not so fast.

When I say what my favorite thing about God is, sometimes I feel like an adolescent girl who rattles off 6 names when asked who her best friend is.  It’s hard to choose just one, isn’t it?

This morning my favorite thing about God is when He uses something satan intended for evil for good.  I have experienced God’s restoration over and over in my life, and experienced healing from things I never thought could be healed.  When I pick up the pieces of my heart and put them back together myself, my heart gets hardened.  It becomes calloused from life’s hardships, and I become cynical and closed off.  But when God heals my heart, He works a miracle by piecing it back together so that it breathes.  My heart feels more after God heals, not less.  The best part about God’s healing touch, whether it be a relationship restored or a hardship redeemed, is that the ‘after’ is always better than the ‘before’.   God has the ability to take something that is broken beyond repair, put it back together, and make it more beautiful than anything you or I could have come up with on our own.   And we usually end up thankful for the very situation that hurt us.  He’s pretty amazing like that. 

I heard a story from our India site that reminded me of God’s ability to bring beauty from ashes.  In India, 55% of people are Hindu, 42% are Muslim, and just 2% are Christian.  The orphanages Back2Back partners with are Christian based, but they accept children from any background.  More than likely, most do not come from Christian families.  Parents who either will not or cannot care for their children leave them in an orphanage (satan’s plan), where they learn about a God who loves them and wants to have a relationship with them (God’s plan).  They leave a family that would have raised them to believe in a religion based on always working to try to earn god’s love (satan’s plan), and join a family that tells them God loves them exactly as they are (God’s plan).  Just last week, 30 children in the orphanages we partner with professed faith in Christ.  God used the very thing that should have broken and destroyed them, to save them.  In His severe mercy, He allowed pain and suffering to occur so that His children would know His love.   We don’t always understand God’s ways, but we can trust Him to work all things for good. 

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20    

do something.

I went to a seminar this week at my church about serving the poor within our community. The speaker said that those considered to be living in poverty in America are still among the top 30% of wealthiest people in the world.  Poverty in America is not like poverty in the rest of the world.  As I left, my mind was reeling with questions.  Why do we help the poor?  When have I given enough and when do I need to give more?  Shouldn’t we be focusing our efforts on people in poverty in third world countries rather than those in poverty here?  Is there a hierarchy of those we should help first?  What is the goal for helping those in need?

I’ve been praying about these questions, and asking people around me their thoughts.  I don’t have all the answers, but I have come to a few conclusions. 

We help the poor because that’s what Jesus did.  God tells us to love those around us and help our brothers in need.  We aren’t loving people if we see their need and don’t help.  This is an uneasy thought for most of us who live comfortable lives and see great need in the world.  I don’t even like typing the words.  I say that I want to obey God and that I love those around me, but what in my life speaks to this?  The proof is in the pudding, and I don’t feel like my pudding looks like my words.   I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I read the Bible, I sometimes wonder how we got from there to here.   It feels like we’ve been tricked.  If you’re waiting for me to offer some great solution about why we should rest easy, and feel good about why we live the way we do, I don’t have one.  I think we’re wrong.  I think we need to change.

We need to help people around the world in need, but I also think we need to love the poor in our city.  Not only that, but we need to love our next door neighbor.  And the person sitting in the cube next to us.  Jesus didn’t pick and choose.  Jesus didn’t rank people according to need.  He loved and gave to all.  Whatever need he saw, he gave all he had to help.

Finally, the ultimate goal of helping those in need is to point them to Jesus.  Our goal is not for everyone to become part of the top 30%.  Jesus never tried to make lots of money and accumulate more things, and I don’t think that should be our desire for everyone else.  I think this is the biggest misconception we have bought into when helping the poor.  We tend to think if the people in poverty had material possessions, then our job would be done.  We should be trying to tell them about Jesus, not make them like us.  I don’t think God wants more of us.  He wants more of Him.

There’s always going to be poverty and need.  We’re not going to solve that global problem.  We live in a broken world.  But that doesn’t mean we throw up our hands and give up.  There are children in this world who die of starvation.  Children who don’t have clean water.  Children who are being sold into slavery.  Children without parents to care for them.  We can’t hear that and not do anything about it.  What if that were your child?  What if that was someone you knew?  You wouldn’t sit around and continue life as usual.  You would do something.

So I think we need to do something.  Plain and simple.  We can’t call ourselves Christians and not help.  We need to open our eyes to the need all around us and start practicing what we preach. 

a girl with a red cape.

Do you remember being a kid and wanting to be a superhero?  You could contemplate for hours which superhero you would be, what powers you would have, how you would use them, and most importantly, what you would wear.  You wanted to do something with your life that mattered-- something that helped, saved, earned respect.   The world would be better because you had come on the scene just in time.  Somewhere along the way though, we became content with just getting through life.  We’ve lost our passion to do something heroic.

I got an email this week from a 15 year old girl who reminded me of the passion youth has to do something valiant.  She had heard of Back2Back’s Child Sponsorship Program and she wanted to help.  She knew it was a big financial commitment for a girl whose only income is from the occasional babysitting gig.  So she did something heroic and rallied three of her friends together to sponsor a child collectively.  

“We are super excited!!! We all understand this is a big comentment and we are completly ready for what ever we need to do!!!” 

I explained the process and how we usually need payment by check or credit card.  Like any hero, she wasn’t going to let that get in her way.  So she decided she would open a checking account to make payments from.  She would have her parents help her open it if she had to.  There was an orphan who needed her, and she wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of coming to her rescue. 

We all start off wanting to do something heroic.  It isn’t until we come up against a hurdle that we start to lose our vigor.  Life get’s hard, and mountains seem tall.  Doing something that matters is always going to seem like a good idea at first, but if it ends there, that’s all it’s ever going to be.  A good idea.

I think God made us with the desire to do something heroic because we actually are supposed to do something heroic.  God calls us to care for the poor, spread the good news, reach the lost.  And there’s an Enemy that doesn’t want you to do it.  We were made for a purpose, and until we start living for that purpose we won’t be satisfied.

I encourage you—Throw your hat in the ring.  Get your hands dirty.  Climb a mountain or two.  Start being the hero you were made to be.

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9

well aware of it.

Do you ever feel like you are maybe a little crazy?   

The last few months I have been feeling like the world around me thinks I have lost a couple of my marbles.  The only strange thing is, I know it.

Take heart.  I think any Christian who is living out their faith is going to feel (and look) a little crazy.  And maybe the amount of crazy you feel should be an indicator for how good of a job you are doing at it. 

When I read the Bible, God tells me to “do nothing out of selfish ambition” (Phil. 2:3) when all around me the world tells me “look out for number one”.  Jesus tells me to “go make disciples of all men” (Matt. 28:19) while the world says “don’t talk about religion because you may offend someone”.  God tells me to "love your enemies" (Matt. 5:44), the world tells me to "love those who deserve to be loved".  Jesus tells me to “sell all you have and give it to the poor” (Luke 12:33), the world tells me to "get a 401K and save as much as you can". 

Which leaves me with a choice.  If I do what the Bible tells me, the world is going to think I am crazy.   But if I don’t, I am going against what my Maker has clearly told me to do.  Never once did He say "get comfortable, stay quiet, maintain status quo".  Trust me, I looked.

Personally, I want people to like me, and I would prefer if no one thought I was crazy.  But if it comes to what I want more—to be obedient to God or be well liked, being well liked will have to take a back seat.  So I guess that makes me a little crazy by this world’s standards, but points to the fact that I wasn’t made for this world. 

It makes me feel better to learn that Jesus knew this would happen.  He foreshadowed to believers “the world will hate you because of me” (Luke 21:17), and warned that “you cannot love the world and love me” (1 John 2:15).   He knew that what He was asking us to do would make us outsiders.

Leaving my job and working for a ministry that cares for orphans feels closer to what God wants me to do.  James said “true religion is this, to look after orphans and widows” (James 1:27).  I don’t really care to have a religion that gets me to church on Sunday morning but changes nothing about who I am or how I live.  I’m pretty sure that’s not what God had in mind, and I’m even more convinced that He’s not impressed by it.  I don’t know about you, but my only goal is to hear “well done” when this is all over.  If that makes me crazy, then crazy it is.