Humility and Grace

By Kenda

As I am reading through these reflections, two words keep welling up inside me:

Humility.

Grace.

The people whose testimonies you are reading--people God is already using to tip the scales in favor of mercy and grace--fill me with humility and shower me with grace every single day.  I want you to know that.  There are no words that I can attach to the privilege of working with these young pastors as part of my daily life.  These people are your friends, your sons and daughters, your spouses and brothers and sisters and roommates and dads (I don't think we have any moms on this trip!).  These are people who will give you hope just by being in the same room with them.  And I get to do that, every day.

For the next couple weeks that room will be smaller than usual:  I will be elbow-to-elbow with these hope-givers, these God-lovers, these leaders who refuse to settle for a mediocre church or a cheesy Jesus.  These seminarians are taking huge risks--financial, emotional, interpersonal--by going on this trip.  I hope their courage rubs off on me.

I have been to South Africa several times, twice with my husband and children.  Each time, South Africa devastates me.  Its beauty leaves me breathless.  Its poverty and illness empty my soul.  Its history reminds me of the U.S.--things I would rather not be reminded of.  And its people, many of them Christians-- who insisted on justice and who simply would not give up or go away throughout the long nightmare of apartheid--remind me that God does not give up on us, which is the best definition of amazing grace I know.

That is what I'm looking forward to most:  the people of South Africa.  Some of them--people we have invited to speak to our group--will tell us truths we might not want to hear.  But Africans' arms are wider and hearts are larger than in any place I know.  The children will treat us like heroes.  Their families will treat us like long lost relatives, home for the holidays.  Their churches will fling open their doors and show us ministry like we've never seen it done before.  They'll show us hope.

This is why we are going.

Oh God of grace and mercy and hope, thank you...

...for these pastors I get to learn with

...for the people we are about to meet on the other side of the world

...for the young people we will encounter whose lives are so different from ours.

I am praying boldly here:

When we land, Lord,

Take the scales off our eyes so we see what you want us to see.  

Take the fear from our hearts so we can be who you want us to be.  

Make us your envoys of humility and grace.  

Here we are, Lord.  

Send us.

Amen.