And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40.
On our first Sunday in Mongolia, we went to church at Antioch UB. It was a great time of worship with local Mongolian believers, and after we got invited to join in lunch at the park. On the way home, one of the friends we made named Bubara walked with us back to our hostel. Before walking away, she pulled me to the side. What’s this about? I thought. I had casually chatted with Bubara a few times throughout the day, but I wasn’t sure what she wanted now.
“This morning in church, I felt God tell me that He wanted me to do something uncomfortable today, something that I really hate doing,” she said. She proceeded to say that she heard God tell her to step out of her comfort zone, spend time with strangers, and to pray for one of them. “Seriously God?” She laughed. “I just want to go eat some lunch and hang out at home.” I laughed, too. Been there, my girl.
I related to how she felt 100%. Because honestly, it doesn’t matter if you’re at church or yes, even our here on the race, approaching and praying for people you don’t know can sometimes just feel weird.
But let me tell you, it changes your perspective a bit when it’s you, and you’re the stranger getting prayed for.
I was immediately impressed that she actually listened to God telling her to pray for me. Bubara knew basically nothing about me – the fact that she even knew my name was only a testament to the paper name tag stuck to my shoulder. But right there on the sidewalk outside of the hostel where we were staying, she started to pray for me. And honest to blog, homegirl totally read my mail. She prayed over my next season on the Race, for my family back home, for my new team, for my relationship with the Father. She prayed healing over hurts, boldness in my giftings, perspective amidst trials, and identity in who I am as a child of God. Holy Spirit used Bubara to speak into things that I didn’t even know that I needed to hear, she prayed for things that I hadn’t even said aloud to anyone. Essentially, she prayed for the things that God told her to, even if they didn’t make sense to her.
Her obedience brought me revelation, encouragement and peace. (Not to mention, the whole experience brought on one of my top 5 best ugly cries that I’ve had out here.)
And all she had to do was listen and follow. A thought I had about Bubara was how I would have never known the difference if she had decided to not pray for me that afternoon. There would’ve been essentially no tangible consequences to her at all, but I would have been robbed of some amazing things that God wanted to tell me through her.
It’s amazing when you get to see firsthand how the God of the universe cares about the details of your life in this way, and that He chooses to use people like Bubara, people like me, and people like you to shine and share Light in the most basic yet unpredictable ways.
I thought about times in my life where I had been in Bubara’s shoes yet stayed silent, and when I had afterwards pretty easily rationalized my disobedience with the idea that it wasn’t that big of a deal.
It’s a bit humbling, but loving the “least of these” gets easier when you realize that to someone else, that verse could be talking about you. Bubara choosing to step out of her comfort zone showed me this: Obedience isn’t always easy, but it’s always simple. No matter where you are, it’s the simplest acts can propel love, life and truth. And as much as God cares about the big things in life, He loves to love us in the small things, too.
Because ultimately, the way she loved me that day, and the way we love each other in the day to day doesn’t feel small at all when they come from outside of ourselves.
All the small things find their true shape in the bigness of our Father’s love.
“We can do no great things. Only small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa
