This blog is written in response to Traci Van Sumeren’s blog entitled “Families in Shanties” click this link to read it: http://tracivansumeren.theworldrace.org/index.asp?filename=families-in-shanties
I found myself feeling conflicted even just by reading her blog. How many times have we found ourselves wondering what we should do to best honor God? Traci’s emotions there are so real and if we have not found ourselves in that place amongst the poor, I think we may need to leave our comfort bubble a little more often. God has filled her with a compassion for the poor, but where will the resolution be found when one cannot take care of all the poor?
Please pray for Traci and the other World Racers who are being pushed from their comfort zones and learning the reality of the life that Jesus lived. He poured himself out over and over again and even he was not welcome in his home town. He cast out demons and people asked him to leave out of fear. We see that even the good things of God can cause confusion. But he acted out of purity of heart.
Thank you, Lord, that your word comforts us when we are confused and grants us your peace. Thank you that you know our hearts so intimately and we can walk in freedom when we seek to honor you completely.
I know you’ve probably read this before, but why not take the time to read it all the way through again (the end was the clincher for me). I know it was profound to me–especially after reading Traci’s blog.
Ecc 3:1-11
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
What does the worker gain from his toil?
I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
