{in}different

Another preschool day! Another couple hours of quiet while the littlest takes her morning nap. I read my Bible, journal a little and read a couple of blogs I have been wanting to get to. These coveted quiet moments when my mind can finally stop racing and focus on something other than picking up the house or trying to decide if the never-ceasing flow of whining from the 2 years old's mouth is something I need to deal with... or ignore... or punish...? These quiet moments I talk to God, let His wisdom, and the wisdom of other women on this journey towards His kingdom, really sink in deep in my soul. These are bittersweet moments. So precious, so sweet because I'm nearer to Him. Bitter because the nearer I am to Him, the more heartbroken I become for the evil in the world, and for the indifference in myself.

To know Him and to love Him is to love others. Not just others {in my family} {in my church} {in my circle of friends} {in my neighborhood} {in my school/work/gym}, but others who aren't a part of any of those things because they can't be, because they are poor or oppressed. To learn from Jesus, is to learn to care about the poor and the oppressed because that is who He cared about, that is who He spent His time with, ministering to. Not out of pity, but out of love.

Our family has made some very {embarrassingly} gradual shifts in this direction. I think it was some time around New Year's when I made a "resolution" {I don't really do New Year's Resolutions} to be more conscious about wasting food considering there are so many without food and I am notorious for refusing to eat leftovers and eventually throwing them away. And just this past week we cancelled several services we routinely paid for on a monthly basis because though we have known forever that we could live with out them, we finally got serious about eliminating excess for the sake of those who don't even have what they need to live.  We still have a long way to go... {I have a major weakness for cute children's clothing...} but we are trying to take steps towards "uncomfortable" for the sake of others.

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 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; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'... 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'" 

~Jesus {Matthew 25:34-36, 40 NASB}

This is the Jesus I want the world to know. This is the Jesus my non-Christian friends are waiting to see. We talk a big talk as Christians but until we start living it out... until I start living it out... no wonder our friends aren't compelled to be a part of this faith claimed by so many of us that live indifferent to the suffering around us. Lets change that! Lets live different!