Mbinty

These pictures are old... but had to add them.  

Just because she is so darn cute!

It's 4 AM...

And I am blogging about all my secrets.  

Last year when I was in Africa, I tried to blog weekly.  This year, I am barely making it a monthly event, much to my dismay.  So when I finally get around to blogging, (usually in the wee hours of the night) it turns into a blogging spree of sorts.  

I went on a small holiday a couple weeks ago with my friend, Karoline.  We got off the ship for five whole days and stayed across town at the home of a friend who lives near the beach.  We did a whole lot of nothing, and it was fabulous.  We ate, and sat, and read, and talked, and walked on the beach, and napped.  

Sometimes you need a vacation after a vacation.  But this vacation was truly restful, and so I came back to the ship more rejuvenated than I would have even imagined.  It is amazing what a time of rest can do!  

"Godliness with contentment is great gain..."  

How often in life do we really feel content?  When Paul wrote of learning the "secret of being content in all circumstances," I wonder what he meant?  I wonder if I am learning the secret, at least in part...  Learning to be filled and satisfied by Christ alone.  Learning to look to Him in all things.  Learning that He gives richly of Himself.  Learning that His grace is sufficient.  Learning that if I am filled completely by Him, that the rest is just overflow. 

Perhaps this is life abundantly?  To always be filled, and to quite often be overflowing....

"Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me..."  

There is a secret to that whole "life abundantly" that Christ spoke about when He walked on this earth.  Surely He saw the pain.  Surely he knew suffering.  And yet He spoke about life in abundance.  An abundance, that evidently sorrow doesn't deplete.  An abundance that evidently doesn't depend on things turning out right all the time.  Life from a Source that doesn't run dry. Life that even death can't steal away. Christ came, He lived, He suffered...He died.  And so, what "life" did he mean... if that is what His life on earth was like?  

And as we face suffering, and pain, and poverty and loss here... how do we point to a God who is Good?  How do we, with sincerity, testify of a God who is loving?  Perhaps part of the secret is in the pain.  Perhaps, God, in His infinite wisdom knows that we will never look up, if we are never in need.  So while I do not believe He sends the pain, perhaps He does allow it. And He meets us there.  In death.  In pain.  In loss.  In disappointment. 

At the end of ourselves, stands the cross.  

And a Savior.  

He died, and so we must too.  But He rose.  "The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy, but I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly."  And so life is available to us, as well.  So look for Him there.  Where there is lack, where there is loss, where there is a void.  Please know there is One... and only One... who can meet you there.  

His name is Jesus.  

He lived, He suffered, He died.  He rose, He lives, He knows... you.  He loves you.  

"The Lord confides in those who fear Him..." 

There is a secret to contentment. There is a secret to life in abundance.  

And those the Lord loves are let in on the secret. 

He is the secret.

  

"Be still and know that I am God."

Receiving Rain

“It is a Spiritual rain that this song is singing about,” Cynthia, one of our ward translators, said to me.

Every Sunday, we gather in one of the hospital wards for church.  Patients, medical staff, translators, and anyone from the ship who wants to attend can come.  The ward was clearing out now after church, but the singing continued on:  

“It is raining, all around me....”

I have a plant back at home.  I left it with my mom when I left for Africa last fall.  It was a smaller plant, with cactus-like qualities.  Cactus-like in the sense of not needing much watering or tending to.  The perfect plant for me... I had kept it alive for two years already.  I was gone for about four months in total when I came back home and back to a house plant I hardly recognized.  Its thick round leaves were plump and green.  The plant overall was taller, which I found near miraculous since I don't think it had changed in height the entire two years that I had cared for it.  And here, just a few months had gone by, and it looked so... different.  So healthy.  So green.  

Clearly the plant did nothing different to itself in those few months.  Except receive the “rain” that was showered upon it (courtesy of mom and a watering can).  It took in what was poured out upon it. The result?  More life.  Fuller life.  Health.  Growth. 

When Cynthia made a point to tell me this song was about a Spiritual rain, I couldn't help but appreciate the picture that it gave me.  I thought of my little plant.  And I thought of my heart.  My plant received what was given to it, and it grew.  I sense a pouring out from the Lord right now... here in Liberia... in the heart of rainy season.  A Spiritual rain.

The way I see it, there is a lot of sowing, a lot of reaping, and a lot of roots in the soil of our hearts. 

What will we plant?

What will we uproot?  

And maybe, most importantly ... will we receive the rain?

It is raining

all around me

I can feel it

It's a lot of rain

I asked Jesus to send us more rain

Until we are filled

Until we are filled 

With a lot of rain

“For the soil which has drunk the rain that repeatedly falls upon it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose benefit it is cultivated and partakes of a blessing from God.  But if [that same soil] persistently bears thorns and thistles, it is considered worthless and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.”  Hebrews 6:7-8

You Are Not Alone

Sometimes life has themes.  I find myself saying a couple of phrases lately.  

To my patients:  "Don't be afraid."  

To some of my crew mates, a different phrase:  "You are not alone."  

People have said these things to me before when I really needed to hear them.  Jesus said them to people a lot. 

We need to hear them, because they are true, and we need to speak and hear the truth from each other.  

So if you need to hear today that you don't need to fear, and that you are truly not alone, here is one of my favorite reminders...

You Are Not Alone

Sometimes you get so weary

You run to forget

Keep yourself so busy 

Anything to cover up that

Sometimes life just don't make sense

And the reason for your running

Is a longing to be known

Someone who says your life is worth it

Someone captured by your heart

Someone you gave up on long ago

You are not alone

You are not alone

His love is all around

And He holds you even now

You are not alone

He will not leave you orphaned

That's a promise He has made

When others leave you empty 

When the world has left you broken

Still He will not walk away

So come and lay down all your questions

Lay down your striving to be free

He has loved you since you've breathed

He will love you for forever

Really what more do you need

--Kate Hurley

**Picture by Alirae:).  Steph, thank you for sharing truth with me.  Let's keep standing.