sacrifice

Do you ever feel helpless when considering the extreme poverty present in our global community?  Do the eyes of hungry children from devastated regions haunt you as you tuck your healthy little ones into bed?  This past week I was challenged to think more deeply about the extreme poverty experienced by children and families in many distressed parts of the world.

Women in ministry face quite a challenge, don't we? We work, we study, we love, we sacrifice, and sometimes we pour out so much to others that we come to a point where God says this to us: "I have this against you, that you have left your first love" (Revelation 2:4). 

When that happens, I realize that I have to get down on my knees and get back to the basics. I have to forget about everything else and refocus on my love relationship with the King of the Universe.

Here we are at the end of our series in the gospel of Mark! I know its been a long run and I hope you've been able to trace the themes in the gospel along with me over the various posts. Today, let's pull together what we've learned from our work.

In April I had the privilege of hearing veteran missionary, Dr. Helen Roseveare, speak at a staff conference for field missionaries of Entrust, International, in Hungary. Today I finished her book, He Gave Us a Valley.  In it, Helen describes her twenty years of ministry in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The familiar hymn often associated with Easter,“O Sacred Head Now Wounded” is based on the long medieval poem attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (1153). The lengthy poem, in seven sections, about the suffering of Christ on the cross, addresses each part of Jesus’ body- his feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart and head.This hymn, translated from Latin into German (1601) and from Latin into English (1830), is the seventh section that focuses on Jesus’ head.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40