Humiliated
Yesterday, we were truly blessed at the Zavora Doctors for Life Clinic. A routine visit to a larger hospital to get malaria tests and treatment yielded a 60kg box of medicine being donated to the clinic. We got everything you could imagine! Antibiotics, pain pills, eye ointment, bandages; you name it we got it! On the side of the box one can see that the medicine has been donated from a Belgium donor and it is such a blessing. It has been very interesting for me to be on the receiving end of donations. Personally over the past 2 years I have gone from being a person who had more than enough; who donated my old clothing, sponsored a child in Africa, and gave the odd coin to a homeless person… to being the one who receives these item and how blessed I have been to have been humbled to this place.
I was speaking with the young man (25years) who lives permanently at the clinic with his wife and young baby. They are African/Dutch missionaries from South Africa and this young man has really had a wonderful upbringing with both his parents present, a large Christian family with true Christian values and he has been a source of wisdom for me. He was talking to me about humility and he said, “you must be willing to humiliate yourself”. English is not his first language, so I thought it was a slip in words, yet I felt it was quite relevant to what humility really is…
we must be willing to humiliate ourselves…
When I was back home for 6 months after being in Africa for 10 months, I recall a time when I was at the house of two good friends. I asked them each if they had any unused cosmetics, an old lipstick they were not using or some crème? Low and behold I was so blessed and to this day(thanks Bets) I still am using my ‘donated’ eyeliner. Was I humiliated to ask this request, “hey guys I don’t have much money and you may have what I need and could easily part with it…could you possible offer it up to me?”
Sometimes over the past two years I have been ‘humiliated’ to ask for help, yet it has further humbled me and brought me to a place of compassion and understanding that I could never have gained otherwise. As I look forward to just 27 days left in Africa, I am excited to start my life anew in North America, yet to start I will not have many things and even as I get a job and start to get established I desire the most to stay humble, to be willing to be ‘humiliated’ AND most of all to continue to give to those in need out of the abundance that I know I will have!
Are you willing to be humiliated today?
What does humility look like to you?
Great article Justine! We all have the same "pride" problem, some of us more than others. That pride gets in the way of just stepping up and admitting that we have a need. Most Christians are more than willing to help fill a need, but if we do not let folks know, how can they minister. For each person that wants to give, a person who has a need must let them know. That way, both get a blessing. My wife has a severe hearing deficit. She needs to let people know that she did not hear them so that they will speak louder or move closer, or even write their words so she can read their lips or read their words. Last night we met a lady who is only in her 40's, yet she had a stroke a few years ago that has left her with a short term memory disorder. Thankfully, she let us know that. So, now we will know better how to communicate with her and be more loving and understanding. If she had not humbled (humiliated) herself, we would think she was selfish to act like she did not remember what we did for her yesterday. I hope that makes sense.
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