I don't have a lot of time to blog right now, but I can't let this moment pass. I'm mostly teary as I continue to read through Radical. I have an overwhelming sense of just how much I have failed to see the purpose for which God created me. How did I live so long in a big house, with a nice car, with a bunch of STUFF, spending thousands on vacations & eating out when all the while men, women, & children all over the world (& in the U.S. too!) are dying due to malnutrition, no clean water and no vaccines or healthcare for preventable diseases.
A quote from Radical I read today that grieves me for how much I have been deceived:
"Today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day. That's nearly half the world struggling today to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money I spend on french fries for lunch.
More than twenty-six thousand children today will breathe their last breath due to starvation or a preventable disease. To put it in perspective for the church I (David Platt) pastor, if this were happening among the children in my community, then every child eighteen years or younger in our county would be dead within the next two days."
O, how my soul groans for what we have allowed!
And yet, satan whispers in my ear that I am only one...what can I possibly do? Where to begin? Why should it be me? Don't I have a family to raise? Kids to feed, clothe and entertain? Don't we deserve vacations, respite from life's trials?
To all of this I say, "YOU HAVE LIED TO ME TOO LONG! YOU ARE NOT THE MASTER OF MY DESTINY. YOU HAVE DECEIVED MY HEART INTO THINKING THAT MY PLEASURE AND COMFORT ARE SOMEHOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE NEEDS OF BILLIONS OF OTHERS. GET OUT YOU SERPENT, YOU LIAR, YOU WHO ARE FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL. GOD ALMIGHTY HAS SHOWN ME THE LIGHT AND HAS GIVEN ME THE GRACE TO GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME. I WILL FOLLOW HIM...NOT YOU!"
Okay, enough yelling! But I DON'T see where this is all going to lead. I can't KNOW in this moment how Holy Spirit wants me to act. BUT I know He is FAITHFUL and is putting into place the path He has for us.
A quote from Radical I read today that grieves me for how much I have been deceived:
"Today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day. That's nearly half the world struggling today to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money I spend on french fries for lunch.
More than twenty-six thousand children today will breathe their last breath due to starvation or a preventable disease. To put it in perspective for the church I (David Platt) pastor, if this were happening among the children in my community, then every child eighteen years or younger in our county would be dead within the next two days."
O, how my soul groans for what we have allowed!
And yet, satan whispers in my ear that I am only one...what can I possibly do? Where to begin? Why should it be me? Don't I have a family to raise? Kids to feed, clothe and entertain? Don't we deserve vacations, respite from life's trials?
To all of this I say, "YOU HAVE LIED TO ME TOO LONG! YOU ARE NOT THE MASTER OF MY DESTINY. YOU HAVE DECEIVED MY HEART INTO THINKING THAT MY PLEASURE AND COMFORT ARE SOMEHOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE NEEDS OF BILLIONS OF OTHERS. GET OUT YOU SERPENT, YOU LIAR, YOU WHO ARE FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL. GOD ALMIGHTY HAS SHOWN ME THE LIGHT AND HAS GIVEN ME THE GRACE TO GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME. I WILL FOLLOW HIM...NOT YOU!"
Okay, enough yelling! But I DON'T see where this is all going to lead. I can't KNOW in this moment how Holy Spirit wants me to act. BUT I know He is FAITHFUL and is putting into place the path He has for us.
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