Sally Howe April 6th 2014 - blessed by service
“It is at the moments when we are at our least that we discover who or what we believe in the most.”This has been a statement that has engaged some of us at St Philips this Lent season, as the following testimony shows.Being blessed by being served....I completely agree that we are blessed by serving others – One Hundred Percent!I want to describe how blessed I've been in the last week by being served.In truth, I try to avoid being served; there's a vulnerability in it I find unappealing - “So let me serve you instead! No please, I insist!”[Yep, me too! (Ed)].But when your back goes into mega 'lock-down' and leaves you stranded on a landing halfway up an external staircase, in full view of everyone at school, you are suddenly pitched into the 'helpless' basket and all you can say is “Help!”. So I said that to Jesus a few hundred times (quite a calming mantra) and then spotted someone I knew would be his hands and feet to me. She gathered others - the school nurse and my husband (often Jesus-like to me) - then brought more others, such as angelic ambulance officers. I was completely blessed by their serving hearts, and it just continued on through my stay in the ER.It has taught me....
- How beautiful it is to be served when you really need it;
- how kind and good people can be;
- how, as all goodness comes from God, he has free rein to inspire even people who don't acknowledge him to do his work;
- how intimately close Jesus is when you are 'at the end of yourself'.
I have never spent such a blissful time with Jesus as I did that night in Emergency, with very little sleep and no outside world contact (no phone = bonus) but in the amazing loving embrace of our Lord.I don't advise 'breaking' your back to access a 'Jesus-cuddle' but I suspect that acknowledging our helplessness, ignoring distracting 'technology noise' and being conscious of the loving service of others when you are in trouble does help.Another revelation God has given me is how much harder emotional pain is than physical pain.It has been very special to allow myself to feel so loved in all this.Anyway, that's my testimony.God bless you my brothers and sisters as you seek to remain in Him,Sally Howe