Last week, my Mama came to see me and serve beside me for five days in Romania. It was a blessing to hug and be hugged by her, to show her a little of what my new “normal” looks like, as well as be reminded of so many things I’ve forgotten in these past seven months. One of those reminders happened during our last day of ministry for the week. We were visiting an older woman who was hunched over and could barely walk. She lived in a shabby little house with a well that had a bucket to pull up the water. She waters her garden with a mason jar every night because she’s no longer strong enough to carry a bucket. Following her through her yard as she proudly showed us the little she owns in life, my Mom was heart-broken to see her living situation and reality of health. When she expressed this to me, I turned to her and said “honestly, this is nothing.” Later, as I played that exchange over in my mind, I was convicted of how that is not the fruit of allowing God to break my heart for what breaks His. Instead of being compassionate and even broken-hearted for this woman’s suffering, I was comparing it to what other “levels” of suffering I’ve seen, and concluded that it didn’t even come close to being as bad as others. God reminded me that that’s not the point. I simply need to be loving the person right in front of me instead of comparing their circumstances to others I’ve seen in the past. It’s a spirit of comparison I didn’t know I was allowing to reign. This was an extremely important reminder.
On a completely different note, I’ve been asked many times why I don’t share more pictures from ministry, particularly including pictures in my blogs of the people whose stories I tell. This is my reasoning.
I would like to start by saying, this is simply my personal conviction and reasoning, and I in no way believe that others shouldn’t share pictures and videos of those they’re encountering.
I am given a heart for new people every month, every country, every town, every ministry. So often we get so caught up on the faces to others’ experiences that we forget to look around and see the faces around us whose stories are similar to those we’ve heard. We have a face or two to the story, and settle for that instead of asking the Lord to show us who around us is rejoicing/suffering/healing/living in the same way as we’ve heard others are.
So instead of putting faces to these stories for you, I want to encourage you to allow God to put the faces of those around you to these stories. The person sitting in the car next to you, or on the bench you’re passing by, or the one standing on the corner with a cardboard sign, or the child trying to trick you into giving them money, etc. If you feel like you should interact with them, do so. Or maybe you’ll have a better idea of how to pray for them than you did before you read these stories. Regardless of the outcome, I don’t want you to get caught up in the faces I have a heart for, but rather encourage your eyes to be open to the people all around you with the same stories I’m telling. Put your own faces to the story.
