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“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials
of many kinds…” James 1:2
Pure joy; a phrase I have not thought much about and don’t
think I have ever seen…until yesterday. Yesterday was just like any other day
in the Philippines.
I got up to spend time with God, suffered through my sinus infection symptoms
and hustled down to the van waiting to take our team to the dumps in Manila. My
expectations for the day? Covering books in the school library and a mysterious
sorting adventure in the storeroom at the school, sure to be enhanced by
numerous cockroaches, which Mark would attempt to kill using a readily
accessible blunt object accompanied by some screaming and shouting. Overall, it
would seem to be an average day.
However, upon getting to the dumps, Pastor Nell met our team
at the door and asked to speak to me. I expected him to ask us to share a word
with his vocational tech class, as he had asked on other days. Again, he
surprised me when he asked, “Can I share a word with your group in the library
this morning?” I responded with an enthusiastic “Of course!” (I think I threw
an “Awesome!” in there as well). 🙂
So, fifteen minutes later, Pastor Nell, a five foot Filipino
man with the biggest smile I have ever seen and eyes that sparkle with the
light of Christ, burst through the door with 7 English Bibles and his trusty
guitar. He promptly began strumming and tuning his guitar, which he quickly
abandoned, saying “The guitar is out of tune…and so is my voice.” Then, he
launched into the most heartfelt worship songs I had ever heard, despite an
out-of-tune guitar and lyrics that escaped his memory. Of course, he prompted
us to sing as we all made up our own lyrics and laughed along with him.
After worship, he asked us to open our Bibles to Psalm 19: 7-11. In
verse 7 and 8, it says “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of
the Lord are right, giving joy to the
heart.” First, Pastor Nell told us his testimony of how his soul was
revived after living his life as a squatter, high on drugs and stealing from
others, when he found Jesus through friends. Second, he told us how our work in
the library was making the simple kids in the school wise and that we were an
answer to his prayers because he was heartbroken when he saw books destroyed by
water damage sitting in boxes. When he got to the third description of the
precepts of the Lord and how they give joy to the heart, he ended his word by
launching into another set of worship songs, out of tune with missing lyrics,
but it was the sweetest music I had ever heard. Throughout this word, his face
was aglow with the love and peace of Christ and he has lived through more than
I can imagine along with working everyday in the dumps of Manila.
Pure joy; an aspiration to the lightness of heart and peace
that comes in the midst of struggle when Jesus is the center of our lives. Beloved, love
and be loved by Him.
