Because I can...

I have problems putting to words my thoughts, feelings… whatever this thing is that’s been going on inside of me lately… It’s one of those things that I kind of don’t really know where exactly started… guess it has a lot to do with the fact that there’s been a lot of teaching and focus on this lately, but I think it started in me long before that… when that’s said, after 20-something years, you should think I understood this already, but guess not… I’m actually realising more and more how little I do know… Well, what I’m realising is that true worship to God is so much more than just singing some songs in church on the weekend (okay, I’ve kinda known that, but I’m realising that it’s so much more than what I’ve realised. To use a Joel-allegory: “what I know is like a tiny grain of sand and God is the whole earth as a beach”. (Could be just you and me, Joel, but it actually made sense to me…)). Like it says in Hosea 6:6 "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." You know, the prophets repeated this message over and over again, they kept pointing out that the people didn’t worship God just because they kept offering sacrifices to Him, they actually didn’t honour God because they didn’t take care of the weak; the poor, the widows, the fatherless… there was no justice. And I realise, I can honestly worship God with my whole heart, really be willing to follow Him and all that, but do I realise what the consequences of the words I’m singing in worship is? If I really want to follow Him, I have to let what breaks His heart, break mine, and care for what He cares for. “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mt 25:40). I have to do what I can do to bring justice, to bring freedom, to bring mercy, restoration… I have to be His arms and His feet on the earth. That is worship in spirit and in truth!

So what does that look like? For me, one step was to finally get a Compassion child. I can use the excuse that I'm just a poor student, but really, I'm still among the richest "whatever-how-low-it-is"-percent. And it’s not as if I can’t afford it, so why push it off anymore? It can look like helping out at the justice project during encounterfest, it can be talking to that girl who doesn’t really feel like she has any friends, take out the garbage and vacuum the living room before mum asks (or, in my case at the moment, before my house-mates goes insane, and even if it’s not my week to do it…) You know, there’s not really any excuses. Yes, maybe you cannot quit your job and go to Africa and help the orphans whose parents have died of AIDS, but you can help someone who can. Or you can help that old lady next door with her groceries… Why? Simply, because you can! It can look very different to all of us, but there’s really only the imagination that limits what you can do to change someone’s life to the better, to bring at least a little bit of justice in this world where everyone just seem to care about themselves (to quote one of the songs on the radio these days… “I was born too late, to a world that doesn’t care…”)

“It is not a human right to stare, not fight, while broken nations dream. Open up our eyes of blind so we can find the mercy for the need.
…Fill our hearts with Your compassion… as we hold to our confession…
…Only You can take the widows cry and cause her heart to sing, be the Father to the fatherless, our Saviour and our king…
… we will be Your hands, we will be Your feet, we will run this race for the least of these, in the darkest place we will be Your light…
… God be the solution… And we will be Your hands and be Your feet…”

Check out http://www.theiheartrevolution.com/

To be saved costs us nothing – to be a disciple costs us everything