Hope Meets Poverty

I wasn't prepared for this.

I wasn't prepared to see depravity face to face nor ready to see life in the middle of hopelessness.    It's striking, shocking, and full of contrast.  In it's raw forms it's always honest and revealing.

There is no way to get into this broken scene gently.  What I saw was one of the most heart wrenching glimpses and certainly a dark look into the lives of the Dalits, dwelling in the most despicable living conditions...you could ever imagine.  I was smack dab in the middle of a slum in India.

I am not sure that anything could have prepared me for what I saw that day.

Through many trips I have experienced poverty at different levels and the face of poverty looks different each place I go.  Poverty has different degrees and levels to it.  It's very definitive of each culture and has life altering circumstances with each face that dwells.

I might be oversensitive to this, but I always walk away changed because of deep look at poverty's face.  It's in these stories that I wish I could turn into a super-hero and save every last child that is forever found there.  But I know that is not what they need.  They don't need a loud white American to sweep away their slum life.

So my question to God is why He wants me to care about the least of these.

  "Because I care about the least of these.  These are my children too".  

This class of people are untouched and unnoticed, segregated and separated.  Such contrast from high rises on one corner flanked by expensive apartment buildings to make shift "homes" made of whatever they could find in the trash pile.  For some it's just a piece of ragged cloth.  

How do you raise kids in someone else's trash?

I saw a 10-year old begging for money, the money wasn't for food, it was for his tobacco addiction.  Almost every street corner was littered with young lives peddling something in bondage to a mafia boss.  Slums filled with hopelessness, block after block, on every street corner, poverty at different levels on display.  It was hard to walk into the slums that day.  

"God, please guard our hearts and help me to see with the eyes of your heart."

Maybe a better description would be the condition of my heart after I walked away.

Wrecked.  Something inside me breaks hard. 

My heart is moved by the emotional assault that keeps replaying in my mind.  I don't want to forget.  Dear God, let me not forget.  Let their silent cries penetrate my heart.  Let the poor among us not disappear from my deep thinking....let it not go unnoticed in my daily intentions.  Let it not fade into the background of my somewhat ungrateful and comfortable attitude that slips easy into my heart once back home.  God, please guard me from the sin of entitlement.  God, I saw desperation.

As I loaded up in the back seat of the van, the tears again fell for knowing that I was the "poor in spirit". May the slums scenes replay in my heart to break the blind spots to the hurting, the poverty stricken, the lost and lonely, the homeless, the child slaves, sex trafficked juveniles, the homes of the broken.  

Maybe it's me...and you...too.

Now that I have seen this, what do I do about that?    There is really only one response that comes down to meet poverty.

Hope.  Hope meets poverty.

The problem is that they are the not invisible, or untouchable, or hidden.  GFA supports slum ministry that brings Hope to the faces of the Dalit poverty-stricken people.  Hope meets them in them right where they are at and gives them the gospel message, shows them the face of Christ and gives them a hand up, not a hand out.  I am so thankful that God's hope transfer takes place even in the slums.

"Invisibility is not a real superpower -- but listening, seeing and learning may be."

Now that I have seen...may my walk through the slums serve as a catalyst to move my heart into a deeper level of compassion.  Society likes to hide and tuck poverty away silently, and put slum-band-aid-labels on their lives.    

"Blessed are those at the end of their rope because they can be tied to God.

Blessed are the broken for they can be gathered into His belonging.

Blessed are those who find themselves wholly empty, 

because they have space to be holy filled with God." ~ Ann Voskamp

I am moved by their desperation, and how God meets them in their vulnerable state of emptiness with His fullness.  When there's nothing left but God, there you find the true Hope.  

Stay close to your calling

My calling.  Your calling.  To have a call on your life, well it sounds lofty and unique doesn't it?  
I have dreams just like you do.

I want to know I am going in the right direction just like you do.

I think about the calling of many others and I wonder.
I want to make a difference like you do

Then I remember....
that I am not called to your job or to do everyone else's job.  
God has only called me to my mission, my calling.

Isn't it interesting that we think about our calling only when things are going right?

Is that the only time we believe that we are called, when we feel like we are going in the right direction?

I believe it on days when I feel like I have made progress on my dream.

I believe it on days when I’m growing in faith.

But…

I don’t believe it on the days when it’s just plain hard.
I don't believe it on days when tears come easy.

I don’t believe it on days when I feel like a Jesus freak.

I don’t believe it on days when no one else validates what I’m doing.
I don't believe it on days when I feel no direction.

Then it hits me....

I am called to be me.  

You are called to be you.

It's not about where we are going, it's about who we are in Christ.

God doesn't compare His children, so why do we?

Don’t compete.

Don’t compare.

Don’t mimic.

Don’t envy.

Live in the shadow of the Creator.  Live next to the Light.
Be the child that He wants you to be!  The other guy, is already taken.
Stay close to the Guide.  Stay close to the One who calls your name.  Stay close to God, then you will know your calling.

No One Will Ever Say

Would anyone ever say this?  "I prayed too much or that I wish wouldn't have spent so much time praying?"

As Christians, we pray the fancy, elaborate prayers, the loud ones, the heart-felt ones, the ones with few words. We pray the memorized prayers. So many are said by God's children. And when things get tough, we pray harder. 

Jesus taught us how to pray with the Lord's Prayer.  

Ever notice how and when he prayed? Jesus often went off by himself to pray.  Have you ever thought about what Jesus would pray about? He was perfect.

We also learn by his example.

Jesus prayed by himself:  Matt 6:6-8  "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."Jesus taught humility and tenacity: Luke 11:1-13  "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

Jesus prayed faithfully:  Luke 18:1  "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up."

Jesus prayed power:  Mark 11:22-26  “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Jesus prayed his way through the day Mark 6:46  "After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray."

When I think about the price of prayerlessness...it moves me to pray.  

Praying God's words back to Him is a prayer packed with power.

Prayer is the greatest link to God.

Our prayers are God's opportunities.

Prayer is a game-changer.

Isaiah 40:28-31  "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  Amen.

The Day I Found God At the Beach

La Playa!

While in Honduras, I got some rest.  It's unusual..I know...the normal schedule of a mission trip is go...go...go! As it should be, because the team wants to make as much impact in one place as time allows.  I am still grateful for that half day at the beach.

We arrived and immediately I felt at peace.  There were no worries...even though the bathroom stalls didn't have doors or that two little local girls were trying out their entrepreneurship skills at the bathroom door as they charged for toilet paper.  
That didn't matter. 

 I couldn't wait to get my feet wet.  I couldn't wait to rest.

At this beach, I found it.  I met God there.  This rest wasn't defined as a pause in the schedule of a intense work-filled week.  Not just a blip in my international travel radar.  
Not just for a moment, or a half day.  
I found what God's rest looks like in my life.  

I found and experienced His quiet Presence.

As I silently walked the long stretch of hot sandy beach, I experienced God alone.  His presence permeated my soul and I drank it in.  The time was peaceful and lovely.  
It's difficult to describe but they were holy moments.    

I was able to rest in His sufficiency as the next four days were loaded full of challenges.  I'll have to admit that coming to this point, on this beach on that day, I was lacking.  I was a little worn out mentally. Coming to this point was exactly where God wanted me to be so that He could show me His sufficiency and His idea of rest
rest that can only be found in Him.  

I was engulfed in true rest in His Presence.

I walked and talked by myself drinking in every sandy pebble, every shell, every dead fish, every Kodak moment.  In fact, I took the most pictures of the week on this sandy shore.  
I want to go back to that spot often, 
I want to remember how God felt, what I experienced. 
I want to relive those moments of awe and wonder.

I need to go back there every day.  I need to feel God's presence daily.

God and I had some conversations in that restful place.  He still calls me there.  
He reminded me that He has plenty of those holy moments waiting for me when I seek Him.  That I don't have to strive to get there, 
He is not going to run out of holiness when I take my time to seek it.  
There was no need to hurry, there will be plenty for me.  

When I rush and hurry, scurry and strive, I forget that I am His.  I forget my place in His kingdom as His kingdom builder, I forget Who He Is.  
I forget.  
I forgot ....I am royalty.  
I had forgotten.  
But God reminded me that day. 
And...
Since then...God has reminded me that I am His.  And it's okay for me to say this.
This is me being open with you. 
This is my humble confession that I had been trying too hard to be God's.  
All I needed to do and still need ...
is to say ...
that this is not earned, this isn't worked, this is.

My being God's child and my place in His Kingdom is not about me writing the best blog, 
or writing some devotional thoughts connected with scripture that would touch you deeply, or being the best radio DJ that you hear on your radio.  
My being His doesn't depend on anything that I might do or say. 
It's this....being one of His many children depends on Who He Is.  

So stop striving...stop forgetting that God is the "I AM".  
Stop and pause and take a look around.
Look at His beauty.
Look at what God has done in your life, 
look at what He has given you, 
look at Jesus on the cross.

Look at Jesus, take time to worship Jesus.

This life I lead, this life I write is not about me.  It's about Jesus and lifting His name high. 
It's about making His name known.  
I saw rest on that day on the beach.  I saw God in each captured moment.  
Awe...wonder...worship.

My heart is full as I worship and remember who God is. 
That's rest...that's God's Presence.

Ps. 37:7 "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes."

Yes, Lord, I will be still.

You Are Pretty Much My Favorite

I have been camping out in Psalm 139 lately


and today...


I am able to write the difference.  


I can finally say with confidence that God's truth can change your forever.  

You are loved.  I am loved.  

I am okay knowing that each one of these posts will not be perfect.  I am not perfect, and can't think or write perfectly.  That doesn't mean I am not striving for God's best here, but I am fine with not being perfect in front of you. 

I understand that I can't be, and I am okay with that too.

I am great with uncovering and discovering who I am in Christ.  He has grown that desire in me.  As my faith grows, I can accept my imperfections, but also I am assured that I am "perfect" and beautiful in God's eyes.  


Psalm 139 reminds me that I am loved completely.  Not just loved because that I am made in God's image, but I was loved before I was even a tiny thought on God's mind.  I like to think that God dreamed a little when He thought about making me.  I like to imagine that God says...

 "You're pretty much my favorite of all time in the history of ever."  

Here's the life changing truth...He loves you like that too. 

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful.  I know that full well."  Ps. 139:13-14


I am great with the idea of God dreaming of how He wanted to create.  When I was a younger "beauty"....I didn't know how God felt about me.  I certainly didn't think I was beautiful.  I didn't do own my truth research and took on the opinion of others as my own.  I fell into the comparison trap with my nameless imaginary childhood arch nemesis who was always skinnier, smarter and faster at making her bed than I was.  I set myself up for failure because I couldn't be the perceived perfection I just knew God had expected of me.  I had always felt like I couldn't or wouldn't measure up.


So today I am now able to write the difference.  I am okay with the way that God, in His infinite wisdom, made me who I am because I am loved beyond measure and because God doesn't compare His children.  

My loving Heavenly Father has reminded me of who I am.  

I wear His name, I wear His beauty.  

I am great with being an imperfect, forgiven daughter of the King.  That still gives God many chances to perfect His work in me, but also it gives more opportunities to be romanced by the work of His Holy Spirit.  

I am really okay with all of this lovely plan.  

I know that I am His.  I know...He's told me..often in Psalm 139.  

When it comes to believing truth and as I open the pages of God's heart, I believe what He says in His love letter to me in Psalm 139.

Have you read Psalm 139 lately??  Stop reading this and read that.

Are you speechless yet?

Today I am able to write the difference and guess what...I am great with that.

No Doubt!

Confession time...If there is one thing the enemy can use against me..it's doubt.  I hate the "D" word.  


Is there a word you despise?  For me, doubt robs.  It steals peace, it causes worry.  Removes trust.


It breeds condemnation and goes against the grains of truth.  I tend to swallow it whole.  It breaks communication with God.  


Even though it's a hard pill to swallow, I willingly gulp it down.


The Truth is though, that God doesn't condemn.  He loves.  It's simple really.


The world tells me ...


that I am unworthy.  God shows me Psalm 139.


My sin tells me ...


that I don't deserve.  God shows me the cross.


Doubt pounds down my resolve.  God shows me to trust.


Don't let doubt torment your soul.  


"Whenever our hearts in [tormenting] self-accusation make us feel guilty and condemn us. [For we are in God’s hands.] For He is above and greater than our consciences (our hearts), and He knows (perceives and understands) everything [nothing is hidden from Him].  And, beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us [if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us], we have confidence (complete assurance and boldness) before God!" ~ 
1 John 3:20 AMP

God has called us by name according Isaiah 43:1.  We are his children.  That's a promise I can't doubt.  I don't have to just wish...or have false hope.

This is deep-down-in-my-heart-and-soul confidence.  

Something that runs this deep in promise is truth that I can't doubt.  

Cling to this truth...it's all we have.  

What’s a doubt that consumes your heart?  How have you been struggling with doubt?