Oswald Chambers starts this reading with the following. "We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already.....If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character." As soon as I read this I was convicted on several levels.
First, Portuguese language study to be able to be prepared to work in the community.....I have a house girl that comes to iron and clean twice weekly. This was started when I had my leg in a cast due to a knee injury and she is continuing. She is 24 years old has 3 children ages 8 to 2 and her husband is unemployed. She is continuing to go to school trying to complete the 4th grade. She needs the income and I enjoy the company at home. We were attempting to communicate....with pantomime and Google Translate....but I must sound out the words because she doesn't read well and the Portuguese is Brazilian not from Portugal so has some differences. As we were attempting to talk together, she asked what my work was and I told her I am a nurse. Also that I had visited Cabinda, Angola to try to work in palliative care there and again tried to get this started here in Soyo, Angola, and she with the innocence of a child said, "but you must study Portuguese first". Now I am studying because I knew what she was saying....but it was a real reminder of how my laziness in the area of language study is obvious even to this young girl.
The second thing that I thought of was the writing of this blog. I have not written for the past week. Why? I can tell you that it is because none of the daily devotionals of Oswald Chambers fit with the stories I have from my life.....and on the surface, this is true.....but I believe that I am writing these stories to have something for my children and grandchildren as well as to take the time to reflect on not just where God has taken me through my life and lessons I have learned on the way.....but how those lessons can help me where I am today. It takes time to think, pray, and wait for the right story to come to my mind.....and instead I have been watching TV and spending time thinking about and discussing the difficulties of life here.....and this is an easy way to fill my time.....but is not of value to me or to the purpose of leaving this for my kids......
Oswald Chambers continues, "It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God." Now this is a real thought.....that I can be relied on by God......and this is a real motivator for me to focus again on the work of reflecting on the stories of my unusual journey and putting them down for the future. God has taken me through many crisis and in those times it is much easier to stay close to Him and trust in Him.....it is in the mundane, boring, quiet times of life that cause me to drift away and not continue to stay close.....and I know that there are other situations that I will encounter that I want to be ready for......and not find that I have been less than I should be at that time. "If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready."
No comments:
Post a Comment