Saw that Coming

“I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good. It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.” Toyohiko Kagawa

Last week at the beach visiting my parents, SB was discussing with her Daddy the vast wealth she assumes the guy selling ice cream out of a boat on Litchfield beach has.

SB: “With all that extra money you could buy two houses”.

Jimmy: “Or you could use the extra money to help build houses for people that don’t have one. You don’t need two houses if some people don’t have a house at all.”

SB: Silence, but a look of still pondering.

Jimmy: “Well, what would you do with the extra money?”

SB: “You could buy like 100 American Doll Girls.”

Jimmy: “I saw that coming.”

Me: “Or instead you could buy shoes for children who don’t have shoes.”

SB: “I SO saw that coming.”

This short conversation a few days ago has stuck with me. I am glad that she ‘saw it coming’ that we would rather give away than obtain more. But are we?

I just finished reading The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Sterns, the current CEO of World Vision.  This book is so good you should start reading it instead of finishing this post. I was astounded and challenged by many things in this book. One was this (statistics are averages of what I remember b/c that is how I am with statistics-but you get the idea): in 1995, around 85% of non-Christians viewed Christians favorably. By 2006, this number had dipped down to around 26%.

We are richer in America than we have ever been. Yes, I know the economy has issues and I am no economist- but really, we are rich. In fact, if you make more than $50,000 a year you are in the wealthiest 1% of the world.  We have come to expect certain things with this wealth. We spend money on bigger houses, nicer cars,  the latest fashions at big huge malls, customized driveways, and even millions of dollars on church buildings. While so many lack even the basic necessity of water.  But what do we give?

I really hope you don’t read this with a tone of judgment. I do not intend to offend. I am genuinely asking that of myself and my family. And maybe someone reading this might ask themselves the same.  And maybe not, but I want to be a person… a family that listens to the spirit of God and lives the love that he gives to us.

I have had the good fortune to witness and participate as people I know do just that. They inspire me as they demonstrate how to Love Well and Live Differently.

Our friend, Charisa, and her daughter were in Ethiopia picking up their son when we were picking up Gabre. Their son is also from Southern Ethiopia in a region near Gabre’s birth called Awassa. 

Currently, children in orphanages in that region cannot be adopted. You could say they are ‘stuck’. No longer with their biological parents, but unable for anyone else to bring them home.  Some of these children even have families that accepted their referrals for adoption, that have never been able to bring them home. Holly and Dave share honestly their journey with the acceptance of a referral for a precious boy they have met and loved, but never been able to bring home on their blog Writing in Pencil.

Because there doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight, many of the adoption agencies have pulled their support and the children there now aren’t even getting all their basic needs met.

Enter our friends.  They felt they should do something.  They didn’t know all the steps, the hows, the whats but they took a step of faith, a shaky step.

That shaky step has led to FIG Awassa. Through Project Hopeful and the support of those wanting to go about 'doing something good' the immediate needs of the children can be met. And then programs can be established for education and empowerment for families and children to support themselves and know they are loved children of God.

I am so humbled and amazed.

 I hope to So see it coming. To know when the Spirit is leading us. And more importantly to Follow.  Even with a shaky step.

“God gives us power and blessing so that justice and righteousness will be upheld for those who are denied them. This is what God is like. This is what God is about. This is who God is. To forget this, to fail to hear the cry, to preserve prosperity at the expense of the powerless is to miss what God has in mind.” Rob Bell