Insignificant

Insignificant

You may be able to relate with this story. It is powerful what God can do, yet I find myself so often in situations where I feel so insignificant. Maybe that is where you find yourself too.

You want to do good and it is in your heart to make an impact, but you feel helpless and insignificant. You’re not sure what to do. Or even where to start.

Well that is exactly where Brooke and I found ourselves, standing on the second floor of a TB (tuberculosis) Hospital in Mumbai, India, looking out over a room filled with women dying of a curable disease. Yet unable to pay for their cure.

There they are and there you are. Looking at each other and wondering what happens next. You see their faces and their tired looks as their eyes cry out for help and your heart leaps and yearns and breaks to do something. But what!!?!!

How do you help someone in that situation? Or better yet, how do you help hundreds of “someone’s”, all in need of the same help?

I’ve never felt quite so helpless in that moment.

Isn’t that the way it seems though? There is so much need. There are so many problems in this world, so much suffering. And here we are. We see it. We hear about it. But what can we do?

The question seems so hard to answer. So we look away for lack of any other solution. We harden our hearts. And eventually we forget about it. Until the next time; Or until it happens so often that we build an immunity to compassion. It slowly suffocates our hearts to the point of hardly being able to tell the difference between reality and the daze we live in, called our daily routine. (I speak of my own journey)

Does this happen because we do not care? No. We do care. This happens because we don’t know what to do. We feel helpless. We feel Insignificant.

It is out of this weakness that God did something incredible; something that shook the very depths of eternity. 

Back to the second floor, back to the awkwardness. Back to the heart, wrenching and writhing with pain, wanting to do something. But not knowing what......

So we did the only thing that we knew how to do….. “Namaste” ……..It is the greeting used in in this part of the world to say hello; a type of blessing.

As insignificant as it seemed, it literally was all that we could come up with in that moment.  There is no way we could pay for every woman to be cured. We were powerless to fix their situation.

  With each greeting and each hand held, our hearts were screaming, “I WISH I COULD HELP YOU BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW!!!” …. We didn’t even know how to have a conversation without our translator.

Making our way around, one of the women asked for Brooke to pray for her. Asking our only translator to come over, Brooke was able to find out what the woman was asking of her.

With the help of Irene, our wonderful translator, Brooke began to pray. Pleading with God to heal this woman and to comfort her and that she would recover (as sometimes happens)….

As Brooke began praying, a group began to gather. Other women and young girls, also wanting to be prayed for and wanting to see what was taking place came. Soon, there was a large group, all gathered around watching what would take place.

Looking back it all seems like a blur, but as Brooke finished praying I felt God prompt me to say something.

“Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Acts 2:21/ Romans10:13.

It was  like God just put that phrase into my mind. It was almost as if I was watching God use my body to speak.

I proceeded to share with them through our interpreter that if they called on the name of the Lord, that they would be saved. Immediately God brought to mind the hope that He had given us through the tragedy of loosing my sister Abby in a car accident 2 years before.

“Many of you are facing death and are fearing the loss of someone you love. But this is not all there is. There is more.” I shared my personal experience with loosing Abby. I explained how I was able to have hope and still have joy because I know I am going to see her again, and that they too can have that same hope. That if they called on the name of the Lord, on the name of Jesus, they too could be saved and have a new hope.

Our translator took it from there, powerfully sharing the gospel with them and presenting them with an opportunity to receive this same hope.

Immediately, about 11 women put their hand up, wanting to receive this hope and call on the name of Jesus. In great joy we proceeded to pray with them and lead them into that spiritual "rebirth" that Christ offers us through accepting His payment for our sin.

It was so amazing! I have never seen anything like it! I have never seen such a transformation take place in someone’s eyes like that. It is almost as if their eyes went from blank and hollow to shining and full of life. We literally witnessed their spirit "reborn."

The contrast sticks in my mind, like an irretrievable splinter. Stark and clear, one that will never be removed, nor do I want it to be.

I wish I could describe to you the difference in the faces of those who knew Christ and those who did not. It was almost as if the latter were empty vessels, moving about, while those had received Christ were radiant, even though sick, full of life and hope and joy. It is something you would have to see for yourself. It was their spirit coming alive for the first time. Reborn into a newness of life that did not depend on physical circumstances. 2 Corinthians 4:16

Incredible!

Even now as I recount this, I am filled with such joy. Thank you God for what You did there!

And there we were, filled with joy and wonder and excitement at what God had just done. Eye witnesses to a literal, physical, and spiritual change that had just taken place. And just moments ago were in such a weak and vulnerable place.

I think I learned something that day at the TB Hospital. I had nothing to offer. We had nothing to offer. All we had was a simple “hello”.

But God in His goodness, used a simple little couple with nothing to offer to literally change the course of eternity for these 11 women. Never again will eternity be the same. And neither will these women.

God orchestrated everything so wonderfully.

It just so happened that there was another patient there who was a believer already and who had a bible. She and our translator discussed how they might encourage and help these women who had just received a new life.

I guess the biggest thing I learned was that I don’t have to be special to see God work. I don’t have to have all the answers. And I don’t have to be comfortable.
        All that God really desires of us is a willing heart. A heart that wants what He wants and to simply use what He provides.

In our case, all we had was a “hello”… talk about not much. But it was enough. More than enough! And He did the rest.

I just want to encourage you to not let your heart die out. Not to let your circumstances or your “qualifications” dictate whether you are a part of helping someone or seeing God do something incredible.

God just wants your heart. God just wants what you do have (even if it only is your heart and nothing else)

Read 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ….. How true it is, as we have seen. His power is made perfect in our weakness.

It was incredible to experience this first hand and to see that all I need to do is make myself available. He does the rest.

May you be encouraged and may you be challenged to seek after God with all your heart!

I think you will be pleasantly surprised. His goodness never ends.

Praise be to God!

Amen