I Hope I Never Forget

"I don't want to remember...but I hope I never forget!"  I read this quote the other day, and it summed up my feelings/struggles as I acclimate to the United States after a life changing trip.

I don't want to remember because if I do...I MUST CHANGE!  Unfortunately, I am perfectly content in my American life...with my excess of stuff...with everything I need and almost everything I want! Change may require me to give up some of those comforts...

But, I hope I never forget!  I hope I never forget the smiling faces of the children....

I hope I never forget the babies that were dying for lack of proper nutrition....

I hope I never forget the way I felt when holding or surrounded by these beautiful children...

Since I returned I have been reading the book Interrupted  by Jenn Hatmaker.  In the book, she makes a clear case for how ALL Christians are called to care for the poor...so I will share some of her convicting quotes...

~24,000 of my sheep will die today because no one fed their bellies; 18,000 of them are my youngest lambs, starving today in a world with plenty of food to go around.  If you truly love Me, you will feed my lambs. My people are crumbling and dying and starving, and you're blessing blessed people and dreaming about your next house.

~The world knows about our Jesus.  They know about His poverty and love of the underdog.  They know He told His followers to care for the poor and to share.  So Americans living in excess beyond imagination while the world cries out for intervention is an unbearable tension and utterly misrepresents God's kingdom.  While the richest people in the world pray to get richer, the rest of the world endures unimaginable suffering...As Ghandi once famoulsy said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ".

~If the kingdom of God belongs to the poor, the bottom dwellers, then rich American Christians are going to have the hardest time finding it.  Perhaps this is why the church is gaining ground in impoverished and oppressed regions but declining in the United States and affluent continents like Europe and Australia.  The needy world isn't interested in God because He might secure their promotion or deliver an offer on their house in a wilting market.  By the millions, they are running to the cross because the love of a redeeming Saviour is too intoxicating to resist.  

~He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me"...."I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:32-40.  It will matter only if you're a sheep or a goat.  The blessed and the lost will be separated based on one principle;  the care of the forsaken.  The End!

So, here is sit...unsure of what is next for me...knowing I must do more, give up more!  I feel lonely here!  I feel great fear here!  I feel myself clinging to what is comfortable!  But, I truly hope I never forget and I let my life be forever changed!