If you haven’t looked up the definition of “wealth” lately, consider this my endorsement. But since I’m feeling wealthy and generous, I guess I’ll go ahead and lend you the definition I looked up:

wealth [noun]

(1) an abundance of valuable possessions or money. (2) the state of being rich; material prosperity. (3) plentiful supplies of a particular resource or of a particular desirable thing.

I know. Groundbreaking. I’m sure reading that definition just changed your life. And yes, I’m being completely sarcastic (Kenyans don’t use or really understand sarcasm, so please bear with me). Maybe you’re thinking, “Yeah yeah, I’ve heard this tactic before… using the definition of a common word as some attempt at a creative entrance into a topic.” You’re right… that’s absolutely what I’m doing. You got me. Now let’s move on…

During my time out here (two months as of yesterday), God has been helping me re-evaluate the definitions written in the dictionary my heart references throughout the day.  Words like “need” and “want” and “joy” and “fulfillment.” And as situations arise that require me to compare my definitions to God’s definitions, I usually find some humbling discrepancies. When you’re staring into the faces of the impoverished and disabled, and they’re just smiling back at you, realities you took as concrete suddenly start crumbling under the weight of truth. Then God takes those broken pieces, soaks them in His love and mercy and grace, forms them into clay, and reshapes your heart to more closely resemble His.

This week, the word was “wealth.” Several of the experiences and encounters I had highlighted God’s definition of wealth in various ways, and in those moments, I felt like I won the lottery.

1. This past Sunday, some friends and I splurged on a trip to a sports grill in Nairobi to watch the US women’s soccer team take on Brazil in the Women’s World Cup quarterfinal match. If you saw the game, then you know… so epic. There was a table of people from India across the room mocking us as we vicariously lived through the US team. But I didn’t care. The moment was too rich. And it had nothing to do with money, but everything to do with community… feeling a part of something bigger, unified through the battle for a prize that can only be attained together. And no matter how ridiculous you rationalize it to be, you can’t help but get caught up in the emotion of it. Some might write it off as just the nature of sports and of the competitive spirit in people. But I have to believe that if I was made in God’s image, my heart being fashioned after His, then those moments feel so rich because I was designed to celebrate team victories. And what team victory is more worth celebrating than the victory we, as the Body and as the Church, have in Christ in His defeat over the enemy? We might still be fighting against Satan, but God isn’t. He already won. And when we abide in Him, we win, too.
2. A CUREkid of mine checked in this week, and for some reason, he just captured my heart differently. He’s an eight month old with a cleft lip, and I met him and his mom at one of our mobile clinics a few weeks ago. I could give you a lot of details, but I already wrote more than I planned for the last paragraph, and that was just about a soccer game. So in an attempt at keeping this paragraph from becoming a small novel, I’ll give you the Cliffs Notes version. The mom has three boys. When she had this last one, her husband disowned her because the boy has a cleft lip. Her parents have taken her and the boys in, but supporting everyone is really tough, and she’s never been able to go to school and get even an elementary education. They come from a village very far away and spent what they had to get to our hospital. Before surgery, our doctor was checking the boy’s breathing and noticed a significant heart murmur. Until testing could be done to identify the cause, his cleft lip surgery was cancelled. He was able to get in to see a cardiologist the next day, but the news was not awesome. He has a hole in his heart. The cardiologist cleared him for surgery, but said he would need heart surgery as soon as possible. But even with the cardiologist’s approval, our cleft lip surgeon still didn’t want to risk putting the boy under for surgery, so his operation was cancelled again until the heart could be fixed. Getting to Kijabe was hard enough, but now to consider trying to provide the funds for a heart surgery… seriously. Turns out, a mother who had been at the cardiologist’s office had heard their story, and she approached the cardiologist and gave around $550 to put towards the boy’s heart surgery. Uh, what? Yeah. The part that got me most, though, was that while the boy and his mom were at the cardiologist, one of our surgery technicians who had accompanied them told us that the mom kept saying, “God loves me. He just loves me so much.” She barely has any money. No education. Her husband left her. Her son has a cleft lip and a heart condition. But she’s wealthy, because God loves her, and she knows it. She has a plentiful supply of a particular Resource, and that Resource is providing for her and her son in ways that can’t be explained using a worldly definition. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
3. Today I got to accompany one of my bosses on a trip to interview a woman who has broken through every oppressive expectation Kenyans, and Africans in general, have concerning disabled people. She was born with a disability that was misunderstood. Her grandmother tried to poison her, but at the last minute, her mother ran off with her to save her. She was shunned and verbally abused, by both her family members and the community. She was told she was worthless and would never get married or have children. She tried to take her own life twice, but didn’t succeed. Then she crossed paths with a missionary who referred her to Kijabe for an operation, and everything changed. Her disability no longer disabled her. She eventually started working at CURE Kijabe, where she met her husband. And after years of prayer from people all over, they just had their first baby boy six weeks ago. They have an abundance of valuable possessions – each other, their baby, a community of people who love and support them, and the knowledge that God is bigger than circumstances. Their richness radiates out of them and infects anyone within range. It infected me. I came home, made homemade pizza, opened a ginger ale, and sat by the fire, feeling warm from more than the heat of the fire.

Yes, I ate all of the missing half...don't judge

God is all the wealth I’ll ever need, because His wealth isn’t limited by any definition or parameter or box the world might try to create. And I feel like I win the lottery every time I meditate on His definition of “wealth” because He is the definition, and what’s better than Him? Yep. Nothing.

Originally posted at http://nashipai.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/im-rich/.