Changing the Story

It was an unexpected and undeserved privilege afforded me to spend 15 years living in the amazing nation of Uganda, characterized by the description The Pearl of Africa. Many people asked me why Uganda? Why Africa?

My answer may have appeared suspicious to them but I completely believed it: I needed Africa far more than Africa needed me.

I spent more than 20 years in Africa. I learned so much within those years. I suspect I would have had trouble understanding some of those things had I never experienced them. In this post, I share a major theme that stands out.

Every human being has a story. Stories are vastly different and yet somehow the same. Every person has three prominent elements to their stories. Every story has a context, a condition, and a need for a cure.

Over the years in Africa, Next Generation Ministries hosted 15 medical missions. Medical professionals would organize a team to address the deplorable health conditions of a third-world nation and NGM would host the team for ten days or two weeks providing them with access to those sick and injured.

Staying with my perspective that every person served by the medical professionals had three prominent elements to their story, it wouldn't matter who the person was, each of them had a context, a condition, and a cure.

CONTEXT

Every person has a context composed of when they are born, where they are born, race and ethnic background, resources or lack, education or little to none, prominence or poverty, achievements, etc. among other elements that help define who they are. The context of a person may breathe privilege or pity. Some may covet one's context or feel fortunate in light of it. The reality is that everyone has a context that makes their story interesting.

CONDITION

Rebecca assessing a patient

This word is used as a means to evaluate the circumstances or situations of a person. It evaluates health, education, wealth and poverty, stability, etc. An overall evaluation with many categories and descriptions; the state of affairs of a person.

On our medical missions, a profile of every person was created to help define their physical condition. Accessing all the medical resources available a diagnosis was made of their condition.

CURE

What normally follows a diagnosis is treatment. Sometimes the treatment results in a cure. The condition in which patients were found, whether injury or disease, the goal was to remedy the condition in which they were found. Context is not a privilege regarding health. Sickness and injury are indiscriminate.  They come in various forms without regard to the context of the patient. Whether a poor village farmer or a wealthy member of Parliament the goal is to administer a means that would result in a change in their story.

These three elements of every person's story are simple and easy to understand. It is not a complicated theory. It's easy to apply this to medical missions. Cancer attacks bodies regardless of their status in life. Diseases and injuries are condition that requires a cure.

Please step with me away from the medical application to the spiritual. The same three elements of every person's story are present. Regardless of the context of a person's life, every person has a condition common to all mankind. This condition originated in the Garden of Eden when man ignored God's wisdom and resisted God's authority. The result was an instantaneous transition from innocence to guilt. This condition is called sin ... a topic readily ignored. Every human being is a sinner. Not because they commit sins any more than barking makes a dog a dog. A dog barks because he is a dog. We each have this condition of sin. We sin because we are sinners. There is nothing we can do about it. The good news is that God is good and gracious. He provided His son, Jesus Christ, to remedy the condition of sin. Jesus is the cure. He is the One who changes our stories.

Many of us are challenged when eternity is introduced within the context of time and space. God makes it clear in the Bible that eternity is greater than the confines of time and space. Time is a gift from God but it is temporary. Time is irrelevant in eternity.

It is natural for mankind to operate within the time/space environment. We naturally find it fulfilling to believe we are doing something of primary importance. My intention is not to minimize humanitarian efforts but to only place them within the context of eternity. 

Our physical existence is a bit like a Hollywood set. It has a front with no back. It is a bit of a facade. Mankind attempts to give life a sense of purpose and meaning with its humanitarian efforts. But ... God has already given life meaning within the wider context. His desire is to reconcile each human to himself through the sacrifice of His son Jesus who remedied the condition of sin on the cross of Calvary. This is the primary force of those who are fully devoted followers of Christ. And it has the divine power to change the story ... for time and eternity.