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The troubles and pain in this world totally and completely overwhelm. The statistics are devastating.
Millions orphaned
Millions dying
Millions hungry
On the flip side the reports of the "successes" feel intangible ... thousands of children fed, tens of thousands of lives saved, millions of orphans reached, tons of good distributed to bazillions of people.
All of that to me is just math. Numbers without names and stories without details feel abstract and untouchable.
The reason I love what we get to do, is that we get to see individuals. We get to know souls. We are privileged to know the name of almost every person we work with in a day. We're able to get to know them well over time.
Why invest in relationship? Why toil at such time consuming tasks?
I cannot be sure, I'm simple in my approach, but I am guessing that God does not think of Haiti or any other place in terms of millions or thousands or hundreds. He knows intimately each and every soul.
The reason to build relationships and to share individual stories is because God is concerned for each one. Every story is known by Him and matters.
The work is small and slow and truthfully not going to change much of anything in the grand scheme of things.
But there is beauty in knowing these souls, in knowing their stories.
The lives and stories He allows us to enter into are His gift to us.
We're grateful.
We're grateful.
ABSTRACTION by Sara Groves
The girl looks out from the window of the airplane
20,000 feet up in the sky
she picks a rooftop in the middle of the town
and wonders what is happening inside
the tv in the kitchen flashes faces
the woman slowly pushes in the chairs
her neighbors son is fighting in the army
she's concentrating to remember where
who can know the pain the joy the regret the satisfaction
who can know the love of one life, one heart, one soul
at two you're at abstraction
The man is waiting for the bus into the city
He's grabs a drink slowly reads the Times
His heart is captured by a story of a child
Around the world/ miles away but always on his mind
a million this a million that
a mass sum of individuals
a million come/here a million go/there
made up of a million souls
7 comments:
I love too that we get to know each person by name and we know their story! What a privilege to get to sit and hear about who these precious people are and what each person has gone through. The sad and the good. How I miss them when we are not there.
Love this, Tara. I am so glad you share individual stories...it gives us so much more investment in what (and who) we are praying for, and challenges us to seek God even more in how we can make a difference. Thank you for including us on your journey by opening your thoughts and experiences here.
:)
Liesl
Thanks Tara, I needed this today. Love you guys.
insight much needed. Thanks.
I love this. His intimacy expressed through one soul to another. Ripples through the world.
God bless you!
Oh how I wish I could be there too. I would so much rather be there learning people's hearts face to face rather than watching it on a screen and hearing the numbers. I am so amazed at your work and dream of a day that I could be there along side you or somewhere where I am needed and could make a difference.
Hope and despair...been thinking alot about these two things. Thank you for daily fighting for the redemption of pain! You are an inspiration!
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