"When I realize that it is not God who is in my debt, but I who am in His great debt, then doesn't all become gift? For He might not have"
-A Thousand Gifts
This is the challenge that the Lord has presented me with in Mozambique: to choose joy, to choose to see all of the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon us this month. It is easy to see all that we don't have: running water, internet or an endless supply of electricity. It's easy to complain about the heat, or the bugs, or the lizards or the mice; It's easy to focus on how much free time we have or how little personal space we have; It's easy to fall asleep on my twin mattress on the floor wishing it was my full-size bed at home.
But rather than doing what's easy, rather than focusing on myself, I can choose to lift my eyes higher and to see the Lord. When I focus on the Lord, it is then that I see everything that He has blessed me with this month. He has given me time to spend with Him and time to spend with the 6 other wonderful women on this team. He has given us so much laughter and love for one another. He has given us time to spend playing, giggling and taking photos with the children of the community as we pump our water at the well every morning. He has given us sing-a-longs after dark under the stars. He has given us fresh bread and vegetables every day, and a beautiful sunset every night. He has given us the opportunity to sing praise, to dance and to laugh with Maria de Gloria, an elderly woman, and her daughter who is sick with HIV. He has allowed us the privilege to pray for healing over the lives of Francisco and August, two men who are paralyzed both physically and by the chains of bitterness and unforgiveness in their lives. He has given us time to spend reading His word to elderly women who themselves do not know how to read.. He has given us the privilege of building a mud hut for Manuel, an elderly man who lost his home in the flood that devastated this community in January. And in a one-room church, built with mud and tin, He gave us a picture of heaven, as we worshipped alongside 30 Mozambican men and woman loudly, joyfully and unashamedly singing "No One Like Jesus" in English and Shangan. Their joy blessed and inspired our team, and that is what the joy of the Lord does; it radiates outward and touches other people. It is the joy that comes from knowing that I am loved by my Savior. This is the joy that I want to have every moment of everyday. The joy that I never want to forget. The joy that comes from knowing that He owes me nothing, but that He gave me everything.
I am so blessed by all that He has given me this month.
For He might not have.
