If someone were to write a biography of your life, how would it read?
Would readers become so engrossed they couldn’t put the book down . . . would they be inspired to live differently . . . would they find courage to pursue a life that changes the world?
I may have moments of inspiration and encouragement to offer, but certainly not enough to fill a book! (And sadly enough, I’m not even immediately sure if I have moments of inspiration . . . perhaps seconds or nanoseconds would be more appropriate?) But after reading Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Relin, I long for my life to bless others in a significant way.
Three Cups of Tea follows Mortenson as he morphs from a mountain-climbing adventurist to a school-building humanitarian. Mortenson’s organization has already built 55 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a feat just as treacherous and demanding as his attempt to climb K2.
What I love most of this tale is that Mortenson is portrayed as he is—a real person with strengths and weaknesses, with friends and enemies, with likeable and exasperating traits. I love that his quirks and oddities are the very things that make him able to do what he is doing.
It gives me hope that my quirks could be the very traits that make me suitable to serve others in a way that is needed, in a way that is lacking without my giving.
The Lord Jesus said this about serving, “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43–45, NAS).
I want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, serving with my whole being, my whole life. Quirks and all.
