So, Who is the Namo In Your Life?
Sharing Life—Connecting Journeys—Following Christ
Matthew 25:40 “The King Will Reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
One of my favorite authors is Phillip Yancey and as usual my favorite book is the one I just finished reading, or re-reading, or re-re-reading. One book in the last category that I make a point of reading at least once a year is the book entitled; Soul Survivor. It is an anthology of mentors that have impacted Philip Yancey in his own spiritual journey and in his personal interacting with both the world of the Church and the world at large. One of the mentors that he shares with the readers is the world renowned surgeon Dr. Paul Brand. Dr. Brand is one of the foremost medical researchers and experts in the treatments of Hanson’s disease more commonly known as leprosy. He was the son of medical/evangelist missionaries to India and while growing up in India encountered the devastating physical/social/emotional and spiritual impact of leprosy on almost a daily basis. He was so impacted by what he observed that he made research of the disease and the care of its victims his life work. He would go on to be recognized worldwide as a surgeon, research specialist, sought after speaker in medical circles and the author of several books including, “The Gift of Pain”. Philip Yancey would describe Dr. Brand on a personal level with the words, “humility and gratitude flowed from him naturally, and in our time together I sensed a desperate lack of these qualities in myself.” Yancey relates an account of traveling back to India with Dr. Brand to his childhood home in the Kolli Malai Mountains and the incredible witness of the ministry of his parents that is still there today. He also met a man named “Namo” who had been one of Dr. Brand’s first patients. A young university student when first diagnosed with leprosy (one of 4 million in India alone) Namo was forced out of the university and found his way to the only orthopedic surgeon willing to treat the deformities of the disease. Dr. Brand undertook treatments of Namos leprosy and was able medically to not only halt the disease progression but surgical reconstruct Namos hands that had been severely damaged in the course of his affliction. At the time of the writing of Yanceys book Namo had returned to the university and graduated and had gone on to become the Chief of Physical Therapy at the All-India Institute. When Yancey visited Namo’s home he saw on the wall a picture of Dr. Brand and underneath the picture the words; “May the Spirit that is in him live in me”. What an incredible witness of the fruit that comes from simply living as Christ would call us unto the “least of these”. Namo may not have been the epitome of a “desirable disciple” when he came to Dr. Brand but in the economy of heaven he is an ongoing witness to Christ ability to use ordinary people in extraordinary ways.
As a life group leader and a minister of the Gospel do you have sense of who the “Namo” might be in your Life? The “Namos” in our lives are not necessarily always obvious and you may have to look a little deeper than the polite surfaces we all have for each other.