So Thankful!

I said I wasn't going to blog tonight, but I just got off the phone with a friend and had to share what God revealed to me through the conversation.

This has been in front of me all week and I have seen it, lived it, and breathed it, but until it came out of my mouth I didn't feel it.  Without a doubt I realize that I was brought here to be of service to God's people, but I had a very great lesson to learn in the meantime.  While the lessons have been many, the greatest one of all is that my faith in Jesus Christ is to be the cornerstone of my life. 

I have received so much praise for my "faith" by committing to go on this trip and in the last ten days as many of you learned about the work that is being done here.  However, just as the sacrifice was not mine, the praise is not mine either.  I have had faith in Jesus for a lifetime now.  I was raised in the church and have been basically a good person all my life.  I read my Bible and I pray, I know I love God and I know Jesus Christ is my Saviour, but what was put in front of me over the last week made me realize that I go to great lengths to manage my faith, when my faith should manage me.

For the past week I have been around people who have absolutely nothing.  I have seen naked babies walk around in the blazing sun, children beg for food, and families live in conditions that I wouldn't subject an animal to.  I was reminded today that while their physical conditions are so great, that my focus was to be on their spiritual condition (thank you Sarah...).  So having thought back over the course of the week, I was struck by how the physical bodies may have been weak and battered for so many, but the spiritual bodies were so strong.  Many of the Christians here have nothing but the faith of Jesus Christ and that is what gets them through days of no food, no clothes, and no rest.  They know that one day they will be delivered and I think they are fully aware that it may not happen on this Earth, but it shall come to pass in Heaven.

I did not have that type of faith until I came on this trip (and I know I still have a ways to go).  I had faith, but faith that is convenient and comfortable.  Jesus never said being a believer in Him would be comfortable or accommodating in the least and I have worked to manage my faith and make it comfortable throughout my life.  Meaning that I have not wanted to step out of my comfort zone to express my faith, meaning I have not been willing to face opposition, ridicule, poverty, loneliness to demonstrate my love for Christ.  Before this week, if I was taken out of my nice home in Inverness, my car, my closet full of clothes, and all the other excess of my life I don't know if I would have had the spiritual maturity and ability to maintain my faith.  Because my faith was not my cornerstone, it was just a piece of the pie.  Going to church was a piece of the pie, Bible study and choir practice was a piece of the pie - along with all the other pieces of my physical life here on this earth that make living a faithful life a little easier.

I have spent the past week with people whose faith is their cornerstone.  It is their bread and water, it is the clothes on their back, and it is their for hope for tomorrow.  I speak not just of the Ugandans, but many of the people on this mission trip with me (Pastor Richie and I have joked around a lot this week, but he has ministered to me in more ways than he will ever know).

So as I prepare to leave tomorrow and I think about Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful that my faith has been brought back to the center of my life.  I want Jesus to be all I need in my life (and I say that knowing that one day I may have that test).  I was with a woman today in a village who answered "Jesus is my husband" when she told me she was not married.  She was older and probably too old to be married now according to her communities opinion, but she still had faith.  Husband or no husband, food or no food, good days or bad, her faith was her cornerstone.

I have never been this candid about anything in my life before as I have in this blog and I know that it is not me doing it.  There is great work to be done, in the lives of others and in our own lives, and to do it the way He sees best, our faith must be our cornerstone.