Mama

She called me Mama.

My heart swelled up into my throat. I have known in my heart for months that she was my daughter, but I have only known her for 45 minutes and I felt a love for her that is different than my love for anyone else. This was a love that wants to protect, comfort and take away all her pain. This was a love that consumed my every move. I couldn’t get her home quick enough. She called me Mama.

Maybe I will never sleep past seven in the morning and maybe I will never have time to brush my hair and maybe I will never be able to eat a full meal without getting up and down a million times. It is worth it. Maybe it will always take me twice as long to do everything and maybe I will never have a really clean house and maybe my days of staying out late with friends are over. It is worth it. Anything I have to give up is worth that one minute when she looks at me and calls me Mama, when those little hands grab mine and those big eyes look at me as if I hold the keys to the world. It is worth it.

Sometimes I don’t know what God is doing in my life or why. But every day His plan is better than mine. And every day I am so glad that He is in charge, and not me!

So when my daughter ask why. Why I brought her home? Why did she deserve this? Why do I care so much? The answer is and will continue to be simple – because the Lord who created you LOVES you. Because He created you for a purpose and He wants you to fulfill that purpose. Because the God who knows every hair on your head desires to lift you out of this dust and into His glory.  Because God called me to be your Mama…that’s why!

These children (in the various orphanages around the world) gave me something, these moments, these little glimpses of something better and higher than the world that we live in.  Their faces, ingrained in my heart, keep my face smiling, my eyes shining and my heart dancing in my chest. It is them, who keep me pouring out every ounce of everything that I have because there is no better blessing than the opportunity to give yourself away.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you; because I live, you also will live;” John 14:18-19

I want His peace to fill me up. I want His mercy to fall down, to fill up my senses. I want His story to pour out of me. I am finding fault with "stupid" things we do in America. I repeat to myself over and over and over, "rejoice in the Lord always." But sometimes, I find myself not rejoicing. Actually, it is more like moping. I can't put into word the feeling of leaving behind these other precious children, to return home with my ONE daughter.

But I have a message to tell. Lord, I am grateful for this message, Your message. It is not a message about me. It is a story of God's LOVE.  It is a message that tells of Your perfect plan. Lord, give me the words. What do I say to them Lord?!?!?! If I say nothing else, let me say this:  Love. Not just in America, but everywhere!!  Get out of your comfort zone and where ever God calls you, go and love.  Love. Love the way God loved you. Look to Jesus. Watch His life. "Now, go and do likewise!!!"

“But God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-discipline.” When I imagine God creating each one of us and planting a purpose deep in our hearts, I never imagine that purpose being mediocrity. “You are to find me in the least of these.” Yes. “You are to leave your earthly possession and come follow me.” Yes. “You are to love and serve the Lord God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself” Yes. “You are to go and make disciples of all nations.” Yes. “You are to entertain strangers and leapers and tax collectors.” Yes. “You are to show mercy.” Yes. “You are to live a life of mediocrity and abundance, holding on tight to your comfortable lifestyle, lest you lose it.” No!!! I don’t think so!!! It is not there, though it seems like the safe choice for many.  Stop living like that, and start living out the Gospel!!!  Leaving your possessions to follow Jesus, entertaining strangers. It does sound a little scary, but what if just beyond that risk, just beyond the fear is a life better than anything you have ever imagined – LIFE TO THE FULLEST!!!

I’m not calling everyone to drop everything, pack up and move to Africa, China, Latvia or Russia to go be a missionary. I believe you can be a “missionary” right where you are. I’m just asking you to take a RISK. Make a SACRIFCE. DO SOMETHING today that you think you can’t afford, can’t be bothered by, don’t have time for. Stop and talk to a homeless man – if the risk is that he pulls out a knife, so be it. Play with your kids for an extra thirty minutes – if the risk is that all the work doesn’t get done, so be it. Share Christ with someone – if the risk is that they think you are strange, oh well.  You can choose to take a risk – do something for someone, make someone smile, change someone’s world. LIFE TO THE FULLEST – it exists. If you ever live it…well that choice is yours.

Vika is still alive. 

30 other children are not, because they died this hour of HIV. That is 250,000 a year. And that makes me mad, because you know what? HIV is PREVENTABLE.  Children do not need to be infected with HIV, and yet EVERY minute another child is born with HIV.

43,836 other children died today of starvation. That is 16 million a year. Starvation is PREVENTABLE. With all our wealth, technology and resources, why haven't we solved this problem? 2.5 million children die every year from malaria. HELLO. We have medicine that kills malaria. It is cheap. It is easy to transport. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THESE CHILDREN TO LIVE.

And we don't act. We don't choose to make a difference. We make excuses. The economy is bad. Gas is expensive. So is food. We need this, and we need that. We can't afford to help. You lie…yes I am calling you a liar because I think that is not true. I think we are afraid. We put so much value on things we have. We are so comfortable with our extravagant lives that we cannot imagine living any other way. We are afraid of what could happen if we didn't live so comfortably; we are shackled by our possessions. We wrap our arms so tightly around what we have, that we cannot extend our reach to help those around us who truly NEED.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news (actually, today I LOVE it), but guess what: YOU CANT TAKE IT WITH YOU. I am not a cynical person but this is the truth: one day you are going to die. So while you are here, why don't you help someone LIVE a fulfilled life?

In the time it has take you to read this, five more children have died unnecessarily. This is not a matter that can wait. It is urgent. There goes another one. They are not just statistics they are people. They have a family and parents who love them (or at least a Heavenly Father who does). They were created by our Maker, for a purpose. They are dying because we have chosen to care more about our own well being then theirs.

And the TRUTH is, this is only the children I know personally, (making up in a very small fraction of a very large world). The TRUTH is that there are children like this all over the world, sick, starving, dying, unloved, and uncared-for. They are EVERYWHERE!!

The TRUTH is that if we call ourselves believers, we cannot sit here and not do anything about it. James says, "pure and undefiled religion is to love the orphans and the widow in their distress and keep ourselves from being tarnished by the ways of THIS WORLD". Jesus says that anyone who welcomes a little child such in His name welcomes Him. He also says that at the end of time when He comes back, He is going to separate the sheep from the goats. He says, He will put the sheep on His right and He will say to them "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Notice He doesn't say to them, "Good job, you lived a life without sin." He already knows we aren't perfect. Notice He doesn't say to them, "Good job, you were intelligent, successful, made lots of money and had lots of things." He already told us to store up our treasures in Heaven. He said, "I tell you the TRUTH, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of Mine, you did unto Me."

This is the Truth...we were given the freedom to believe it. The FREEDOM and the OPPORTUNITY to DO something about it!!!

You will know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you FREE.

When the disciples asked Jesus what the blind man did to deserve his condition, Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned but this happened to him so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:3) Poverty is not a sin. I believe it is a condition, a circumstance that allows God’s work to be displayed.

Every circumstance is an opportunity for God’s work to be displayed. Will we do His work? Will He be displayed in our lives? Vika could have just as easily been you. How will you change your world today?  Will you change the world for someone else?  A child?

Brace yourself:

The TRUTH is that there are 147,000,000 orphans in our world today. 147,000,000.

The TRUTH is that 70 percent of these precious children will never have an education.

The TRUTH is that every day, 16,000 children die from hunger related causes. That is 5,840,000 a year.

The TRUTH is that about 1 in every 3 people living today does not have access to clean water.

The TRUTH is that 10,600,000 children under the age of 5 die each year. 54 percent of these deaths are from PREVENTABLE, TREATABLE illnesses.