Victoria recently turned me on to a blog that has shaken me up a bit. It's about a young, vibrant woman (maybe 20 years old) who's apparently a Tennessee college student. All indications point toward someone that could probably do just about anything she wants in our relatively comfortable country and be exceptionally successful at it. Instead, she is literally counting the seconds until she can finish her degree and head back to Uganda so she can live an impoverished life in service to orphans for the sake of the Kingdom. What passion, what sacrifice, and what cross bearing, and not from duty mind you, but rather from love, sheer love. And the irony is that she doesn't view it as sacrificial at all; that's what happens when love takes over. I've rarely witnessed such desire that vividly sees Jesus in the faces and eyes of complete strangers lost in a suffering world, without Mommies and Daddies, without shelter, without food, without covering, and especially without Him.
I've carried the images and words from that blog with me for over 48 hours now. When I woke up the last two mornings I cried out to God that He would burn brighter, invade deeper, and consume my longings with reckless abandon for Jesus. How many times have I ended a long day at work and mindlessly walked right by so many people on the streets of San Francisco while caught up in my own little world, looking straight into the eyes of homeless souls without giving a thought to their physical or spiritual condition? My heart can be so callous sometimes, most of the time actually.
Streams of consciousness journal-writing at the moment, but I felt compelled to jot this down. I do so with caution knowing that His convictions about these things are not universal, nor are other callings necessarily less God honoring. I want more of Jesus, and it goes without question that He wants more of me.
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Soberly in Him,
Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment