Walking with Jesus doesn't diminish the soul's hunger, it increases it a thousand-fold. As you are drawn into His desires, you find profound joy and purpose, but you also encounter an unbearable, compulsive force. Jesus feels what the poor feel. He has solidarity with their suffering. If we dare to abide in Him, then the intensity of His love for the poor will infuse our own souls.
And it will cost us.
And it will cost us.
I've served the poor in Haiti, Mexico, Guatemala, and Zimbabwe and it has cost me.
Fresh off the plane from a college mission trip to Juarez, Mexico, tears rolled down my checks as we drove through our middle class suburban neighborhood. My eyes had seen new things, my heart stretched out, and I was newly uncomfortable in my former world. I'd spent the week helping build a tiny home about the size of my back porch. As we presented the new shelter, located amongst hundreds of shacks, the family shed tears of gratitude, thanking not me, but the Lord for His provision. I didn't feel pride in serving. I felt embarrassed and disgusted with myself for living in a comfy, oblivious bubble for the first 19 years of my life. I'd met street kids with no shoes and witnessed families living in shacks made from rolls of cardboard. I've been wrestling with that same discomfort since that week that changed my worldview all those years ago.
Now, I have many more mission trips under my belt and I've seen poverty from Haiti to China. And it costs me. God has opened my eyes to the lost and hurting and I can no longer live my life unaffected. I wrestle with purchases, ache for the orphaned and often feel a "WAKE UP" scream rising in me if I spend much time with people who's conversations never go beyond ourselves.
I've struggled with being judgmental of those who have not seen. I find myself driven to do more and more, trying to learn to balance God's call to serve with my own plans. I have struggled over selling my life to move to the mission field and being content with my messy beautiful here and now.
As much as I am passionate about serving, I have also learned to be careful about how it is done. I've witnessed many well intentioned servants hurting those they so desire to help. I myself have been on mission trips when I've wondered if I was a poverty tourist hungry for the good feeling service offers or a humble help believing in the integrity and ability of those whose foreign ground I walked on. I've seen Americans start ministries with their American mindsets, helping some, but deeply harming many more. Ministering to the poor is hard, long-term work. Feeling jaded, I've been wrestling with my role, knowing what I know, having seen what I've seen.
Then, along came Scott Todd's Hope Rising with its hopeful look at "How Christians Can End Extreme Poverty in This Generation". This book challenges me to believe again. To believe that ending poverty IS possible and that I as stay-at-home mom have a role to play in it. To believe that though there is much to be done, that so much positive change has already occurred in eliminating the causes and effects of poverty, such as eradicating disease and ensuring clean water in remote areas of the world. This book re-ignites my desire to serve, and challenges me to do it well.
Scott Todd works with Compassion International, an aid and child sponsorship non profit serving the world's poor. This book is his vision on how to eliminate poverty by 2035. He explores the role of government, businesses, churches and individuals. Pointing out our low expectations for what can be done to end poverty, he provides statistics on positive changes over the past 20-50 years as technology and medicines have improved and organizations have learned how best to meet needs.
Dissecting scripture on poverty, Todd charges us with believing that we can do what the Lord has clearly called us to do. It is an idealistic, but practical vision for eliminating poverty in the next generation. This book is a short, yet challenging read. Somehow both heavy and light, it must be read again. With the end in mind, and my hope renewed, it is one I'll reread and pray over as I try to discern how my family might play a role in serving the world's poor.
Prepare your minds with action.
1 Peter 1:13
* I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.*
