The King's Brave Warriors
(Mark Twain)
"These are the leaders of David’s mighty warriors. Together with all Israel, they decided to make David their king, just as the Lord had promised concerning Israel.... ... The Israelite army fled, but Eleazar and David held their ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines. So the Lord saved them by giving them a great victory... They were expert with both shield and spear, as fierce as lions and as swift as deer on the mountains .. they were all brave and able warriors who became commanders in his army. Day after day more men joined David until he had a great army, like the army of God"(1 Chronicles 11 and 12)
When I read chapters 11 and 12 of First Chronicles, I felt great admiration for the brave warriors who had the honor of being mentioned in the Bible. I thought that I would never be like them, they risked their lives until death, they were very strong, and disciplined. In my devotional time I asked God how I could be brave like them, and what I share from here on was what God spoke to my heart.
All the valiant men of David and his army served only one God and his leader. They were humble and gave their lives for the king. All they knew and did was to serve the king. They knew what they should do and they did it very well, but it was not for themselves, they did not seek recognition or prizes, they just wanted to serve the man that God had chosen to be the king of Israel, David. They served God by serving the king with everything they had, and risked their lives in battle trusting that The God of Heaven's Army would back them up, and He did it !!
Who do you want to serve? Who is your king?
OUR KING IS JESUS, AND EVERYTHING WE DO AND HAVE WE USE IT SO THAT HE FULFILLS HIS PURPOSE, THAT THE WORLD WILL KNOW HIM AND WILL RECEIVE HIS LOVE AND THE ETERNAL SALVATION, HEALTH AND RESTORATION THAT THEY NEED DESPERATELY.
Many people write telling me how much they admire me and how they think I am brave and courageous but I do not feel that way!!
Living here for 2 and a half months has not been easy. Every day I struggle with nostalgia and loneliness, sometimes I feel that I do not have what it takes to do this work; as everyone else, I make mistakes; cultural differences can be a challenge and sometimes i get very anxious by not knowing how God is going to provide so that I can continue to serve him in this ministry.
However, my king is Jesus. The goal of my life is to make Him known and be like him. Everything I am, everything I have, what I can and can not do belongs to him.
Serving Jesus is not easy. It's risky. Serving Jesus requires humbleness and faith to depend on him. It requires a balanced self-esteem, where we are aware of the abilities and weaknesses, of the defects and virtues, we trust the identity that Christ has given us, and we recognise the need for his guidance and constant presence.
When we serve, our eyes are not placed in ourselves, in what we can and want to achieve, nor in the recognition that we are going to achieve. Our eyes are on the king and on reaching the goals that the team has proposed. The eyes are on those who are going to benefit from our work. It is for the king and his people that we seek excellence. We are not afraid of failure because we can learn and grow through mistakes, and they also help us to be humble.
The only thing that helps me to live and work here every day is to know that I am at the center of his will, and that He is my strength and the one who sustains me, who guides and teaches me all the time, and that my weakness and my mistakes are what make me depend on Him the most.
I am not the only brave one in this story, with me there are all those who were brave and invested their time, their love and their donations to join me in this ministry. They are brave because they believe that it is possible that their contribution, regardless of size, will impact the lives of many people who not only need physical health, but compassion, mercy and God's love.
I think of my patients, they are also very brave. They have lived for years with shame, pain, criticism and even rejection from their families and communities. They have felt useless and worthless. But they dare to walk for hours, days, to leave their villages and everything they know, to come to a ship full of people they do not know, putting their health and their lives in their hands.
They accept surgeries they may not fully understand, accept medications they may have never seen before, and endure more pain as part of the recovery process. And still, they smile. They let us hug and take care of them, they forgive the little French we try to speak, they trust that what we do when taking care of them day and night is good for them. They repeat every hour the exercises that we teach them, they endure the dressing changes that we must do, they walk down the hall and they even dance with us without caring if they look good or bad.
Today is Valentine's Day, the day of love. Today I celebrate the love of God, and the courage He gives us to live one day at a time, holding His hand and following Him.
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