Tonight I picked up a new book of mine - Dangerous Surrender by Kay Warren - and I know that God has already touched my heart by the truth that I read in the first chapter. This book talks about a life surrendered to God... and what God can do with such a life. For Kay Warren, it means working with the HIV/AIDS crisis. A cause that also tugs at my heart, when I'm not too distracted by other things.I'll share what specifically struck me tonight. First of all, some statistics.
*If you have a roof overhead, food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, and a place to sleep, you're doing better than 75% of the people in this world.
*If you have ANY money in the bank you are in the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
*If you have never experienced battle, imprisonment, torture, or starvation, you are ahead of 500 million other people.
*If you can attend worship services without fear, you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.
Then Kay writes, "I don't tell this to you to make you feel guilty - but I do hope you feel uncomfortable. I hope these statistics disturb you. God in his sovereignty decided where you would be born and allowed you to live in a place that has almost everything anyone could ever desire, so there is no guilt that he has ordered our lives in such a way. The only guilt we bear is the guilt of ignoring the men, women, and children of this world who do not have what we have - the guilt of spending the majority of our time, money, and resources exclusively on ourselves and our families. That is legitimate guilt."
Wake up call.
I'm a follower of Christ. Not a great one most times, but I have given my life to him and trust in his will for my life. I believe that Christ died for me to set me free from sin and make me right with God. I know that my only comfort in life and in death is that I'm not my own, but belong body and soul to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.
But do I make a daily choice to surrender my will to him? No. Do I hide in my comfortable life, spending more time and energy on myself than anyone else? Do I dream more about having a house/kids/you name it than justice, hope and peace for this sad world? You betcha.
Only God can change my hard heart, and only I can let him.
3 comments:
Wow, Jess, thanks for the thoughts. It's sad how easy it is to forget the important things in life. We have been so blessed, my friend. Thanks for the reminders.
This is awesome, Jessica. I struggle with this a lot...just living for me day after day. This book looks interesting...I'll check it out!
Glad you had a good Thanksgiving!! :)
Sad Witte... I probably wont visit you for a bit here and I wont be able to steal this book out of the back seat of the car... ;) Oh FYI I have already bought 2 copies of cold tangerines for friends over here... :)
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