Humility. The sweetest thing happened to me today. I have a bug bite on my heel that started to swell up yesterday and it opened up in ministry today. The ministry center is dirty so I figured I’d better cover the sore with a bandaid. As I’m about to put it on, Lionel, one of the men who volunteers at the ministry, takes it from me, bends down on the dirty floor and puts it on my foot. It was a moment of incredible humility. I don’t know the details of his story but I know he’s checked himself into a rehab center, lived there for some time and is now able to volunteer outside the rehab center due to good behavior. He is a strong man. He loves the Lord and has undoubtedly experienced great change in his life. Lionel understands humbly serving for the love of Christ.
Last night as a team we were reading from Acts about a jailer who came to know Jesus when Paul and Silas were in his prison.
“And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he as baptized, he and all his household.” Acts 16:33
I wondered if the jailer suppressed feelings of superiority as he knelt beside the men to wash their wounds. Just hours before he was free to taunt them, jangle keys in their face and walked away from them, enjoying his own freedom. But the Gospel changed his life, so instead he humbly washed their wounds.
The Gospel exhibits great power to humble us, even just moments after believing. I pray God continues to humble me in light of the cross. Pray with me that there will be many opportunities for me to kneel down like Lionel and serve humbly next month as we bus to Guatemala in the morning.
