hotel in Zambia near Victoria Falls, these were hard to miss.

This took a little more time and intention to see.

When our kids were little we took a trip to Colorado one summer.  It was the first time either of them would see the mountains and they were both really excited.  As they came into view we “oohed and aahed” but all Maggie said over and over again was “I DO NOT SEE IT!”  You wonder how anyone could miss something so big, but she didn't know what to look for.

It was easy to miss how God was at work when our other daughter, Katy, was out of work for nine months a couple years ago.   Katy worked hard to do the right things and kept charts of dates and everyone she had contacted and applied to and followed up with and struggled to see God and to persevere.  Along the way she ended up as the finalist in several jobs she was well-qualified for, jobs with hundreds of applicants.  But she always lost out. 

In the end, she got her dream job (which certainly doesn’t happen for everyone, but does in this story).  A job that only people with advanced degrees (which she doesn’t have) get offered. Here’s the crazy thing.  It was the very first job she had applied for 9 months previous.  But it had taken time.  God was at work in unseen ways, shaping her character, and making a way where it seemed there wasn’t one.  She changed and circumstances changed. 

When John and I heard her news(after I stopped screaming with joy), we immediately thought of a story in Daniel’s life where he prayed for help, but it seemed like help didn’t come.

He is reassured in 10:12 “Don’t be afraid, Daniel.  Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven.  I have come in answer to your prayer.”  I believe from the first day Katy began to pray, God was at work.

Katy’s job is perfect for her in every way and beyond what she could have imagined.  A lovely end to the story. But it wasn’t always lovely in the nine months of hard work and “why not?” and “what am I doing wrong?” and “when?”  God was at work in unseen ways, but they were unseen!  It wasn’t like there was blue smoke or fairy dust to remind Katy that God was at work. 

But here’s where I totally missed it.  I love to tell this story and to marvel at God's work in unseen ways in someone else’s life, but I've pretty dense in applying this myself in my own season of waiting and questions.

So this morning I was reading from Genesis 24 “Before he had finished praying Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder…Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord saying ‘Praise be to the Lord who has not abandoned His kindness and faithfulness.’”  

How often do I act as if God is at work before I have finished praying?

I felt like the admonition this morning was that it’s one thing to remember how God has been faithful and at work in unseen ways in the past, but I need to go beyond remembering and live in the reality. 

So my prayer this morning is “Thank you Lord that You are at work even now in ways I can’t see, on my behalf for Your glory.  And thank You that like with Maggie, your answer may be different than I expect. ”

You may not see it yet either, but I believe “since the first day you prayed” God heard and is at work on your behalf for His glory.

Only a Dream in Rio

James Taylor has a song with the line, “Only a dream in Rio…” that keeps coming to mind.

We’ve been in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the past week for a World Vision International board meeting.  Above this city of both the luxurious Copacabana and the favelas (slums) looms the statue of Christ the Redeemer.  We traveled up through the rain forest to see it up close the first day we were here. 

When the statue was originally designed Jesus was to have the world in one hand and the cross in the other, but they changed it realizing that the profile of Jesus himself was the cross and the city of Rio below is a picture of the world He loves and embraces. 

This week has given us many up close pictures of the myriad of those drawn into His all-encompassing love.

• The Australian ceo who has everything but a relationship with the woman he loves
• The pastor from Mali who was raised by Muslims in a home with violence, but still found Jesus
• The Bolivian surgeon who works with 800 children ravaged by sexual abuse.

And then there are the two girls in the foreground of this picture - Erica and Natalia, who are just a little younger than our daughters.  They both grew up in poverty as World Vision sponsored children and now tell stories to the young children who come to the WV community center and paint characters from the stories on the children’s faces. Because they’ve had people who have cared about them and invested in them, they are investing in the next generation.

But that’s not all.  Erica wants to be a lawyer and Natalia wants to be a doctor.  So Natalia is learning to do health screenings for sponsored children and together these two young women have mobilized a group of others to lobby the government for better health care.

I LOVE it that there is nowhere you can go in this city where you don’t see the statue of Christ the Redeemer, arms open wide in invitation, an invitation for all these people and more who are, I believe, part of His dream of love for Rio and the world.

Fabio and Mother Theresa

I’ve been spending time with Fabio in Rio de Janeiro for the past few days. 

No, probably not the Fabio you’re thinking of. 

Fabio is the name of a waiter at the hotel where we’ve been staying.

And Fabio is one of the most joyful guys I’ve ever seen. 

He has this huge smile that shows off his braces and he is perpetually enthusiastic to share something new with us about his country of Brazil. 

This morning he brought a piece of cashew fruit he wanted to tell us about and have us taste (the nuts are found in the stem).  He could barely contain his excitement this wonder of creation!  Fabio’s delight at serving in his sweet spot brings joy to us each day too. 

A close friend at breakfast with us after a Fabio encounter observed that Mother Theresa once said her goal was to bring God the most joy possible…to delight Him as much as she was able.  I don’t know why that struck me in a fresh way. 

The thought of bringing God joy is lovely and amazing to me.

My friend said, “You know the verse that says, ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength’?  We tend to think it’s the joy we get from the Lord that is our strength.  But what if it’s the joy we bring HIM that strengthens us?”

So, I’m wondering…might both Fabio and Mother Theresa, a waiter and a nun, have brought joy to God just by doing “small things with great love” in the moments of their day?  

Tucking Belief In

“She tucked belief right into me.  Women can do that for each other.”

A few weeks ago I read this lovely line written by Ann Voskamp who was talking about her grandmother who called out gifts in her that she was afraid to believe.

Last year our youngest daughter, Maggie, graduated from college and accepted an internship with the International Justice Mission.  She prepared to leave home and live in Guatemala City for a year.

The transition between college and “the real world” is a scary one.  Like jumping off a cliff and hoping you hit the water and remember how to swim.  A time of hard decisions and what-if-I-don’t-make-it fears.

To launch Maggie into this new season, she and I invited a group of women for brunch.  Women who had loved her, and prayed for her, and poured into her for many years. 

I asked each of them to bring a word for Maggie, accompanied by a blessing, a prayer, encouragement, or advice. 

The wise and gracious words from these women were like the gifts the wise men brought the baby Jesus – precious and beautiful, and valuable, but more practical and personal than gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Like Ann’s quote, they were “tucking belief into her.”

One, prayed Jeremiah 17:7 and shared the word ROOTS and made a collage of words shaped like a tree with roots reaching deep down into the goodness of God.

Another gave her HEART and shared this quote from Anne Lamott:

There’s a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, ‘Why on our hearts, and not in them?’ The rabbi answered, ‘Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.

A third gave the word MAGGIE because she said in this new season she was certain God would teach her more of who He made her to be.

Amazing women with different gifts, different life experiences, different perspectives.  

Tucking belief right into her - belief in the good gifts God has given Maggie and will call out of her.

Who are we doing that for today?

Un-busy

A mentor of John’s said “The more ‘successful’ you get, the slower you need to walk through a room.”  A reminder that though busy, we’re never more important than the people we serve.

Lately everyone writes about the problem of being too busy. 

Because almost everyone IS too busy. 

We wear busy like a badge.  We complain about being too busy, but we do it in a way that lets people know we’re important.  And although we complain, if we’re honest, it scares us when we’re not busy.  What if we’re actually dispensable?  Not as valuable to the world as we’d like to think?

 

When we’re busy Satan whispers “You are SO important.  You are the ONLY one who can do this job. You have to answer that phone call or email or everything will fall apart.”

I’ve been that busy person, but right now I’m not.  I’m not busy.  I don’t have a job and I don’t have any idea where God is leading or what my next step should be.  There, I said it.  And saying I’m not busy feels like saying “I’m not important”.  Ever been there? 

I know I’m not the only one.  There are others in a season of enforced “un-busyness”.  People, like me, who are between jobs, or battling illness, or are in circumstances that have forced them to stop.  And Satan whispers “You’re not good enough.  You have NOTHING to offer.  You are the uninvited guest at the party of life.” 

So, what would Jesus say to each of us?  What is the truth He would speak into our lives to correct the lies of Satan? 

I’m wondering if maybe when we’re busy we might need to take the time to read Job 38 (“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?”)

And then, walk slowly through the room.

And when we’re not busy, maybe Psalm 139 is a good reminder (“…your works are wonderful…my frame was not hidden from you…All the days ordained for me were written in your book…”)

And then keep walking slowly through the room.

What do you think?