Angry

I am angry. Livid really. I could barely sit through the beginning part of church. I love my church family, really I do. But I guess just like a real family sometimes they can make ya mad. You still love them but you are mad at them too. I guess I have to remember they are human and we all far short. I just feel like they have not only fallen short but fell off the mountain!

This morning they were talking about the next generation. I knew I was going to get mad. We want to raise up the next generation for Jesus but we fail to remember a certain generation, the forgotten generation, the orphan. They started by asking us to support inner city youth to go to summer camp. They said James 1:27 called us to action, to help these youth go to camp. I was so angry I walked out. Yuck!

Now I know this may tick a lot off but this is my blog and I write what I am passionate about. I can understand and even commend those people trying to raise money for inner city youth. That is what they are passionate about. They seem to walk their talk. They seem to have relationships with these kids not just once a year. I love what they are doing.

What I have a problem with is the pastor asking us to support these kids and using James 1:27 yet they refuse to acknowledge the orphan. These inner city kids probably have it rough. The probably have one parent who works a lot to keep a roof over their head. They probably have a computer, clothes of their own, shoes, games, electronics, cool schools and food. Do you know what an orphan has in an orphanage...nothing of their own, their shoes have numbers on them and they share clothes with everyone else. They don't have food to sustain them, they may get just enough to help them die a slow and painful death. They don't even have diapers. They lay in their filth. Yet lets send 40,000 to help a bunch of kids get to know Fun Jesus.

You know the guy, Fun Jesus. He is the one who gives everything we ask. He is the one that sends people to us to teach us songs and verses and how to give back to the church. He is the one that those kids can experience one week a year. What a deal! Here's a better one, why don't we offer the single parents a place for their kids to go after school free of charge? Why don't we be the surrogate moms and dads that these kids need? Why don't we get on our knees and pray for them and with them? No... that's too much, lets just throw money at the "problem" and let someone else deal with it. That's how we are.

We don't want to hear about dying children, kids with cancer, suicide, those Africans that are going through all they are. No because that might make us feel and we do not want to feel! When the news gets bad we turn it off (I do this all the time), when someone asks for prayer on facebook we think its for attention or oh there he/she goes again! (guilty) When there is a "bum" on the street we don't give him money because he is only going to use it for booze and maybe he isn't even a real "bum." When someone asks us for money to help bring home their child or to help pay a hospital bill or other bill we say we can't afford it and then go off to eat out at our favorite restaurant.

We are suppose to be His hands and feet yet I think that He must be missing a few limbs! We sit in our multi-million dollar church buildings and just wish we could do it all but we can't. If we did then we would be stretched too thin, we wouldn't be comfortable, we would have to get our hands dirty, we would be exhausted, we would have to feel. We have done enough! Geeze we can't save the world, we can't do it all!

Except...we have a Savior who gave it all for us. He didn't stop when it got messy. He didn't say "ok well I healed a few people now leave me alone!" He gave it all so we could live. What are we doing with His gift?

I thought I wanted a nice church with all the cool things. Now I realize that I just want Jesus. If that means in the hot Texas sun in the middle of a field in the heart of summer  laying hands on the least of these then I say yes. If that means in a foreign country feeding and changing babies, soothing the dying children, bandaging the wounded then I say Yes Lord. If that means going to a widows house every night eating cookies and listening to her stories then send me God, I say yes. I choose You!

Love is a verb.

Be blessed