Responsibility...

Do you ever sit back and wonder if you are doing all you can? I don't mean when it comes to cleaning the house or socializing. I mean when it comes to humanity.

I ask myself this almost daily and I cannot seem to ever say yes. I sit down and think about all the things that require people to stand up and make a difference...

1. 145 million orphans globally (UNICEF 2008)

2. Genocide and displacement in Darfur

3. Haiti's millions of people who are still homeless following the earthquake

4. The HIV epidemic in Africa

5. The millions of people world wide who cannot freely worship Jesus Christ and are persecuted for doing so.

These are only a few.

And when i sit and look at this list a few things come to my mind.

First i feel helpless. As a mom who spends her days changing poopy diapers and watching elmo while practicing piano with my daughter i cannot help but feel helpless and often useless in this crazy world that we live in. I at times fight the question of my purpose here. Yet i know that God has called me to be this mom right now.

I look at that orphan statistic and again, though i know i am doing what i have been called for this season to do, there are still so many more children in this world who deserve, no, have the right to a mother and father.

Then i look at the government. I pay taxes to a government who is squandering it all away over greed and useless politics when they could be using the wealth and freedom we have to help others when they are in desperate need. How often do people around the world pray for the United States to come and help them when they are in the midst of a tragedy. I think we would be surprised to know this answer.

And i cannot help but wonder if God cries. I know he knows everything that has, and will happen on this earth from the beginning of time until eternity is here. But still, when i think that God loves us more than we can fathom.... when my daughter is hurting I am torn up inside. And he is our father, imagine the grief he must experience when he sees the vast amount of suffering we endure and even cause one another.

But, he is faithful. No matter how things seem to be, he is faithful. And he will be victorious at the end of this earth. His plan is grand and will overcome the sufferings we face here.

But i still am brought back to my responsibility. I need to examine if i am holding up my end so to speak. The blessings i have... am i showing my gratitude for them?

I love the new song out by Matt Maher called Hold us Together when he says,

"love will hold us together, make us a shelter to weather the storm. And I'll be my brother's keeper so the whole world will know that were not alone."

I want the whole world to see how we as Christians hold one another together with the strength of Christ as our support. I have experienced that support; my Christian family holding me together. It is an amazing feeling. And I have seen it and been a part of holding others together when i traveled to Haiti with Dayspring. That was mind blowing. I want to be and do and see more of that. On a global scale. And I am going to pray that more people will see the difference they can make. I just hope that more people will answer the call.

I can serve as a mom in so many ways. We all can serve right where we are in so many ways. We just need to step out in faith and take that leap for Christ and his kingdom and his suffering world. And i want to step out...here I am...send me...please.