Still, it remains in my mind some days later, the picture of the children's shoes outside the front door of the house on a warm Sunday afternoon. I can feel the warm breeze blowing through the front door, hear the weeping of children, and feel the sting of death - and there was my little girl in the middle taking part in the "ministry of presence."
Sparrows are so common that they are often thought to be "disposable." If one falls, why bother? There are literally millions, if not billions, of them filling our skies. It may not matter in the grand scheme of things, if one sparrow falls, but it does matter to that one sparrow.
I have come to find that the giving up becomes increasingly poingnant as time goes by because the longer I live, the more I've missed in the lives of those I left behind.
Our service to people isn't based on their merits or their appreciation of our call to serve God.
People in this world will disappoint us and we often further disappoint ourselves when we expect others to understand us or want to help us when it feels as if we are going to collapse under the weight of life.
God has connections waiting for us just outside our front doors wherever in the world we find ourselves.
Seasoning can be sweet, salty, sour, spicy, hot, and even pungent – some of those don’t really appeal to me. I prefer sweet to sour, salty to hot; if given the choice, I will resist those flavors or seasonings that aren’t to my liking. In like manner, some of the experiences God seasons us with aren’t pleasant but they produce something that not only matures us but also draws others to Him through His work in us.
In this world of great pain and need, what can be done to bring meaningful change? On the African continent alone, there are hundreds of millions of stories like these; it feels like an impossible situation. I am daily assaulted with feelings of despair when I see hungry children, abused women, and hopelessness in the eyes of the vulnerable.
Are we exempt from doing anything because whatever we do won’t be enough to touch vast swaths of the population?
Perfectionism, it’s something that plagues most, if not all, of us in one way or another. From the time we are little children we are taught to keep trying to improve; we are given the impression that what we’ve done simply isn’t good enough.
Where is your everywhere?
