Out of the Mouths of (My) Babes

Today I read some more in a book I've been enjoying, The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns. My daughter, Kati, turned me on to this book when I saw the life change she experienced, first by reading it and then by acting upon what she read. This summer, Kati joined a group of people on mission with a heart for the people of Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. For ten days she served the broken, fed the hungry and clothed the naked. I watched her face as she told me about kids who wanted their pictures taken because they never get to see their own countenances. I felt through her tears the heartbreak for the young women of this village who are led into prostitution to provide food for their families and then, maybe only a couple of meager meals a week. I heard disgust in her voice as she spoke of her own comfort in comparison to those she had come to love in Pietermaritzburg.

You know, as a parent, I have always dreamed of how I was going to teach my children all of the lessons of life. I imagined how they would look to me, in awe, as I taught them to ride their bikes and tie their Nikes. I wanted to be the source of information, the fount of knowledge. But as I have aged, God has shown me that one of the reasons He blessed me with children was to teach ME. Child-like faith seems to evade us as we age, along with child-like dreams. Instead of the positive change we should be seeing in our visions, we tend to focus on the impossibilities in our paths, the hurdles we will have to leap. That usually zaps most of our energy. Kati had no reservations that God wanted her to be in South Africa in July of 2011. She wasted no energy in doubting that God would provide any financial support and physical protection to make this trip that would change her heart and life. In fact, the only surprise she discovered was that God blessed her heart so much more in comparison than the blessing she intended to bring to those to whom she ministered. Funny how God works, huh? So here I sat, the mom, at the feet of the daughter, to learn of the God I was supposed to be teaching my daughter about. All I can say is, "Cool. What child-like faith."

Today I began in chapter four of The Hole in Our Gospel, and was faced with the question, "Are you willing to be open to God's will for your life?" I don't know about you, but for most of my life, the people I've gone to church with acted like that was a mystical question. When they talked about God's will, it was almost as if you had to be the "chosen one" to find the answer. Maybe I have to go to Africa? Maybe I had to marry a preacher? I don't believe that anymore. Something I have learned is that if I am open, if I am in touch with His Spirit, I can be used wherever I am, whenever He chooses, with whatever I have. "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God," Micah 6:8. Stearns teaches in this chapter that God does expect our lives to be chacterized by these "signs of our own transformation: compassion, mercy, justice, and love - demonstrated tangibly." This is God's will for my life.