In the last six years, I have been privileged to travel internationally, as a therapist, with various organizations who put on women’s retreats. In this capacity, I meet the most amazing women. On my most recent trip to Lesotho and South Africa, I got to meet and visit the home of Ilza, known in her rural Lesotho village as Masechaba. Her story, her vision and her ability to transform, impacted me tremendously.
When the team and I arrived at Masechaba’s dollhouse sized hut, situated within a remote village, she toured us throughout the most remarkable, all-green, “small-house” I have ever seen. I have watched dozens of those small house home shows on HGTV and they got nothin’ on Masechaba and her ingenuity. She has utilized every inch of space, and powers her computer, lights and water systems with a creativity that could make her a lot of money in the states…but she is in Lesotho, in a village, saving the world one child at a time.
Part of the tour included a look at her makeshift greenhouse where she grows her food, along with trees that will eventually be used on the property. During this part of the tour, we were each handed a piece of donkey dung and instructed how to use our fingers to work it into smaller, usable shavings. We obediently put our smashed poop into a sizable bag where weeks of smashed poop had been accumulating and the ongoing joke for the weekend was birthed, “Donkey dung is your friend.”
The yucky parts of our life can be a thing of beauty
For those of you who know me, there is no explanation needed for my inner response to this situation. I am still unsure as to why, a therapist who likes to think of herself as pretty knowledgeable about personal boundaries, joined in this exercise at all, except that…maybe there is a lesson here for all of us. Maybe there is something that I can use, as I deal with the donkey dung of people’s lives in the counseling space. This is what Masechaba shared with us: donkey dung is used to fertilize the garden that feeds Masechaba and her adopted daughter. The donkey dung is also used, when mixed with other ingredients, to construct walls and fix holes in her hut. Donkey dung is life saving, necessary for warmth and stability and yes, donkey dung is your friend when you live in remote Lesotho.
Obviously Masechaba’s gifts to the world and mine are very different. But like my new friend, I want to use the donkey dung in my life for something good. Masechaba’s entire hut is made of donkey dung cement and the handprints of fellow villagers are forever on the walls of Masechaba’s home. With heartfelt gratitude, she identifies by name, where each friend labored to help her construct every wall. Am I able to build a beautiful life with the donkey dung that I have been given? Am I able to let people in to shape the bad parts of my life into something beautiful? I better be, because my life work is all wrapped up in the concept of building life out of ashes!
Romans 8:28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
No matter who you are, you have had trials and you have faced obstacles. You may have lost a job or a friend. You may have received a diagnosis or a Dear John letter that left you feeling helpless and abandoned. A wayward child or a wayward spouse may stir up a disbelief in your relational abilities or the goodness of people. Whatever it is, as you hold the donkey dung of life in your hand, you are faced with a choice and an opportunity: Do you embrace the yucky stuff and mold it into something usable and beautiful or do you gingerly hold it away from you, or toss it aside as useless?
Masechaba has chosen, after being raised in South Africa, under apartheid, to use her life for positive change. As a former South African police officer, she has been exposed to every side of the tough political issues of this complicated region. Today, Masechaba is choosing to shave her head in local tradition, live a sacrificial life, in a hut built out of donkey dung, Her name means Mother to the Nations and the local chief and other authorities in the community know that her home is available for children in crisis. Her life has not been perfect, yet she is living a most beautiful life of redemption and promise, because she is willing to grapple with and redefine what the yucky stuff of life can do, to promote better understanding and new life.
What does the donkey dung in your life look like? Does it need to be smashed up and put to good use? Are you ready to embrace the donkey dung and shape it into something beautiful?
Sonia
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