pretty dirty feet

There’s a story in the Bible, in John’s gospel around chapter 9 of a blind man who had trouble seeing life for what it really was. He begged Jesus to heal his eyes. God restored his sight and everybody in the region knew that a miracle had occurred. The educated, high society of the day had many explanations. These skeptics argued that his disability was the just consequence of his parents and/or his own sins. Jesus disagreed. When asked to defend the reason for this poor man’s suffering, humiliation and pain during all of his life, the God-man responded: “No, it was allowed into his life for the sake of God’s glory…”

On the last Sunday before I left South Africa, this passage was branded upon my soul. It defined the unspoken question confronting me as an African leaving for a foreign land in search of greater understanding.

Is Africa poor, hungry and left desolate to suffer alone because of her own sins or those perpetrated by her colonial parents?

I believe Jesus’ reply would be the same: “No, but that the glorious power of the Living God might be revealed to all the earth.”

How will I respond to this challenge?

May each day of my life tell His story of sacrificial love. May I never cease to inspire every mortal He sends across my path to put their trust in Him. May I grow in skillfulness and influence to mobilize more souls as part of His supernatural solution to the need of Africa!