Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Why?

Have you ever asked yourself why things happen?
Let's go a step further... have you ever asked God why things happen?

God, why are there so many homeless people?
God, why are there orphans?
God, why are there people living in poverty?
God, why did that elderly person/child die of starvation?
God, why...?

Then God waits for you to pour out your frustration and calmly says:
"You tell me why."
*** 

Today, I was sitting at a stop light and there was a beggar on the side of the road. I quickly looked around my car to see if I had any fruit left over in my lunch box, or a box of crackers. I didn't. So, I just stared at him... trying to make eye contact to offer a smile. Then I asked God as I stared at this man's tattoos...
"God, why? Is he a fake? Is he real? Is he a father, a son?"
No reply.
Then a few hours later I took my puppy for a walk, I came home, made dinner, laid in bed and prayed about that man. Now I am here writing a blog because I felt compelled to speak (type). 

I am a beggar --- I beg for God's mercy every day.
I am a thief.
I am a liar.
I am a murderer (not literally).
I am disobedient.
I am undeserving of any attention from God but he dotes it on me, pours it out...
unceasingly.
Somehow, I still get God's love... but I can't even find the courage to pour out love on the "the least of these."

Donald Miller was once quoted saying,
"It was clear that I was to love everybody, be delightful at everybody's existence, and I had fallen miles short of God's aim."

How true is that? I have fallen short, and will always fall short of God's aim. However! That does not mean that daily I will aim my arrow to meet God's expectation. God is not setting me or you up for failure he is setting us up to go out of our comfort zone, to reach the unreachable and love the unlovable because that is what he has done for us. 

I will simply love.

I was called to love. However, in our culture love is overused.
I love my iPhone.
I love this song.
I love your new hair cut.
I love these shoes.
I love, I love, I love!

What does it even mean to love anymore? A word so overused I wish we could come up with a new word for true love.

Dictionary.com says that love means to have a strong liking for or to need.
The bible says that love is purposeful commitment to sacrificial action for another.

So when I ask God why there is poverty, why that man is lonely, why there are orphans... he says lack of love. Lack of love from Christians. Lack of love from parents. Lack of love from you.

Find your purpose in me, commit to me, then sacrifice yourself as I have sacrificed my own for you. Sacrifice your time that I have blessed you with to love others. 

Brady... simply love. simply sacrifice. simply live out your purpose in me.

Matthew 25:44-45
"They will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?'
He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

James 1:27
Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

4 comments:

  1. Dear Brady!!! I love this! Love....see it is an easy word to use. I find that most times I try to complicate "loving" others. It is simple if we leave it as God has taught us.

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  2. I was on my way out the door and decided to check my email/fb before I left. This is the ONLY thing I read. It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear, for today, for this moment. EXACTLY.

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    1. It's a blessing to know that God is using me to display his words of encouragement to others. I prayed hard before I wrote this post that if I were to write god would only use my words as inspiration to others. It's nice to see a prayer answered.

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    2. I am glad you look at beggars, I am overcome with so much guilt that I get red and look away...

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