“But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 (NASB)
How many times have you looked at a calamity that took place in this world and said or thought to yourself, “how can I help?” When the tsunami hit Sumatra a decade years ago, many asked “what can I do to help out?” When our congregation has food bank Sunday typically our initial response is “how can I best help?” Most often, our initial response is directed to our ‘own’ actions, our ‘own’ resources and our ‘own’ directions.
Sadly, that is satan trying to get into our actions and urging us to take God out of the picture and just take care of matters on our own. Once you do it a few times, well, it just gets a lot easier to use our ‘own’ means to help do things that we enjoy and we may hope that others will see that we are doing good things. We don’t really need our Triune God to help us do wonderful things; we are quite capable on our ‘own’. That is the devil talking.
I don’t know the name of the girl in the photo; took her picture at Bon Berger in Caredeux on a Sunday morning in 2001. The only connection that I have with this child is that she was in a Trinity HOPE feeding program there. Today, the gang chaos has caused the school to be closed for a period of time. The connection that I have with this child is not about me, it is about what God is doing for her through that program.
The human side in us would probably want to send her new ribbons for her hair, new shoes, money for clothes, a backpack for school, an MP3 player and a cell phone as she must be 18 years old by now. Then, her life would in my mind be about ‘my’ helping her and not about the wonderful things that our Triune God is doing in her life. It is not about us, it is about Him. I don’t make any friends when I tell this to people who want to send North American stuff to children in Haiti, but before you do, please honestly search your heart and discern what is driving your motives.
Is this something Jesus would give to this child or is this something that a North American culture wants to give to a child in the Haitian culture? I have seen two young Haitian school girls playing a game of jacks using six bottle caps and bouncing a small rock and having the time of their lives. Haiti needs Jesus, its children need food. Our brothers and sisters in Haiti and we here in North American need a Savior. We need to thank our Triune God for the daily blessings he pours out into our lives and remember from where it all comes from. It is not about us, it about Him and what His Son gave for us on Calvary.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay