Nepal is not what I expected it to be.
My team is not in the mountains- we’re in the “jungle.” It’s not cold- it’s actually quite hot during the day, especially when you’re required to cover your ankles and your shoulders. It’s not snowy or rainy- one look at the laundry water will show you how dirty our clothes get from the dusty roads.
We’re working with New Light Nepal, which is essentially a pastor and his family following God’s leading in their lives to impact the Nepali people throughout the country. My team is focusing on reaching villages around our area by visiting homes of believers and encouraging them, as well as hosting small hygiene clinics for the children in the villages we visit.
We’re living at a school run by one of the pastor’s sons with another team (shout out to Team Unashamed!!) whose purpose this month is to come alongside the teachers in the school and teach various lessons throughout the day and love on the kids however they can.
One of the things that has impacted me most about this month is the gratitude of the pastor and his family. Every time we pray with them, Uncle (the pastor) will say “First, we thank God. Then, we pray and ask.”
Typically in America we just start off with asking. Or we’ll interject a short “Thank you Lord for this wonderful day… we just ask…” Why are we so quick to skip over the thanking part? I’m not saying that it’s wrong to ask things of the Lord- He tells us to ask.
As a team we listened to a podcast in which the speaker said, “Gratitude begins where our sense of entitlement ends.” What are we really entitled to? Do we deserve healthcare? Do we deserve an education? Do we deserve clothes? Health? Food? Friends? Family? Shoes? Air in our lungs? Life? Joy? Grace? Salvation? If the answer to any of these is “yes,” what have you really done to deserve it? What do we really deserve but death in light of our sins committed against a Holy God?
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
From my limited experience, I’ve found that it is far better to live a life of gratitude than a life of entitlement. With one you have joy and thanksgiving, and in the other you have complaining and greed. Live as if everything is a blessing and an opportunity to praise God for his abundant grace and mercy. Never pass up an opportunity to thank Him. Open your eyes and see how abundant are His grace, love, mercy, and thousands of blessings!
