Daily lessons on humility

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October 28, 2010

Daily lessons on humility

Acts 20:19(a) “I served the Lord with great humility and with tears”

7:00 AM today arrived quickly as my roommates and I made our way down 4 flights of stairs to my car parked on the street only to find that I had accidently left the passenger side window open the entire night. I gave thanks to God that nothing was stolen. We made our way to the office fairly quickly as there was no traffic – again – giving thanks to God as this was not the day we could afford to be late. Arriving at the office we loaded the vehicle with all of our supplies needed for the days outreaches in two different kindergartens. Our theme today was to “be honest”. We give thanks to God for this opportunity to share with the kids.

Our commute to the first kindergarten was perfect with no traffic problems and we arrived early with plenty of time to get our stage and props set up. With 15 minutes to spare I decide to quickly use the restroom. I enter a bathroom about the size of a very small closet, lock the door behind me, do my business and proceed to exit only to realize quickly that the door will not unlock. I try for a couple of minutes and I am aware now that I have a big problem. I attempt to get my colleague’s attention by pounding on the door and I thank God again that they come to my rescue. 15 minutes later the door finally is opened and I enter the hallway to over 10 construction workers staring at me. (they were all working on the school remodel) All attempted to help. I think there could be a joke in this somehow…. how many does it take to rescue a missionary from a locked bathroom….. Okay let’s continue. I arrive in the classroom just as we are ready to begin and we carry on teaching the kids for the next 30 minutes about being honest. So much at this point to be thankful for.

We make our way to the second kindergarten and set up and begin the same program. The kids are excited and we are having fun. Another lesson in humility comes my way as a 4 year old, very sweet, dear, little boy proceeds to correct my Romanian language. I thank him and continue on. All in all a great day, had tons of fun with the team and the kids.

It was certainly a day filled with humility and luckily no tears as the scripture verse says (however another 10 minutes in the bathroom and there just may have been tears, although I am not claustrophobic, this tiny room was getting smaller and smaller as time was passing)

I look back and can laugh about the entire situation. Everyday for me is a lesson on humility as I continue to learn new things about the culture I now live in as well as learning new words every day and even 4 year olds are correcting me on my pronunciation. I make mistakes every day on even the simplest things like how to correctly talk. Humility is hard to swallow sometimes but I would much rather fall down while trying, get back up and continue… than to just stay still, do nothing – safe and with no risk of falling but I would never experience the extreme joy of serving God in this capacity. Stepping out of our comfort zone and trying new things takes risks, humility and sometimes tears but in the end it is all worth it and for that I give total thanks to God.