Zoe has been doing some tidying this afternoon in preparation for the eventual packing that we need to do. In doing so she came across a piece of paper where I had made some notes quite awhile ago now.
Several months ago now we had an interesting meeting at Riga 1. It was completely different from the normal and involved us breaking up into small groups to talk about some of the things that Sarah had just been teaching about. I found myself in a group made up of my good friend Steve, two Latvian speakers and one older Russian speaking lady. Because of the all the translation we didn’t get very far down the list of questions, but we didn’t really need to.
The first discussion point was to do people who seem to believe that what is going to happen is “written in the stars”. It didn’t take much for us to all agree that this was not the case and that to some extent we all have the opportunity to influence our own lives for the good. This even goes for those who are disadvantaged in some way, even though it might be difficult. It was then that the old Russian lady came out with a gem of a comment:
When you’re down on your knees you have to stand up. Our job is to encourage and support people to stand!”
What a wonderful concept that is! People who have been brought to their knees due to difficult circumstances are not necessarily ready to stand on their own. If we force them to stand by dragging them to their feet they are likely to collapse again as soon as we let go. Isn’t it better for us to be beside them on their knees and gently encourage them to stand and be ready to catch them if they start to fall again? Isn’t that what showing love to others should be like?
Lord, thankyou for useing your people to teach each other. Amen.
What a gem.
Thank you.