This may not be the funnest blog you’ve ever read.
James 4:17 “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (Now is not the time to stop and make a mental list of all the nice things you did for others today to prove to yourself you are a good person. And we can’t prove anything to the Creator of the universe, who knows the intentions of our hearts in every moment.)
How many times a day do I choose myself, my own convenience, over an opportunity to love someone?
How many times a day do you do the same thing?
I often wonder what it would be like to go through the day without thinking of my own selfish desires….a whole entire day where I think of everyone’s needs before my own. I am not talking about just caring well for the people around me…or being a helpful person, or even having a “servant’s heart”. I am talking about being self-less. Denying myself, my selfish desires and comforts because I am so wrapped up in loving the people around me that my wants don’t even matter anymore.
One of the most common words of encouragement that has been spoken over me on the Race is that I am a very compassionate person. My whole life, seeing people living in pain and suffering breaks my heart in a way that compels me to act. On this incredible 11 month journey around the world, I have seen things…things I can’t take pictures of….things that rip hearts in two…things that many people in 1st world countries don’t even want to hear about because it makes them uncomfortable. Well, I can’t keep those things to myself anymore. The things I am about to share are real, and I have seen them all with my own eyes, or served in communities where these things are taking place. This isn’t a sad commercial on television you can change the channel on (on second thought, it is. You don’t have to keep reading, and some of you probably won’t).
Nepali girls as young as five that are married to men in their 30’s because many Hindus believe a man can get to heaven by marrying a girl who hasn’t hit puberty.
Gypsies who are stereotyped and hated in many places in the Baltic region, just for being Gypsy.
Married women who wear red powder down the part in their hair, and drink the water that was used to wash their husbands feet every day, to remind themselves that they are worth less than the dust on their husbands’ feet.
The 9 or 10 year old girl I prayed for that was on her death bed with TB in an African hospital, because they don’t have treatment for it.
Boys and girls who beg for money (or food/formula that they return to the stores for cash) that they give straight to their owners.
Sickly and poor elderly women who beg for something as small as 25 cents.
Tons of abandoned Estonian children whose fathers left to find work in Finland, but decided to not come back.
My 5 year old friend, Sue, who works in the bars of Thailand’s red light district every night selling necklaces for Buddhist worship. I pray she is never forced into prostitution.
People who don’t have a choice but to drink from the same brown water they bathe in, that animals bathe, drink, urinate, and defecate in.
African people who eat corn meal porridge every day, for every meal, and rarely get any other nutrition.
Children who don’t go to school because they work all day to bring in money for their families.
Men in the Baltic countries who are so overwhelmed by their mistakes and sorrows that they have lost their wives, kids, homes, jobs, and just live on the streets in the freezing cold weather, and drink to try and ease the pain.
Naked babies living on the streets with their mothers crying all day because they are malnourished.
Cambodian men whose arms were blown off by land mines who sell books in a box hanging from their necks to support their families.
Girls AND boys as young as 3 years old who are sold into sex trafficking in Thailand by their parents who are so poor they use them as a means of income.
The people of Europe who live in constant fear of losing their freedom and being taken over by Russia, again.
My 13 year old Cambodian friend, Linda, who sells bracelets every night in the bars until 3am so she can make money to go to school.
Countless men digging through trash cans all over the city of Siem Reap for plastic bottles to make money.
7 year old children raising their baby siblings.
African men, women and children who can’t get the medical help they need because the facilities provided aren’t sufficient.
Special needs children in orphanages who lay in bed all day long and have bed sores and muscular dystrophy because they’re totally immobile without help, and they don’t get the stimulation, or love and affection they need.
Depressed, suicidal teens and adults of all ages. People who don’t know their value.
Parents who sacrifice their children on alters to please gods that don’t exist.
Preschoolers in Malawi laying in hospital beds dying of starvation. When I held their little hands to pray, their wrists were the width of my thumb.
The immobile 6 year old boy I spoon fed at the orphanage in Vietnam that was bathed/tended to/stimulated so infrequently that he had mold growing on his head. I locked myself in the bathroom and cried that night.
I could write more, but I’ll stop here.
After seeing so many of these things, a danger for me is shutting my heart down, allowing myself to become numb to the brokenness all around me. There have even been a few times where I see someone on the side of the road and gosh, I just turn my head and keep walking because I don’t know if I can handle seeing anymore hurting people! Then I have to remind myself God gave me His heart, His love, His compassion and I know He has given, and will continue to give me, His strength to walk through all the brokenness I see also.
We are so good at running from the heartache, aren’t we? When something is too much for us to handle we just turn the TV off, or put down the newspaper, or stick it in some corner of our minds and hearts that we try not to visit. But God calls us to much more than that. His heart BREAKS for all the brokenness in this world…do our hearts break for it? It’s time the body of Christ starts acting like the body of Christ. If we (the hands and feet of Christ) all continue to be consumed with our own wants, living in our happy little bubbles, or even our own very real pain and brokenness, what will change? We pray to God and ask Him to heal all the brokenness in this world, and then wonder why nothing changes. Nothing changes because God calls US to be His vessels to do it! So maybe you’re called to be a missionary in a foreign country, and love on people like the ones I shared about. But if you aren’t called to be a missionary in a foreign country, you sure are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in your community. There is brokenness EVERYWHERE. If you actually stop and look, it won’t be hard to find someone in need in your own community.
My encouragement/challenge to you:
Within a week, set aside a time to be intentional about asking God how He wants to use you. And then get started. You are where you are for a reason, just ask what it is! God has an awesome purpose for you.
