by Theresa Duffy & Jordan Wheeler
Throughout the year we’ve been bombarded by the constant presence of beggars. From newborns to grandparents, we’ve been approached thousands of times in every country we’ve been to. We’ve been asked for money for tuition, food, water, drugs, cigarettes, even our watches.
The first four months of our Race challenged our patience and tested our grace towards those begging. By the time we arrived in Africa and became the immediate daily target of the poor, we developed a conditioned response of a bold, “no!”
As we’ve progressed through the world and the months have gone by, one thing sticks out in my mind. It’s not the woman holding the baby in my face as I try to walk by, it’s not the teenager relentlessly tugging at my shirt and repeating the same foreign words over and over that catches my eye; it’s the small child silently standing in the background holding a ball.
When that child approaches and asks the simple question, “do you want to play?” we tend to drop everything at that moment and play.
Isn’t that like us and our Father?
How much of our conversations with our Father are centered around us asking and telling Him what we need?
Are we tugging God’s shirt or are we holding out our football with eager eyes?
Our Father is happy to give us all we ask for, but perhaps what we really need is to spend an afternoon playing catch.
