Another treasure sitting on my desk reminds me that there will be work to do - lives to help - Gospel to share until the day I die. I’ve called this my gilded box from time to time, but it’s not really gold, rather it’s made entirely of tiny golden and brown and black beads. It might as well be gold though, because it’s truly a priceless treasure to me.
Like my other treasures I didn’t earn this one either. It was gifted to me by a sweet and very tall lady in the streets of Kitale, Kenya. We had just come from a meeting in a room above a local restaurant with 50 or 60 disciple makers, and we were walking back toward the vehicles to travel to yet another city to meet with other disciple makers, when this sweet lady approached me. She was carrying a small child on one hip and this little round box in an empty hand, with a couple of toddlers traipsing behind. It truly was amazing to watch her handle everything so efficiently. Women never cease to amaze me.
She stopped me there on that sidewalk, and said, “I need to give this to you.” I thought she was selling it, so I asked, “Ok, how much do you want for it?” She replied, “No, it’s like the Gospel'; it’s free; it’s my gift to you.”
Me: “To me? Why”
Her: “Because you brought my husband the Gospel that changed his life.”
Me: “But. . .”
Her: “No, let me finish. You brought my husband the Gospel that changed his life. He was so horrible, [and she went onto describe many despicable acts of which he was guilty] that I had arranged several men to kill him in the street. But he heard the Gospel that you brought him, and he changed. He was in that meeting upstairs with you, and now I am happy. My babies are happy. We are at peace.”
Me: “Ma'am, I don’t know your husband. I didn’t share the Gospel with him. I didn’t disciple him.”
Her: “Maybe not, but you brought the Gospel to the man who did.”
Well, after researching a bit, the truth is that I didn’t begin that line of disciple makers that brought the change in that man’s life and made her so happy and blessed, that line actually started about 7 - 8 years ago in Kampala, Uganda when Jimmy Barry shared the Story with a man named, Michael. And then Vincent Nzasenga (I think) made Michael into a disciple maker that enabled the Gospel to change her husband’s heart. But I understood her sentiment. To her it didn’t matter who brought the Gospel to her husband, what really mattered was that someone did, and now her life and that of her family is better. She has a husband of whom she can be proud, and who she doesn’t want to murder anymore.
The Gospel changes things, but it doesn’t do anything if no one shares it. My gilded gift sits on my desk reminding me everyday that I have a purpose, and that purpose will never cease to be. If you know Jesus, then you have this very same purpose. Don’t ever forget that.
Merry Christmas Eve.
Steve D.