|
November 1999
Dear Friends,
Today I am especially grateful to God for small miracles. I’m
not sure what made me notice the mother and son walking toward
me on the sidewalk. What caught my attention was the plastic bag
they were carrying between them, each holding one of the handles.
It did not look particularly heavy—perhaps either of them
could have carried it alone. Remembering the times that I had
seen people here sharing a load in such a way, I was a little
embarrassed at the times I saw people walking hand-in-hand or
arm-in-arm as a hindrance to pedestrian traffic. My life experience
has taught me independence. I have often had people offer to help
me carry a load and been proud of saying, "No, thanks, I
can do it."
But does such independence interfere with interdependence? How
often is a relationship made by the acceptance of an offer of
help? How often has an opportunity for that connection been missed
by self-reliance?
As I view my life as a witness to my faith, I wonder what I am
teaching about the independence and the interdependence of believers.
With my sturdy independence, have I diminished the value of interdependence?
Is this same independence what makes some believers "worship
in nature," not feeling a need for a Christian community?
Am I—and are other Christians—reluctant to acknowledge
need, even sometimes failing to feel in need of God? Living in
Klaipeda, trying to be a witness of Jesus Christ without knowing
much of the culture, I am daily reminded of the need for God to
be the voice through me, for me to acknowledge my weakness and
the limitations of my abilities. What a great gift! Perhaps I
will even accept help with a burden I fully believe that I can
carry myself.
Orientation devotion
As we began this fall term, I was asked to present a devotion
for new teacher orientation. The message I delivered there seems
to me to still have relevance for me and perhaps for others, so
I want to share part of it.
Each of us has come here hoping to share a gift and make a contribution
to developing youth in a developing country. As deadlines approach
us, we have begun to focus more and more on the specific tasks.
Yet, if the tasks consume us, we have lost the purpose. I believe
God is saying to each one of us: Stop! Look! Listen! I’m
coming through here! Don’t get in the way with your impatience,
your independence, your self-assurance!
How can the assignment we fulfill bear witness to the light,
proclaim the Good News? The answer may lie in the way we perceive
the gifts we bring and the tasks we perform. I Corinthians 12:7-11
states that "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit
for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance
of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according
to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another
gifts of healing by the one Spirit. . . . All these are inspired
by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually
as he wills."
I believe that teaching is God’s gift to me and His gift
through me. But, I am affirming my assignment is only a small
piece of the ways in which I may bear witness in this place. Perhaps
it is not what we do, but who we are that is our reason for being
here. We are those filled with the Spirit. And we are told in
Galatians 5:22-3, 25 " . . .the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control." If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk
by the spirit. How do we bring forth that fruit? How do we walk
by the spirit? The first step in such a witness is to stop, look
and especially listen to the outside and to the inside. God is
showing us that He has been at work in this place long before
we thought of coming here. We need to listen to the stories of
faith. The Spirit is revealing our place in the long line of witnesses
that have come before. Stop! Look! Listen! The people of the Lithuanian
community are expressing their needs and their hopes. We need
to listen with compassion. The Spirit will guide us to respond
with daring.
I praise God that he has acted and is acting through people with
flaws and shortcomings. I’m not special, but I have seen
God’s glorious transformation of my actions! I thought I
was serving by having student conferences about writing progress
and grades and spent an hour and a half talking with a young Jewish
student struggling with loneliness, faith and the future. I thought
I was serving by painting rooms at Kretingos, and my singing as
I walked to the site emerged as a source of hope and encouragement
to a woman who passed me on the way and others whom I met on the
way and at the site. I thought I was responding to one friend’s
doubts and questions and wrote a poem for that person. Since I
have shared it, it has spoken to an American group studying the
book of Job and a woman in Florida working in an inner-city shelter.
It is as if each time I responded to a need, God multiplied the
gift beyond my imagination.
I tend to be very analytical and to act as if I can control every
situation through reason. In coming here I have consciously attempted
to be more open to God’s leading and more spontaneous in
response. God knows and I discover surprise by surprise why I
am in this place. What I have discovered here is that the ways
in which I planned to witness have been overshadowed by God’s
surprises. I pray for this to remain God’s workplace of surprises.
Meanwhile, I strive to "bear the fruit" of joy. Twice
now, I have been greatly blessed by being told that I have a gift
for joy that is a blessing in this place and time. I told a friend
that I sing both to express joy and to recover joy. I know that
I must keep in touch with the joy of Jesus that is in me or my
joy will not be full.
The great calling for those who bear witness to the light is
Romans 12:11 "Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit,
serve the Lord."
Jackie Bartz
The 1999 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 86
|
