Heart About to Explode
I feel like my soul is about to explode. Every day that I spend focused on my job here at NeighborLink makes me more and more burdened. Whether it’s receiving a call from a person needing assistance and realizing their situation is extremely dire or whether it’s sharing the vision to the very people that are supposed to get it, I feel all kinds of emotion.
Receiving a call from somone that could be your grandparent telling you that their roof is falling in and leaking but are on a fixed income and can’t do anything about it breaks you. They quickly tell you that they have no money and have called a number of other organizations until they were referred to you with the hope that you can save them, and I mean save them.
Then I have to tell them how we work and that I can’t guarantee them assistance and that IF someone chooses to help, they would call them. The sad part is that I know full well on some of these projects, no one will ever call them. At most, someone would say “oh my gosh, that’s sad," and then go do something else.
What’s even sadder is the fact that I may have a meeting with a church that is supposed to be leading others and teaching them about loving the least only to have that church say they don’t serve in this way. Or believe in the vision only to not actually engage.
My soul is exploding inside because I get the feeling that only a very few people in this world are actually advocating for something or someone other than themselves. What’s the stat, that 20% of the people in the church carry the burden of the other 80%?
We have a huge humanitarian crisis going on in this world, country, state, and city and most of all in our Churches. We are being less and less sensitive and interested in those people in our lives and in our neighborhoods. We don’t care enough about those suffering to do anything about it other than talk about how bad things are. We must get our hands dirty. We must figure out what to do. We must make mistakes. We must learn a new skill. We must do something we never imagined that we would do. Become a carpenter, a plumber, a landscaper, a servant, a teacher, a driver, something!
We have to stop waiting for someone else to do something first or for someone else to take care of things.
Matthew 5
The Beatitudes
1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.