Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Beauty in Starting Small



He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. 
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8


I shook my head hoping to erase the words that had been imprinted in my mind.  But unlike an Etch-A-Sketch screen that can be cleared with ease of motion, I could not undo what I had just learned. I sat stunned as each devastating statistic traveled from my head all the way to the guarded parts of my heart. 

I knew it would change everything.

 
Forty percent of the world lacks basic water sanitation, resulting in disease, death, waste water for drinking, and loss of immunity; Americans spent $16 billion on bottled water in 2008.

We spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world spends on all goods combined.

Four out of five children worldwide work every day instead of going to school; four out of five Americans are high school graduates.

Eight percent of the rest of the world owns a car; one-third of all American families own three cars.

Roughly 40 million people (about seven Jewish Holocausts) die annually from starvation, disease, and malnutrition; 65 percent of U.S. adults and 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese.

The U.S. makes us five percent of the global population, but we consume 25 percent of the world’s oil, 20 million barrels of oil a day; next is China at just 6.9 million a day.

When a group of leaders from developing nations begged U.S. government leaders to explore intervention options for their countries in crisis, a U.S. official was quoted as saying: “The American lifestyle is not up for negotiation.”

(From Jen Hatmaker’s Interrupted, p.23)
 

Doing nothing was no longer an option for me.  I was aware now… and a deep concern was welling up from that place of new knowledge. 

But I’ll be honest. Sometimes doing the right thing can feel a bit overwhelming.  First there is the daunting task of figuring out which thing is the right thing.  Then it can seem improbable that my one small something could make any sort of impact.

It reminds me of dropping a tiny pebble into the ocean. But one person reaching out to another person does count for something, because even a small stone creates a ripple. And a ripple can cause a wave and a wave can move water with determination and strength.

The first step is picking up something to throw.

Poverty is as far-reaching as the ocean, and quite honestly, I have no capacity to even understand it. The effects extend far beyond the physical realm.  Emotional, social, and spiritual scars are often invisible, but we serve a God who sees and hears and cares.

Looking through the lens of God’s Word brings it all into perspective. Micah 6:8 says that God requires this from me and from you: “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Sure, I want justice.  But this verse indicates action.  A response is required. A different translation spells it out like this: “Do justice.” This is more than a way of thinking; it’s a matter of doing… something.

Loving mercy is the fire that God sparks inside us when we choose to believe that our one, small something is not insignificant but required obedience instead.  It’s a heart change that is born out of knowing and not wanting to ever forget.  It’s deciding to keep our eyes open to know more.

Walking humbly is the beautiful result of watching God love the poor, the lost, and the broken,  because He usually has a way of showing us how we, too, are poor without Him, lost without Him, and broken without Him.

So I made a list that day of ways I could act justly. I picked something. And the first something on my list was sponsoring a child through Compassion International. I've learned so much about who God is just by picking up this very, very small stone. 


He has taught me that in order bring comfort to another heart I must allow my own heart to become uncomfortable.

Some of you are just like me. You read these statistics and everything in you is fighting the urge to look away, forget what you’ve read, and go about the rest of your day like nothing has changed. But that’s impossible because now you know. Now you’re aware. Resist the urge to pull away and instead let the Father draw you to His heart. 

Let Him pick your something and watch Him use it to change everything.  


1 comment:

  1. It's true the statistics can be overwhelming. The encouraging thing is, extreme poverty IS decreasing. And as we allow the Father to lead us like you have, poverty is lessening and lessening. What a beautiful thing!!

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