Yesterday my wife and I were putting things up on our walls. We had taken everything down a couple years ago when we were doing some remodeling and we felt two years was long enough – it was time to put some pictures and things back up that had been stored in our basement. One of the things was a piece of pottery art that had these words on it:
Fericit este acea, ce e
Fericit la el acasa.
This was something we picked up in Moldova way back in 2004 when my family went on a mission trip to spend a week sharing the love of Christ to a group of orphans in the back country in the heart of the poorest country in Europe. Our group, my family and other co-laborers in the gospel spent a week playing, crafting, blowing bubbles, playing soccer, drawing with sidewalk chalk, sharing Bible stories with a big group of children who probably ranged in age from 8 years to 15 years old. We laughed together and we cried together and by weeks end we had learned to love these precious children, and they loved us back.
That week in the summer of 2004 was life changing.
And here I am 17 years later at 3 AM, unable to sleep, thinking about those kids, wondering where they are today and how they are doing. But I am also thinking about myself – what have I done with my own life since then? What have I done with the gospel over the course of the 17 years since this life changing thing that I experienced? Have I made a difference for Jesus? Or have I simply existed, caught up in the movement of humanity going to work, coming home, mowing the grass, eating supper, sleeping and then doing it again and again? Have I lived my life as an ant marching like all the other ants, the week ends, the week begins?
Maybe.
But here I sit. It’s 3 AM and I must be lonely. The rest of my little universe is asleep and I sit here pondering on the meaning of it all, my purpose and what I am going to do about it. Say a prayer for this lonely, sleepy soul. I am doing the same right here, right now as I peer out my window into the blackness.
To be continued…………
Terry
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. – James 1:22
