Sitting across from my friend Ben I listened as he shared all that has happened since we met last.
I first met Ben in the classroom. I was the professor and he the Masters student. We were both the same age. He is from the Masai tribe in Kenya. I am from Phoenix. He was in the country on political asylum, after his Kenyan co-workers were shot while he was abroad speaking at the United Nations. I was at the University on emotional asylum. We had an instant bond. It was called Humility.
Ben had been humbled through losing his freedom to return to his family and country. Overnight he had lost everything that mattered to him. I was broken from divorce, airplane crashes, business failures and the drain, I call single motherhood.
Ben is a free spirit, a modern day Gandhi. He was recently accepted into the PhD program at Clemson. He attended this years Clinton Global Initiative. He is a man who believes that who he is has everything to do with his humble beginnings.
Today as we shared our stories Ben reminded me, ” God doesn’t need you to be anywhere else, but where you are.“
Recently the State Department accepted Ben’s petition for his children to come to America, a church in South Carolina leased and furnished a house for his family and several world changing organizations are interested in working with him to transform lives in Africa.
Ben and I laughed about humble beginnings and humble mid-life today as we drank our coffee. We agreed that wherever you are, the challenge is to ‘come as you are‘ in faith and trust God will navigate the path through all your endings, beginnings and even mid-life.
Humility is not something I want MORE of. It really isn’t….Matter of fact, I think I may be HYPO- HUMBLE. If there was a blood test for humble I think I’d be above average to the point I’m deficient in pride. And maybe that is exactly where I’m supposed to be since the beginning of my life was more proud than humble.
Whether you find yourself today, humble beginnings, humble-mid life or even humble- later years- you are exactly where you are meant to be.Come as you are. God is not limited by your beginnings, middle or endings…And he certainly doesn’t need you to be any different than you are to perform miracles in and through you.
Are These Humble Beginnings? Faith
Artwork by Ben Koissaba
