Thursday, August 27, 2020
The Pain of Faithfulness
“My family taught me that ubuntu is not about trying to pretend that everything is sweetness and light. It’s about understanding that it’s possible for us to confront our darkness, especially with the help of others around us, as this makes us human too. Every positive has a negative. And every negative has a positive. To love deeply will involve grief. To stand for a cause, as my grandparents did, will involve sacrifice. To hear constructive criticism can lead to learning. To allow yourself to be vulnerable can ignite compassion and deepen your relationships with those around you.” page 175
The author of this book is the granddaughter of Desmond and Nomalizo Tutu. Over their many years of ministry and activism, her grandparents faced the kinds of challenges and resistance that many of us can only imagine. Their love for God compelled them to fight for the image of God to be recognized in each and every person. It was God’s work that they were doing, and it was painfully difficult.
The fact that their work was challenging was not an anomaly. We read in God’s word how God’s calling on people’s lives made things so difficult for them. Abram left everything he knew to go to a place he didn’t know. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers for sharing the visions God had given him. Esther, a victim of human trafficking, had to risk her life to speak truth in order to save her people. God doesn’t call people to comfort.
Pray that God would help you see more and more each day the ways that you are being asked to reject your own comfort in order to reflect the biblical model of speaking truth and demonstrating the love of God.
This week’s devotional reflections are based on the book, Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together the African Way by Mungi Ngomane. Harper, New York. 2020.
The Pain of Faithfulness
“My family taught me that ubuntu is not about trying to pretend that everything is sweetness and light. It’s about understanding that it’s possible for us to confront our darkness, especially with the help of others around us, as this makes us human too. Every positive has a negative. And every negative has a positive. To love deeply will involve grief. To stand for a cause, as my grandparents did, will involve sacrifice. To hear constructive criticism can lead to learning. To allow yourself to be vulnerable can ignite compassion and deepen your relationships with those around you.” page 175
The author of this book is the granddaughter of Desmond and Nomalizo Tutu. Over their many years of ministry and activism, her grandparents faced the kinds of challenges and resistance that many of us can only imagine. Their love for God compelled them to fight for the image of God to be recognized in each and every person. It was God’s work that they were doing, and it was painfully difficult.
The fact that their work was challenging was not an anomaly. We read in God’s word how God’s calling on people’s lives made things so difficult for them. Abram left everything he knew to go to a place he didn’t know. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers for sharing the visions God had given him. Esther, a victim of human trafficking, had to risk her life to speak truth in order to save her people. God doesn’t call people to comfort.
Pray that God would help you see more and more each day the ways that you are being asked to reject your own comfort in order to reflect the biblical model of speaking truth and demonstrating the love of God.
This week’s devotional reflections are based on the book, Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together the African Way by Mungi Ngomane. Harper, New York. 2020.
