My mom said something very profound the other day- and it helped me re-focus my vision for this missions trip.  I was reflecting on the difficulty of my job: caring (as a nurse) for people that are frankly not that easy to care for.  There are the patients that don’t do anything for themselves and just ring the call bell for ridiculous things- irritating everyone.  There are the patients that scream at us, yell at us, swear at us, hardly let us take their blood pressure, leave without completing their needed medical treatment…..there are those with deformities, disabilities and ugly conditions… the alcoholics and drug addicts, the depressed, and poor, the homeless and hairy…..how difficult it is to care for them, touch them, love them?  How much easier it is to care for the family that says “thank you” all the time.  To care for the family that gives you a card, honours the work you do, and well….are from middle class, well-to-do families.  But who is it that Christ ministered to?  He loved the unloved.  He touched the untouchables.  He healed the lepors and social outcasts.  He forgave the sins of whores and prostitutes.  It is my Jesus who loves like that.  I was talking to my mom about how I wanted to be like Mother Theresa “you see, she loved the social outcasts…she cared for the un-cared for…she touched lepors!” and my mom wisely said “you know who that is don’t you?”  And then the light went on and my soul was flooded with a new and profound love of my savior.  “It was Jesus!”  It was Jesus living through her.  It was Him- the greatest at compassion and love, the greatest at mercy and care.  He is who I want to be like- at my job, on the street, and on this missions trip.  “Lord let this trip not be about us and our glory.  I don’t want credit for leaving this life of comfort to serve you- how can I not go?  Your love compels us!  It is your love, dear Jesus that compels us.”

 Isn’t it incredible that Jesus loves us- messy humanity, like that?  I’m so thankful that I know this Jesus- and may all who read this blog come to know Him.  He is the only one who truly loves  (without reserve, with reckless abandon, all the time, in every way)….

to the ‘least’ of these we shall go with the love of our savior compelling us!