Mar 18, 2016
by Kory and Amanda Langley
SDB Church of Texarkana, AR
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
- Matthew 5:3
I am going to tell you two different stories from the past year. One happened on the official mission field and one at home. To understand my stories you have to understand this: no matter how much you seem to have or not have, God owns everything and you own nothing. This is what it means to be poor in spirit.
As most of you know I went to Kenya this summer with a group of missionaries. We had several meetings and watched several videos explaining things that we should expect. The biggest moment that happened, though, was something that no one warned me about. I stood on the side of a mountain after church with a group of ladies and suddenly one girl handed me her baby. She then told me the baby’s name was Methuselah, she was five months old, and didn’t get sick. Then she said something I still can’t talk about without tearing up; she said, “And now she is yours.”
And now she is mine.
I could not take Methuselah in my arms, no matter how much the woman begged, but I have continued to hold her in my heart. That night in my room, I made a bracelet out of braided fishing line. It stays as a reminder to me that even though Methuselah has disappeared from my eyes, she has not gone away.
The extreme circumstances that urged several women to offer their children to me still go on. I can control none of it — but God holds all of it in His hands.
Now for my second story:
In my first story, I held a baby in my arms that God recently sent to Earth. In 2015, I also experienced in my hands a life that God was taking home. This is going to be brief because I do not feel as if this story is mine to tell. But I will tell you this: in four weeks I went to three funerals — one great-grandfather who died of a heart attack in a seasoned age, one uncle who was released from a long and painful fight with cancer, and one young lady whose death I will never understand.
No matter how many tears you cry, babies you love, or times you pound on someone’s chest trying to force him to breathe — you control nothing.
I control nothing.
But do not forget the second half: God controls everything. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9.
We might own nothing, but God owns everything. And whether in Kenya or Arkansas, I have to trust God has a plan and repeat to myself:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
— Matthew 5:3