How our hearts ache for this man.  We want more than anything for him to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord.  To become all that God designed him to be.  We love him with all our hearts.  We have poured our lives into his life for a very long time.  Even back before he came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  And there really is a "before" and an "after" in his life.  But we want more for him.  We want him to abandon every trapping of his old life and go all out for God.  We want the old ways to fade into the dim, distant past.  We want him to become a new creature in Christ in every corner of his life.

And that is precisely why we put him under discipline all during the month of November.  He's our relief guard.  Works one night a week so our regular guard can have a night off.   And each week when he comes to work, he and I do a study together.  I picked out the first topic, and then it was his turn.  We're doing an in depth Bible survey course.  It's deep, it's rich, it's full, it's amazing.  And he is eating it up.  Little by little by little he's growing.  He's changing.  He's becoming.  This dear, dear man who had "no fetching up" of any kind. Has no idea who his Dad is. Nobody really loved him.  He mostly raised himself.  His life is riddled with learning gaps and issues of every kind.  And because we love him, because we want only the best for him, we could no longer tolerate a certain bad behavior.  We had been all over this issue numerous times in the past.  The time had come in enact consequences if we truly love him.  

Tonight he came back to work after not being allowed to work for an entire month.  I had a long talk with him before we re-started our Bible survey.  Asked him if he knew why he had been put under discipline.  Held my breath as he answered.  He could have said "because you are mean" but he didn't.  By God's grace alone he articulated what he had done wrong.  Took full responsibility for his actions.  And took a giant plunge into humility.  Relief flooded my soul.  Cameroonians by nature are riddled with pride.  Humility comes from God and God alone.  It is not a cultural value or virtue.