My Revolution

For me, it is the orphan. That's what pulls my heart. The thing that I can no longer turn away from. The thing that I have to do something about. The thing I have to fight for.

The orphan crisis is what God has broken my heart for. According to latest UNICEF (2007) estimates there are 145 million orphans worldwide. An orphan is defined as a child who has lost one or both parents. It is estimated that approximately 15 million of those children have lost both parents. That number is growing daily. According to the CIA World Factbook, there are approximately 2,255,157,957 professing Christians in the world. That is 33.32% of the population. Now, I have never loved math, but 2 billion > 15 million.

When I read Matthew 25 and James 1:27, I have NO doubt that it is our responsibility to care for the broken. So what is the church doing? Why aren't we fighting? Why are there AT LEAST 15 million children without a family? Why are there children starved for food, water and love?

Yes, this is what God has broken my heart for. This is what makes me angry. This is what I will be a revolutionary for. This is what I cannot leave unchanged. I am determined to cause change, even if it's just for one. I will do SOMETHING.

I would love to recruit you all to this fight. I think it is appalling that we have allowed this to go unnoticed. But it's not just the orphan crisis...

According to recent estimates, there are 126 million child laborers engaged in hazardous work. 14 million adolescents age 14 to 19 give birth each year. 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide every year. 250,000 children are currently serving as child soldiers. Of 1.39 million people involved in forced commercial sexual exploitation, 40 to 50% are children. 130 million women and girls have been subjected to female genital mutilation/cutting.

So, you see, there is NO EXCUSE. If you didn't know, now you know the numbers. There are plenty of other injustices in the world. There are so many people that are broken and crying out for help. There are so many things that need to be changed, need to be fought for. We have NO excuse.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 reads, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." You know the numbers; God has equipped you with EVERYTHING that you need. What will you fight for? What will you allow God to break your heart for? What will you be a revolutionary for?

It is my prayer that I never again become complacent. It is my prayer that God will continue to break my heart for the injustices in the world. I want to be the hands and feet. Will I fail? Certainly. Do I care? No. Because once you start a revolution, you don't stop fighting until the war is over. Why? Because when you are a part of God's army, you fight until He tells you otherwise.

I'll leave you with one final quote that I stole from the awesome lady behind eXile International, "Awareness without action is an empty breath to a dying man."

Don't turn away. Don't be still. Fight. Start a revolution.

Psychics, Ouija Boards, and the Church

As I write this post, I am sure there are people who disagree with me, but oh well. I know there will be some who think I’ve lost my mind when I tell you I volunteered to bring a psychic and a Ouija board to church with me.

I am a Psychology major. For one of my electives I am taking a class called X-files. X-files is the study of why people believe in the paranormal. That’s the supposed class description at least. Often I think the class is really an hour of the professor trying to convince us that nothing exists including the power of God. I say the power of God because this professor has acknowledged God exists, but that God is a distant being with little to no interaction or connection to us. It seems that not all, but a lot of students in the class would agree. So a lot of times I find myself fighting to tell these people that our God is love, lots and lots of crazy love, because I don’t think they know that amazing truth.

In our class there have been several occasions where the professor will ask who attends church. Who has a living, breathing relationship with Christ is apparently irrelevant. On two occasions that question has been followed by, “Who would take a psychic to church with them?” and “Who would take a Ouija board to church?” Our professor makes it clear that they believe every single church would either throw us out at such blasphemy or not even allow us in the first place because they would believe we were possessed by satan.

With both questions, I volunteered. Heart pounding because I know the disbelief and argument that will follow, I volunteer. Each time my professor has been astounded and unconvinced that I would actually do such a thing. They are sure no church could be that loving and accepting.

Let me be clear to say that I do not believe in psychics, Ouija boards, or the like. I do believe however that the church is supposed to be a place of love. I believe that if a church is truly following the life of Christ, a psychic in attendance one Sunday should be welcomed whole heartedly.

Maybe some disagree with me for entertaining such things that could be classified as witchcraft which the Bible teaches against. But in Matthew 9:12 Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” It saddens me each week when such questions come up in my class. It saddens me that we have allowed the church to be viewed as a place of judgment. Yes, one day we will all face our final judgment, but when Christ walked this earth He did not judge. He loved. It was the hypocrites and Pharisees that He dealt harshly with. But for the tax collectors, adulterers, liars, thieves, lepers, sinners…he LOVED them.

In Matthew 22:37 Jesus tells us, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

So where is our love? Why do people see the church as a place of judgment? It is certainly not God’s character that has created this image.

I am not the epitome of love. I never will be this side of Heaven. I judge just as we all do. When we find ourselves judging and forgetting to love however, we must remember we are an example of Christ. Judgment and hate is not an image I want the church to be known for. I want to be the girl who’s known for hanging out with psychics, thieves, the poor, the lost and the shunned because that’s who my Jesus teaches me to be.

Lessons

It amazes me that no matter how many times God reveals His wisdom to me, there always seems to be some lessons I learn over and over again. I am in the second week of my senior year of college (can you say crazy!). I really want to spend this year learning more about the love of Christ so that I would be able to better spread that love to others. It has been my prayer lately that God would place people in my path to pour that love out to.

I have prayed and I have waited. Prayed and waited. Why was God not sending anyone to me? I was praying. He should have delivered.

God had been delivering every day. I was just too blind to see. I have been struggling recently to really spend personal time with God. I wasn't spending time in God's word like I should. I wasn't truly seeking Him. And I know that in order for me to grow closer to God, I have to put in the effort. Yet for some reason, I always seem to have problems remembering that.

It is exactly .4 miles from my apartment to campus. This morning when I left for class I thought to grab my iPod. The first song to play was Shane and Shane's "Heart of Servants."

I spent the .4 miles praising my Father. Asking Him to change my heart. To make me a servant of all. Asking Him to help me surrender my pride. To release me from my selfishness. And to pour out His love through me.

When I arrived in class my teacher asked me about the shirt I was wearing. It is my adoption shirt from the Walser Family. The shirt says, "Love with abandon. Love an orphan." So I had the opportunity to share with my teacher and rest of the class the miracle of adoption and the amount of love involved.

And there's more. The class is called Creative Art Therapies. Today we were asked to draw a wall, of any kind. This is the wall I drew (please keep in mind that I am NOT artistically gifted).

We were then asked to explain to the class what our wall symbolized. I explained that my wall symbolized the walls that adoptive families have to fight through. That it is not an easy journey, but one that God has called them to and will guide them through. That these families must truly love with abandon to follow God's call. I explained that it is not just families adopting, but that we are called to love all people with abandon. I explained that I chose to make my wall out of interweaving colors because at the end of their journey, the faces of these families may be many different colors, but they are all a part of God's family.

I didn't have an in depth conversation on theology with my class. It was just a brief time of sharing. But it was something, and I am so thankful for that chance.

God showed up. He put someone in my path. But God has shown up every day. I just haven't taken the time to prepare my heart for when He does. I allowed myself to pass through the day blinded to the opportunities all around me. But oh the difference a morning of praise makes.

Lamentations 3:22-23 reads, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

God's compassions are new EVERY MORNING. So no matter what kind of day I'm having when I wake up or what trials I am facing, I have something to praise Him for.

I know I will probably learn this lesson all over again at some point. But I am thankful for the lesson today. I am thankful that God loves me regardless of the amount of effort I put forth. I am thankful that God doesn't love you more than me or me more than you. I am thankful that God loves ALL of me. I am thankful that He wants all of me.

Time to leave the greenhouse

I stumbled upon this from another blog. It was written by a woman named Erica and her husband have four children and are in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. Visit her blog "The Road Less Traveled." Her words are directed at other parents, but parent or not it should speak to all of us. I was always a greenhouse kind of person, until a week in Nicaragua over a year ago broke me. Now I want to explore the battlefield.

In a greenhouse, a seed is planted.
It is nurtured under the right temperature.
It's given the correct amount of light, until a seed cover pops off and a tiny plant emerges....
Healthy, strong and growing under the influence of the house it is in.

The only problem is the greenhouse has not prepared the plant for adversity.
In our community I see so many kids, my own included, that are raised in the greenhouse conditions.
Perfect amount of schooling. Perfect amount of socializing. Perfect amount of church. Perfect amount of friends and only "like minded friends".

We pay for our kids to go to the best violin teachers, voice teachers, piano teachers.
Then they will, Lord willing, get married to someone who has been raised in a greenhouse right down the road under the same perfect conditions.

They start their own greenhouse and are happy.
Of course, they're happy. Their whole life has been about being comfortable in their greenhouse.

My heart breaks when I think about all the trouble we go through raising our kids in the right conditions, teaching them Bible verses, making sure they know all the right truths. BUT...

They never feel inclined to make a difference in the world.
Sometimes it is lack of passion.
Sometimes it is lack of knowledge that there is a lost and dying world right outside their greenhouse.

But more often, it is our fault as parents. We are passing down our laziness. We struggle to LIVE out our faith so our kids will struggle.
Yes, they will thrive in our greenhouse and most of them will pass on a great greenhouse life to their children, but we have to pass on a love for ALL of God's people. We have to be willing to stand with our children and help a lost world.

We have to pass down a passion for the orphans of this world, the homeless and the widows.

Yes, we have to grow strong plants for the next generation but we cannot forget the passion of Christ.

Teaching our children to love and be keepers of the home is what I am about, but I also want them to be about the orphans and the needy that are NOT growing in a greenhouse.

I can only teach that when I come out of the greenhouse and go with my children into the battlefield. It is all in vain if we raise up an army and our army is never sent to the battlefield but only to the greenhouse next door.

Drowning

Late Thursday night as I was reading my Bible, I stumbled across Psalm 93. Verses 3 and 4 read, "The seas have lifted up, O Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea - the Lord on high is mighty."

When we spent our evening on the beach in Nicaragua, the waves were stronger than I had ever felt. I waded out into the water until I was a little more than waist deep. Wave upon wave crashed over me. Their force was so strong that I could not stand. They crashed upon me, dragging me under, rolling me in their current. I would fight their force until I emerged, struggling for breath, just in time for another wave to drag me under. When I had finally had enough, I pulled myself back onto the shore. I was completely exhausted.

The Psalms says, "...mightier than the breakers of the sea - the Lord on high is mighty." I want to be rocked by God like I was rocked by the sea. I want to throw myself into His depths and be caught in His pull. I want wave upon wave of His love to crash upon me. I want to emerge completely spent, yet longing for more. I want to drown in His love.

But the thing about the beach is that it isn't as much fun to be there alone. It's best when you have people in the water with you. Let's all drown together, shall we?

More than conquerers

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

-Ephesians 6:12

We are in a war. Daily. If you are a child of the King, a disciple of Christ, a soldier in God's army, satan wants to kill your spirit. You are a threat to him. He wants to destroy you and your quest to lead others to Christ. He is attacking you, trying his best to eliminate you as a threat. But take heart! "For the battle is not yours, but God's" (2 Chronicles 20:15).

All you have to do is be like Moses in Exodus 17. Stand and lift your hands to God. As Moses stood on the hill he watched the Amalekites attack the Israelites. Yet, as long as Moses kept his hands to God, the Israelites were winning. God fought the battle for him. And God fights your battles for you. You already have victory through him (1 Corinthians 15:57). You are more than conquerers in Him (Romans 8:37). Just lift your hands to the Mighty King.

Yet, God does not stop there! All you have to do is lift your hands. Such a simple command. But when you grow weak and can no longer stand, God will send help. When Moses grew tired and could not hold up his hands anymore, God gave him Aaron and Hur to hold his hands for him. God will send you help. When you are devoid of strength, he will place a stone beneath you and send someone to hold your hands up.

So you see, you are "thoroughly equipped" for find your victory (2 Timothy 3:17). It is there waiting for you. How wonderful it is that the creator of the universe does everything for you. He simply asks that you let Him.