March 2020
Setting The Bar
09 March 2020 @ 16:43
Well here we are almost three months into 2020 and in our 28th year full time as Heart to Hand Ministries after 11 years part time! The phrase ‘Giving our hearts to God and our hands to man’ was where our name originated. As a way of describing our mission I would often say that it was an outreach to critically and chronically ill children and their families, and a for most of the past 39 years that is what is has been. This has involved my day to day visits to those who are hospitalized and everything that went with that, admissions to discharges, births to graduations, weddings to funerals. To travel this journey with those who, prior to their admission, you most likely had never met is incredibly humbling. This has been something that I never pursued for it pursued me. I believe in a God who created each of us to be uniquely who we are and, in knowing our abilities better than we know them ourselves, He nudges us in the direction where He knows we can use those abilities. This is what we know as a calling; a nudging by the Holy Spirit. The crazy thing is that God never forces His will upon us. It is within us, in our free will, to resist and deny a calling.
There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Jesus’ words saying that when we have done it to the least of these we have done it unto Him. I have looked upon the brokenness of children of trauma and I have looked into the eyes of those who are facing unimaginable battles and, in their eyes, I have seen Him. I have chosen to follow the one Who teaches ‘Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’ (Matthew 10:28) The One who also teaches “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-31)
This is where the dilemma begins. I find myself at a place that seems to be out of sync with so many current day evangelicals. It seems that there are no longer standards of truthfulness and morality. Our patriotism has raised the flag above God. Self has become more important than others. The Gospel message is chopped and used to our convenience.
My prayer is that as 2020 goes on we will, as God’s people, stand strong in faith and do what the Lord would have us do, despite what the world or the leaders of our nation would tell us we should; a year that would see the spreading of God’s light and hope and peace through the hands and feet of His people; a year that would bring meaning to our pledge when when we say ‘one nation under God.’ I say this because, quite frankly, it appears more and more to me that we have become one nation over God that will only submit to God if it is convenient and beneficial to self, having absolutely no concern for the marginalized and oppressed that Jesus was drawn to.