My heart has been in a flurry lately from hearing stories of people who are currently walking through places my heart has travelled dealing with infertility and adoption.
Because I know the pain of what those hard days can bring in infertility, I also know the hope that can be found in the midst of them. Why? Because I found it first hand. I was lost in the sea of despair and hopelessness, but I was found. I know what it's like to be lost in pain and uncertainty. And I know what it's like to be found by the One Who loved me all along.
Sometimes it takes a miracle to pull us out of something we're going through, but other times, it just takes another heart who has felt the same pains we are feeling, to come alongside and encourage us along the way. And that's what God calls us to do.
He calls us to go and find the lost. Not just the ones lost from God by their sin, but the ones who are lost in their circumstances. The ones who are lost in their difficult moments. The ones who are lost in their dirty, muddy, messy moments they call life. He calls us to THEM.
It's easy to turn our heads and ignore their pain. It's easier to close our ears to their cries for help. It's easier to stay snuggled safely in the shelter of our own world, away from the cares and needs of others. But is that really what Christ died for? Did He really give up everything for me, just so I could be selfish and lazy and lacking sympathy and love for my fellow man? Really?
Do I really have the audacity to look Him in the face and tell Him I don't have time to care for the hurting, to help the lonely, to love the unlovable, to go into the hard places where people are void of life and hope and bring them the love that Christ so freely showed me? Really??
I sometimes wander what He is thinking when He looks and sees so much hurt in the hearts of people and when He nudges His children to go and be the light that He has called us to be, we immediately begin vomitting out our excuses as to why we can't. I wander what it does to His heart when His children fail to live out the calling He has placed on each of our lives because we are too busy giving Him all the excuses about meaningless things. I'm pretty sure it breaks His heart. And I imagine He shakes His head in amazement and bewilderment more times than not.
I have been guilty of excuses. Many, many times. But you know what? No more. No more offering Him excuses and why something can't be done with me. No more turning my head, my ears, my eyes, my heart to the hurting. He has called me to GO. To Do. To Be. Go, do, be...what? To go as an extension of Him. Go to the hurting. Go to the helpless. Go to the downtrodden. GO to the lost. To DO what He has called every born again believer to do in sharing His heart and His love to this world. To BE all that He has called me to be. To BE the light. To Be His heart. To BE His arms. To BE His extension. To BE Christlike in every way.
So, where do we start? We start with what we know. I'm going to start with what I know and what I have learned. There are so many women out there who struggle with infertility. There are women out there who have adopted and are facing the same issues I face everyday. I'm starting there.
How do we start? We just ask Him to put us in front of the people who need to hear our stories of grace. We ask Him to open our eyes to see those that are lost in front of us. We ask Him to make us aware of the hurting.
And then? Then we throw excuse out the window. Then we throw caution to the wind and we GO. No questions, no excuses. We go. Relentless obedience, even in the face of difficulty.
It's time we roll up our pants, push up our sleeves, get down in the muddy messes of peoples lives and get busy being what the church should have been all along....just like Jesus.
I'm ready to go and make a difference in my world for Christ. Are you?
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