Intentional Disciples July Newsletter
Praise God! A couple of weeks ago on our door-to-door evangelization, a nice couple invited us in their home. We asked them if there was anything or anyone that we could pray for in their family. The mother asked us to pray for her daughter Dawn who had been blacking out during her pregnancy. We told her we would be happy to pray for her. She then told us the story of how Dawn first blacked out.
“Dawn was driving on a busy three lane highway in the inside lane. I was in the passenger seat and Dawn’s sister was in the back seat behind her. Dawn’s 4 year old was sitting in a car seat in the back as well. When Dawn passed out, the car crossed 2 lanes into the shoulder before I realized what was happening. I grabbed the wheel and barely kept the car from slamming into the guardrail. Problem was we were still going 60 mph in the shoulder with no way to stop. Dawn’s sister managed to dive into the driver’s well headfirst and push the brake and they came to a stop without anyone being hurt. Dawn woke up about a minute later and seemed fine but we were generally shaken up. I turned to the back seat and asked the 4 year old how she was and she was smiling and said she was fine. I asked, “Weren’t you scared?” The 4 year old answered, “I was not scared, the nice lady stopped the car.” “What lady?” “The lady in the fancy dress with the purple gloves and she had a crown on her head. She was standing in front of the car and stopped it with her hand.”
They realized that Our Mother Mary had saved them. What a blessing! The child saw Mary stop the car, but the adults were unable to see. Jesus calls us all to be humble like a child so that we can receive the Father’s love like a child and believe like a child.
This month, I want to focus on this important trait of discipleship, humility. God calls each of us to be a humble servant, a child with our eyes wide open, listening to God. Christ Jesus, the Lord of the Universe and the King of all kings was born in a manger in the middle of horse manure and pig slop. He was completely obedient to his parents. Imagine how humble he had to be when his mom asked him to wash behind his ears and take out the garbage. “But Mom I just washed the whole earth during the flood.” And just before his biggest sacrifice, a painful death on the cross for our sins, He washed his apostles nasty feet! Something only servants would do.
John 13:3“So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. …So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.”
I am in awe of the way Jesus humbles himself in the Eucharist. Every hour of every day, the Lord, the God of the universe allows his flesh to be eaten and his blood to be drunk. We can take him in our hands and eat. Oh, how he must love us! To be disciples we must humble ourselves like our master humbles himself every minute of every day. God should mold our lives however He sees fit. But we cannot be humble servants on our own. It is too hard. We must lean on Christ. For me, my pride often makes me irritated when I am folding laundry, or hanging Christmas lights, or cleaning up the broken whatever because I am focused on myself. What helps is thanking God for teaching me to be humble like Jesus.
Christ must be the center of our lives, our hero, our rock star, our American idol, and the one we look up to more than anyone else. We need to let God lead us, to be our commander and rely on His help with the humility of a child. Therefore, in our lives, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, must be #1. We also must have someone to serve. Therefore, Everyone else must be second. And who does that leave for third? Us. Challenge yourself this month. Get a piece of paper, write, “I am third” and put it on your bathroom mirror. Read it every morning and try to live it. Secondly, go out of your way to do one nice thing a day for someone you know and thank God for the chance to do it. If they live with you it is easy. Play cards, take them to a movie, get them some ice cream, pray with them, do the things that they have been asking you to do. If they are not at home write them a letter, send a present, pray for them, fast for them, visit them if they are close. Be a humble servant centered on Christ!
All In For Christ!
Paul