Seeing things differently now...

I have seen her before walking in this neighborhood. I have seen her sitting outside of Starbucks nursing a tall cup of coffee. Still, I have no idea who she is.

Up until now, I barely paused long enough to get my own grande extra hot chai latte much less seek to encounter a stranger enjoying hers. Life has a way of keeping you busy. Leaving you distracted.

But since my Haiti trip, I have been seeing things differently and pausing more along the way.

This morning I see her again but this time it is different. What I saw was neither what I expected nor something I could walk away from.

On this morning, she is rustling through the trash can outside of a store, until she found a treasure in a crumpled Chick-fil-A bag. The remnants of someone’s feast are now becoming her breakfast.

Here, in one of the sleepy suburbs surrounding the nation’s capital a meal is gathered from a garbage can. I know this isn’t the first meal she has collected this way and that mere fact breaks my heart.

Where have I been? Why haven’t I had the eyes to see?

I am grateful, for what my mission trip to Haiti has done for me. It has given me a new perspective. I see life a bit differently – scratch that – a lot differently. Life was much more “comfortable” for me before March…now, I long to be uncomfortable.

When I consider things like two billion people in this world live on less than $2 dollars a day. Less than half of what a grande chai latte costs me. I am challenged. When I think of the sheer numbers of people who are being trafficked – not just overseas but here in our own backyard – I am confronted. When I read the scriptures, I am disturbed. I should be disturbed. We all should be. For in the Word we will find verse after verse that calls us out of our comfort and into a life of compassion and service. Not an infrequent trip to the homeless shelter or once in a lifetime mission trip overseas but rather a daily, minute by minute living out the suffering of those around us.

Challenged, confronted and disturbed all in the name of change. I have been asking God what He expects of me now that I have seen. He has been speaking.

He is causing a revolution in my heart, my friends, a radical change of perspective and new direction. To God be the glory.

© A Sacred Longing 2009-2010

Exciting news...Peace for the Journey Book Release!

I love the often quoted saying of Mother Teresa, "We are pencils in the hand of God." 

We all have gifts given and ordained by God for the purpose of furthering His story in our lives.

A few have been given the gift of wordsmith.  An exceptional art of gathering thought and purpose in a written form.  Those who do it well, create for us a treasure beyond compare.  Today, I rejoice with one such wordsmith who has ventured into the marketplace of ideas as a published author. 

Elaine at Peace for the Journey has published her first book.  If you have not visited her blog, I challenge you to do so now.  Meet her - read her words and I am sure that you will see His imprint all over it.  Then, go do what I am going to do right now....buy her book! 







 © A Sacred Longing 2009-2010