Safe and Secure

Be safe. How many of us heard that from our parents? I bet all of us did. The first time I went driving after I got my drivers license comes to mind... as I took the keys, running out the door in excitement my parents prepared me... "leave the radio off, check your blind spots, don't speed, and be safe." Yeah ok, those are good instructions and words of warning/wisdom. But sometimes the devil uses our comfortability of being safe and our fear of what might happen to keep us from going to those God calls us to help. I'll admit when I see someone that needs help I look at them and say "if I were a guy..." "if I didn't have loans..." "if I were in a more public place..." "they may have a gun" "they could be selling drugs." What is your if? How many do you have? While many times our ifs are quite ridiculous, sometimes they are legitimate fears. Weeeelll, legitimate for those who do not know the savior we know. What if Jesus had fears. I mean he KNEW what was going to happen to him. If anyone has the right to fear, it was him. He knew that he was going to be taken by the guards, whipped, and crucified. If I knew that was going to happen... I would avoid going out. I would batten down the hatches and avoid anyone at ALL cost. But Jesus knew that he had come to fulfill the scriptures, he also knew that after the suffering he would be reunited with his Father and inherit his place in the kingdom at the right hand of The Majesty. (Hebrews 1)

We also love security. Nearly all Americans have a savings account. If someone is living paycheck to paycheck that is basically saying they are poor. In order to be "middle class" you need to have enough money to pay for the basics, (food, clothing, shelter, school supplies) as well as a car, cell phone, a vacation, and a college fund for your kids. IN AMERICA WE ARE HOARDERS. All of us, ok 99% of us, and I am definitely in the majority. I won't go into what I mean exactly, but read this blog from Katie (who wrote Kisses from Katie, which has been a huge encouragement in my life) I think her personal experiences speak to our spirits as to the true NEED and poverty that exist around the world. If you read a few more of her blogs you will continue to see how we sit here in america and think we are living in poverty if we don't have cable, a cell phone, and a car. There are people in America that live in poverty, but we look at what they have done wrong. And in many cases they have done things wrong. Instead of passing judgment maybe we need to go to them... here in America, and around the world as the hands and feet of Jesus. Sometimes this is just providing resources, and at other times its about offering of our time, time that none of us have, or our abilities, or our will on the life we have sacrificed back to him.

These things are uncomfortable. But we need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable while trusting in the provision and will of the God that wants to give to us above anything we could ask or imagine. But just as Jesus did we have to be ready and willing for it to be outside of our plans. For it to be uncomfortable. For it to be painful. But it will show us just how much we are loved because he will always provide what we need according to HIS will.