Series: Do All the Good

At ten o'clock tonight, I will have been back home for one week.  One week.  My brain can't properly process all the things it now holds.  It has been one week since I left behind the tents and Iso-boxes and clothes drying on the fences.  Seven days since I have had to step into someone else's mess.  One week of snuggling my own babies in a warm house, cooking dinner with supplies that are abundant, prepping for the holidays.  I want to go back as soon as I can and I also never want to go back.

In all the hours of thinking over what I learned, what I did and what I experienced, I am full of contradictions.  I can't think my way through the tragedy that is occurring right before our eyes.  I think of the refugees and remember the Holocaust.  I think of the refugees and remember the foster care system.  I think of the refugees and can't forget the homeless on our own streets.  We have done this to each other over and over and over again since the dawn of time.  And when this crisis is over, there will be another one to take its place.  There already is.  
 

New mom and six day old baby Raha, living in a camp.
Her name?  Raha means "freedom."  

Nothing that I saw was shocking.  Conditions are deplorable and inhumane in many cases; and how sad that I wasn't shocked by that.  I've seen it before and I'm sure I'll see it again.  But what I haven't come to grips with is the utter brokenness of the system.  There has to be a better way, and yet I can't see a way to the solutions.  And then I'm reminded of all the systems that we have in place to help people and how broken they all are.  Because people are broken.  And it all starts to feel so hopeless.

I know that all things will be made new again when Christ returns, but I wish we didn't have to wait so long.

How long, Lord, must I call for help,

but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, “Violence!”

but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me;

there is strife, and conflict abounds.

Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice never prevails.

The wicked hem in the righteous,

so that justice is perverted.

The Lord's Answer:

Look at the nations and watch—

and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days

that you would not believe,

even if you were told.

-Hab. 1

I am so thankful that I have had a long relationship with God, and so I know him to be faithful and true to his word.  I keep reminding myself that I cannot know his mind and I cannot know his plans.  I can only see the path he has placed before me, and not even much of that, if I'm honest.  But I know that I didn't go to Greece to subsequently abandon myself to despair.  It doesn't do anyone any good and it certainly doesn't honor God.  If we give into hopelessness, then evil wins, plain and simple. 

 During the trip, I thought everyday, "This isn't enough.  We aren't doing enough.  They won't even have what they need for tomorrow after this is gone."  And again God reminds me, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself."  If I allow myself to see through eyes of faith rather than despair, I can see that this is true.  So we only were able to give these families one pack of diapers?  Is it not enough?  It is for today.  And yesterday, Save the Children gave them diapers, but it just so happens that they were out today.  Despair would tell me that our diapers will be gone soon and there will not be anymore.  Faith assures me that if each of us do our part today, there will always be enough.  When I look through eyes of faith, I see God's glory all over.  I was so fortunate to meet amazing people who are doing the work to bring about God's kingdom today, and I think we have to remember and hold on to that!  

So, I am going to spend the next while sharing stories of these kingdom makers.  I want us to see and remember that each of us have a call from God to help the poor and powerless.  And we have not only a call, but also a greater ability to do so than we probably think.  I have learned of some unbelievable people who are doing extraordinary, ordinary things and we should all see and know these stories so that we can see and know our own strength in the face of crisis and evil.  Let's not bury our head in the sands of "happy news" for the sake of protecting and insulating our hearts from the sadness that surrounds us.  But let's share together how the Kingdom is coming even today and let's remember to do our part.  You and I can each do something today to bring hope and love to someone.  This is how we beat the system.  This is how love wins.  Not by waiting for the right policy or the right president or the right time, but by reaching out to the person that God puts right in front of us today.