Is it Enough?

In the corner… all alone. Oh how my fingers tremble trying to put ill equipped words to the situation of the fatherless. The child sitting in the dirt, his skin struggling to stretch over his bones, and his eyes- those empty eyes- they are open but they look at nothing. His mouth closed tight. It gave up on asking for food or love or care of any kind long ago. What’s the point when no one ever responds? All around him well fed children play in the dirt, laughing and dancing. No one pays him mind. He’s all alone. His parents left him. His caretakers ignore him. He isn’t fed. He isn’t loved. He doesn’t know touch or attention of any kind.

My mind cannot even fathom. I write in fragmented phrases because

how can I form a sentence that even begins to grapple at this pain? How many more children are all alone, sitting in the corner abandoned? How many won’t be found and rescued? How many will we never hear about? And how do I spend my days worrying about test scores and how do I spend money on new clothes and jewelry?

This is an emergency. 147 MILLION orphans. How do we even begin to reach them? How do we even start to open our eyes to them and soften our hearts to their pain? Must we force our heads to turn towards their suffering when all we want is to look away and continue living our comfortable lives?

I see the suffering and my heart hurts. It aches. But then the ultimate uncomfortable question ignites- what am I going to do about it? Do I settle for setting up a sponsorship program that has helped 17 children home? Giving my time and money, surely that must be enough.

But then I see him… sitting in that corner all alone, never knowing love. How could I have ever thought I’d done enough? To let this work become a check list and once enough time and money is checked off for others I am allowed to go buy myself a new dress and waste hours on the internet.

Is giving 10% enough? Is service meant to be a checklist we mark off and then live our lives however we like? I don’t think every Christian needs to sell everything and give to the poor. I think that verse is often taken out of context. But I do think we need to give more. More time. More prayer. More money. More love. Why? because the God that we love and owe it all to is aching and crying too when he looks at that sweet boy all alone in the corner and God desires for US to be the ones to show his His love. What an amazing privilege and gift... and yet we don't choose to take hold of it.

That little boy sitting all alone with the skin straining to stretch over his bones? He is now CHUBBBY, LOVED, and starting to HEAL… all because some of my amazing friends stepped out in faith and allowed God to work through him. They never stopped believing they had done enough.

147 million orphans minus one… what are you doing about the 147,999,999 still left?