"I am starting to see the reality of what life is like for people in most of the world and I don't know what to do....it feels like I could just lose it at any minute....what do I do with the fact that there are children dying of hunger and I throw away leftovers...what do I do with the fact that there is so much suffering and I watch people spend so much money on clothes???"
To both of these dear women I encouraged them to keep struggling, and to be willing to share the struggles so that more people are aware of the realities.
Be honest about the fact that you can't just sit back - can't ignore the war, the hunger, the sickness, the abuse, the injustice...
I think that as our children, families, friends, co-workers and neighbors watch us wrestle with how to live our lives in light of the realities around the world - I believe we can help each other to be alive.
In scripture God has strong words for the church. He says: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!" - Revelation 3:15
We have GOT to wrestle through this together and not let each other be lukewarm. There is such joy in living the hot, alive, joyful life that Christ calls us to. But...it's not easy and it's not comfortable. That's why He created us to function as a body - we need each other to walk to challenging, messy, fantastic adventure that He has called us to.
There are no easy answers or solutions - I think the only "answer" is to wake up each day and ask God what He has for today. What does the abundant life Christ calls us to look like for today? What does is look like to lavishly reflect God's love to the people in your life? What does it look like to give sacrificially to help meet the needs that exist around you and around the world?
"There is a sort of dead-alive...people about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation...They have dwarfed and narrowed their soul by a life of all work, until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all material for amusement, and not one thought to rub against another while waiting for the train." -From 'An Apology for Idlers' by Robert Louis Stevenson
Will you choose to be alive? Awake to the sin and the hurt and the pain and the suffering...and in being awake and responding to that, there is such great joy, glory and delight because Christ is Redeemer!
