The main theme of this blog is quite well summed up. I had to be reminded through adversity that it is a privilege to serve God whether it is easy or if suffering is involved. This may shock some people but the truth is that God does not need us. Yes, you heard correctly. God does not need us. Some people think they are so important that clearly God has to use me because I’m so talented. Instead, he chooses the weak things to confound the wise and he does his work while offering us the choice of doing his work with him. If it is work that you love, Jesus enjoys it along with you. If it is work that makes you suffer, he also suffers with you and is in the trenches with you. After all Jesus endured far more suffering than any of us can comprehend. He shared the most intimate love with the Father for all eternity and it is the most perfect love than any of us will ever experience here during our lives because this type of love is humanly impossible because of the weakness of our flesh. Then for that one moment at the cross his Father turned away from him so that through his substitution in our place we will be welcomed into the fold.
Some of us may have been abandoned or rejected or mistreated by someone but not to the extent that Christ endured. He experienced the most perfect love and then experienced the most terrible and utter rejection. This is what makes him so worthwhile to pursue. One of the most absolutely mind-blowing realizations in my own life is the fact that the God of the Universe seeks a relationship with little, insignificant, me. This God that does not need us and certainly knows how inherently evil we really are, yet he offers adoption us as his children. It does not make any logical sense to me why He would do that. I just don’t get why He would ever do that, especially for me. There are plenty of times when I ask him why and there is no clear answer to that question other than Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him.
This week has been a lesson of trying to keep in constant prayer and remembering that we go in his power and also remembering that doing things without him even though it may be good works will burn you out eventually. I’ve been learning this challenging lesson of doing everything with Him throughout these first two weeks. There have more than a few frustrations with how the people down here conduct their work and some of the seemingly difficult expectations we were given along with very challenging physical labor that have made it hard to stay positive. The best way to handle it was to remember the savior’s pain and his joy for whatever in our own lives causes both. We are reaching for the end result of all the hard work we have put in and I hope it will come together in a beautiful way that God is glorified.
