Sharing Hope

Well, the school year is about over.  What a place to serve in HS and I have loved it for sure.  Our children are anxiously waiting for PJ days to begin...ha!  I am seeing one of my students sign a volleyball scholarship, head off to college, compete in a sing-off school contest...she's a miracle in progress and I am so thrilled to know her during this celebration season.  Many days I see from the faces that enter my room, some my students, some just travelers or friends of students.  I am honored to share hope with them.  Many are w/o basic necessities, have jobs to support their families and still attempt to be teenagers.  Wow!  Growing up is harder on some than others...

It's like being an adult follower of Christ...not comparing sorrow or suffering.  For YOUR today holds its own sorrow and pain....we all come before the throne of grace, needing a Savior.  Tonight Grace encountered the Lord speaking to her about serving...eyes for the poor, through testimonies of orphans in India.  A powerful moment for her; it actually made me remember 6th grade on a Wednesday night in Acteens with Mrs. Bean.  I was deeply moved by a missionary to South America, serving some of the poorest and hearing God say, "Go."  I was so touched; my emotions were flooding as I yelled within my heart, "Yes!"

Even though my experiences haven't lead me across an ocean, I still said yes.  I've seen some deep hunger in all the places we've lived and served.  I find the pain is equal, some pain cuts deeper into the marrow but still in desperate need of hope.  I begin reading today after school a book called "A Place at the Table...40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor."  In my moment, I was thinking this will be good.  Life is so much better for us than a year ago; rent can be paid, medicine can be purchased...we can even do extra things.  You know where I am headed...

The book begins with facts like:  "22,000 children die each year from extreme poverty (UNICEF), out of 2.2 billion children in the world, 1 billion live in poverty,  1 billion lack clean water, 2.6 billion have little or no sanitation...and we in the US have the widest gap between the rich and the poor of any industrialized nation.'  Pretty thoughtful but not till I read the next quote did I stop..."Augustine (you know my history with his words, ha!) said our fasting should always nourish the poor: breaking the bread for those who are hungry, said Isaiah, don't believe that fasting suffices~ if you fast, share the 'passed' meal with another"  I sat stunned.  Not again...I used to read Augustine while living in Virginia during some of our darkest days or while devouring the words of Spurgeon as I taught Bible study.  But again...I can't handle this road of without...

We are getting back to normal, I guess. Tonight the van, Goldie, stops running; Scott's "free" car has a non-working gear shift...all at once feeling loss.  How will we grocery shop?  Drive to school?  Go to work?  But I giggled.  Grace comes home from Bible study moved by serving the poor; and I want to laugh (like Sarah) to God "We are the poor!"

So I am writing...you can see pray for transportation.  For the young girl in my class w/o basic needs, for the one w/ everything but hope; for the young mother who is barely hanging on and trying to be a teenager too.  It's hard to comprehend trusting God when most things are working smoothly and for our good.  It really makes the red letters of Jesus stand out when you experience "blessed are poor in spirit...blessed am....I?"

As we breathe air in this "self-made" land of freedom and opportunity, let us not allow a thickening to our eyesight where we overlook or become blind to the poor.  Sometimes it's not all about choices.  Let us not grow cynical b/c we can explain all the reasons for someone's desperation or have a cookie-cutter formula to success...it's not the approach Jesus has with us.  He is broken hearted when we store up our treasures, our grain, our money for a "dayto come"  ~  I don't think we have to sacrifice our homes or our health but we have so much abundance.  What has the abundance done to us?  Made us superior to those without....Jesus says the least of these...I am certain it was not from his yacht sailing by the hillside of people.  he shard life with the people, visited the well at inappropriate times so he could meet "her" and even could have called Heaven down to spare his life, but didn't.  Like Tony Campolo says, "it's not a sin to be rich; it's a sin to not give it away."  Whatever we have, we must share.  We must spread hope.  So like my favorite movie..."Big waterfall ahead.  Sharp rocks at the bottom? Yes.  Bring it On"  In life we as followers must hold the jar while tears flow , break the bread for a meal, humbled to serve the lowest so we can see Jesus. 

The Rule of Benedict says "Nothing is as inconsistent with the life of any Christian as over-indulgence."

Blessings this day!