One Day’s Thoughts from One Day’s Wages

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Woke up this morning in a warm, comfortable bed and a roof over my head.  Didn’t think twice about it.

Poured a glass of filtered water and quenched my thirst immediately.  Didn’t think twice about it.

Spent $3.85 on my Grande soy dry cappuccino on my way to work without thinking twice about it.

Went through my morning routine not thinking twice about much, to be honest.  Woke up, did my QT, checked my e-mail/agreed to write this post, stopped by Starbucks, got situated at my desk…  But when I opened the ODW & World Vision websites, I was reminded of the things going on outside my bubble.

I thought twice.

Correction — I thought.

World Vision Hunger

I was sitting at my desk staring at the counter on World Vision’s “About Hunger” page, just watching as the number increased every few moments, when I finally shut off of auto-pilot and thought.

I thought about the billions of people living on less than $2 a day.  The kids who were dying as I was trying to make sense of my thoughts.  And people enslaved by sex trafficking.  And victims of domestic violence. And the oppressed… and the sick… and the homeless.  The widowed.  The fatherless.  The Fatherless.

Honestly, it was overwhelming, and I continued to sit there not knowing where to even begin to think.  So I just stared at the counter.

And then it hit me that my sitting and thinking about all of this had already made me enough money to pay for clean water for someone for months.  (Don’t tell my boss.)  But just the act of giving that money away rather than spending it on lunch to help fix the issue of providing someone with basic needs, as great as it would be, isn’t the point.  God reminded me in that moment that the physical issues that need to be dealt with are definitely important, but it’s secondary.  This is a call to action, and I feel called to give, but the outcome is secondary.

My reasoning behind that is this: God is sovereign and could end all of this in a heartbeat.  If I don’t steward my time and resources well, His will remains.  Now, don’t get me wrong — I definitely should steward it well, but it’s not like God’s banking on my one move for the earth to keep spinning.  Anyway, as I mentioned before, this is a secondary; my symptoms of inaction are caused by my primary issue of suppressing (the) Holy Spirit.  Though I claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I often forget that I was bought for a price, that His Spirit lives inside me, and that I quench and grieve the Spirit of God when I don’t obey and sin.  I forget that “my” time and “my” resources and “my” gifts are really His because I am His.  I forget that He calls me to set my hope in heaven and not on things of this earth.

I also forget that I have the capacity to love because He loved me first, and He loves on people for me because I fail when I try on my own.  I forget that it’s abiding in Him and His will and surrendering my everything to Him that brings me closer to him.  I forget (this is almost comical…  I don’t know if I’ve ever remembered anything) how easy He’s made it for me to take action with the internet at my fingertips.  (Seriously, to volunteer somewhere or donate to an organization or find something to pray about…  A click away.)  I forget that all I need to do is stop hardening my heart and just let Him open my eyes, and take that little step of faith.

Believing that having faith like a grain of mustard seed can move mountains is far different from experiencing your faith, like a grain of mustard seed, actually move mountains.  Though God doesn’t need me for anything, he chooses to use me.  (And you.)  (:

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’  Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”  Matthew 25:35-40 (ESV)

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”  James 1:22-25 (ESV)

I pray that when you look at yourself in the mirror today, you see who you truly are: a son/daughter of the Most High, justified through the blood of Christ, and fully equipped by the power of His Spirit to experience your faith in a real and authentic way — a faith that reveals itself through action.

So do it.

PTL.