Silence

As are many around the world, I am still trying to wrap my head around the senseless tragedy in Connecticut. I am thinking of the fallen, the grieving and the surviving children everywhere who attend school every day. I think it’s important to find comfort in the word of God. To the grieving, take comfort in the fact that God is taking those children in his arms and raising them up as we speak. They will never have to know hurt or pain again. To the children around the world I say be not afraid, for the kingdom of God is still among you. For every bad guy, there are thousands and thousands of loving hearts who would have gladly given their lives for each of you


Silence

(In memory of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims)

Their silent hearts no longer race,

The pitch of death brought on this place.

Where once their dreams did sit akin,

Their hands are now joined by sin.

Lo, these violent hate-punctured souls,

Giving new meaning to evils and woes.

Oh, for the children who witness and weep,

Pray them joyful, happy to sleep.

He will take them by His might,

Illuminate their gloom with light.

He will christen them His own,

Beautiful angels the world be known.

Time to the Lost

“Every corner of creation lives to testify”

Do you ever want to change something so badly? It must be the holiday season or perhaps it is the commercial about hungry children I just saw on television (this is what I get for having Cable after seven years without it). Something is stirring inside me and I don’t know exactly how to put it into words. I’m upset, but what is bothering me most is beyond being upset. It’s a deep and tremendous burning being aroused.

It’s upsetting to me that I cannot reach out to people, that my resources are limited in helping them. There are people struggling to survive around the world. There is upheaval, injustice and unrest. There are swarms of children who will not survive through Christmas, let alone next Christmas. And what am I doing about it? What can I do about it? Somehow, I don’t think offering to donate $28 a month to sponsor a child is going to change the way I feel. It’s not going to change anything about this world in which we live. And that is what frustrates the most. Our world cares more about which football player will score the most points this Sunday than they do about which country will accumulate the most deaths due to disease. I am first to admit I get lost in the entertainment of our world, putting second the people who truly deserve my attention.

I was taught to always be thankful for what I have. I was brought up to be not greedy, but generous. I was raised in a home where we were provided for and never without. My daily worries never consisted of where I would find drinking water or how I would make it in this world as an uneducated, underfed child. My soul aches for those in need. I cannot understand their pain and yet I feel so much for these people. It’s saddening to me.  It brings tears to my eyes, and there are even moments of guilt. Life for me is not without pain, but when compared to the cares of others, my pain passes out of sight. Perhaps what I want to change the most about myself is this very facet. To not only think about the hurting and hungry, but to nurture and feed them. To not just feel for them, but to be with them. To give my time to the lost, that is the most precious gift I can think of providing this Christmas.

“All the hope in every heart will speak what love has done”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb_AqCTp6rQ