I like some parts of the Bible more than others.
I like the feel-good stories about joy and forgiveness and healing. I like reading about love and forgiveness and unconditional grace.
Other parts—it’s not that I ignore them, but they don’t create the same warm-fuzzy feelings.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17
I’m not sure I do those things, not consistently or sacrificially.
My team mates on the IJM Freedom Tour are showing me a lot about what it means to truly commit yourself to defending the oppressed.
Una grew up in Botswana. She came to the U.S. for medical school and became a pediatric critical care specialist. She serves in an inner city hospital in Brooklyn, saving children’s lives and teaching other doctors.
Una told us the hardest part of her specialty is watching sick children die. She’s been tempted to walk away a number of times, but held on because she sincerely believed God called her to this work. But she felt anger and confusion about why God would call her to heal children and then allow them to die.
I asked how she could remain in a field that caused her so much pain. She replied, “I learned to choose gratitude.”
Gratitude—that God gave her the gifts of a calling and the ability to pursue it, that many children survived and thrived under her care, that she could pray for all of her patients.
Una believes she’s called to help children—all children. So when she heard about a bike tour to benefit IJM, she responded. Oh, there’s one other detail.
Una’s never been on a bicycle.
So six months ago Una bought a bike and began learning to ride. She’s still not really comfortable maneuvering, turning, stopping quickly. And now she’s riding five hundred difficult miles.
Monday was Day 1. When Una pulled into the parking lot at the end of the ride, she’d covered 98 miles. So she rode an extra two miles to complete a century—100 miles!
Amazing what you can do when you respond to God’s call.
Please leave a comment here.
|
|
|
