Two weekends ago I was on the ward as I am 2 out 4 weekends a month. On a sunday it is the job of the ward translators and disciplers who are local volunteers (who get a small amount of money for what they do, but are as much volunteers as we are) to organise a church service on the ward. This means it is classical West African Style! Loud and almost a party if you were new to it!. They always have a short (or not so short) message as well. As a nurse this can be one of 2 things 1. fantastic and a time of joining in with our patients and worshipping God together or sometimes which I admit I have often felt 2. a hindrance to finsihing my work! ha ha! I don`t mean to feel like this but sometimes it goes for nearly 2 hrs and you can`t move because there are so many visitors of crew members as well. Yes I am guilty of such thoughts!.
This week however I was able to enter into this time of worship with a grateful attitude which allowed me to see an amazing thing. As we were dancing and clapping in that difficult (for me who has no rhythm) african 3 clap way. I suddenly was reminded of the bible study I have been doing on the life of David. When David was coming back into Jerusalem with "the Ark" that held the prescence of God, David danced and leaped with all his might. He looked like a fool to those who did not know the Lord like he did. His wife it says watched from a distance and despised him. His wife told him what a fool he was and he replied to her "I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes but by the slave girls you spoke of I will be held in honor"
She judged him because his heart was so in love with God that he didn`t care who watched or what he looked like as He was dancing for an audience of one! He was dancing for the King of Heaven. Often I too have judged such undignified worship when I have been in a place where my heart was far from God. As I watched these wonderful patients, crew members and translators dancing and sweating in a tiny space I desired so much that my heart would want only to be a fool to the world if it is for the sake of worshiping our God!.
May the world look at us as Aliens and strangers in this world for we will become even more undignified than this as we seek His face. Michael and I are fools to the world and maybe even to you for coming to this place. Paying money to work in jobs that in the worlds eyes give no status or power. But I pray that the Lord would use these 2 fools to tell people of the Dignity that they can find in Jesus.
This past week we had one VVF lady become a christian! 1 you might say yes "1" she was a muslim and she watched the Jesus movie many times in her stay on the ward and had many nurses love on her and watched people worship in an undignified way and she said to the nurses "I don`t want to leave Jesus behind when I go home!" so they told her about how Jesus could be with her always in her heart! AWESOME!
I once again am so aware that we are called to live a life of worship to our King and I pray that everyday I would live as a living sacrifice to him who gave His life for us! Wherever you are and whatever your doing I pray that you would choose to be a fool for Him!
1 comment:
Sarah
Thanks again for sharing all this. I always love to hear your honest and personal reflections. The photos were great this time too - so evocative, we readers can really get the feel of what is happening.
Fools? Not on any level!
If we look at these things from a human perspective, the psychologists tell us that we gain the greatest happiness and wellbeing when we give a significant portion of our lives in the service of a cause greater than ourselves. Yes, that's what they say, and obviously you qualify.
And of course, as christians, we know Jesus said that as long as we do these things for the least of his brothers and sisters we do it for him. Every time you tenderly care for a patient, it is also Jesus you are caring for (in a sense).
"A person is no fool who gives what they cannot keep in exchange for what they cannot lose."
Keep going for it!
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