Twenty-five years ago in an adult Sunday School class at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, an idea was born. There was a need for health care in their inner city Indianapolis neighborhood. Out of this need, a few people dreamed of starting a clinic for the community. They began small with an all volunteer staff of nurses and doctors. The going was rough with many setbacks but the little clinic continued to grow into what is now Raphael Health Center. Last year, we served the community by delivering over 6000 patient visits. God took meager resources and multiplied them through the faithfulness of a few who vowed to start small but dream big.
Many of us dream of doing something big with our lives but after numerous false starts, give up altogether. If we don’t see results immediately, we feel defeated and wonder whether it’s worth dreaming at all. Often the most difficult part of accomplishing any task is being faithful in the mundane. The ordinary, day to day grind wears us down and can simply be boring. What we forget is that God meets us in the ordinary. He looks for people who are faithful in the small things to give them bigger tasks than they ever imagined.
David was the youngest son in a family of many able bodied men. When the prophet Samuel came to his home, he told his father Jesse that he would anoint the next king of Israel from his household. No one even thought of David as a possible choice. They didn’t bother to call him in from tending the sheep. It was only after Samuel had all of his older brothers pass by him did he ask, “Are these all the sons you have?” Jesse called David in from the fields and the Lord told Samuel, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”1
Did David as a boy ever dream of someday becoming king? His life was so far from this reality, I doubt that this ever crossed his mind. However, David was faithful in the tasks put before him and in doing these things well, he prepared himself for a bigger future. By defending his sheep from lions and bear with only his wits, a staff and a sling shot, he gained the skill to defeat Goliath on the battlefield. He served King Saul as an armor bearer, playing his lyre for him when he was feeling tormented. When King Saul turned his wrath upon him, vowing to kill him, David hid in caves. During this time, he had the opportunity to kill King Saul but chose not to harm him.
Fifteen years passed from David’s anointing by Samuel to his crowning as king. I’m sure there were days he wondered if the old prophet knew what he was doing when he chose him. Who was he to dream that he would ever become king? He wrote in his songs, the Psalms, of feeling disheartened. But David always turned back to praising God in the end for remaining with him through everything. He rose to royalty but much of his early life was simply commonplace.
God meets us in the mundane. The key to a life of purpose is to continue being faithful in the little things, the things no one notices but God sees. He knows our heart. He knows the right time to give us bigger tasks prepared just for us. Will there be set backs and times we want to give up. Absolutely! Keep going anyway like David. Self-defeat is your worst enemy. Always.
Raphael Health Center has changed tremendously in the last 25 years. We just completed an expansion of new exam rooms and a community center. The Indiana University School of Optometry will soon be seeing patients at the clinic and we now have legal services to help patients with little resources. The expansion has been an overwheming strain on everyone involved. However, as we look back to everything that has already been accomplished by the faithful ones in our history, we see the obvious hand of God on our ministry. With hope for the future, we carry on the tradition begun by that small Sunday School group long ago. Start small but dream big. Never lose heart. God is with us.
1 1st Samuel 16:11-12
