A Letter To God (The Line Between Overwhelmed and Apathetic)

I mentioned last week that September is Compassion International's Blog Month, and I'm participating.  I love the idea of using blogging as a way to be a voice for those who wouldn't have a voice otherwise...of advocating for children who need sponsors and encouraging friends to consider sponsorship.

Here's a link to my Compassion post from last week: Share in God's Heart in a New Way Today.

This week we were asked to write a letter to God regarding child sponsorship....

So here's mine.  I just wrote out my heart to Him... pretty raw today.

A Letter To God

(The Line Between

Overwhelmed and Apathetic)

Father,

I confess to You today that my heart tends to swing to 1 of 2 extremes when it comes to thinking about world issues like hunger and poverty and fatherlessness.  I either become quickly overwhelmed by the HUGEness of the problem and feel helpless... OR... I do my best to avoid being emotionally affected by the issue at all.  It's so much easier, less painful for my heart, to send in our money each month and write an occasional letter to our sponsored child, but in the in-between times, to not allow my heart to be in touch with the sheer amount of NEED... the number of precious kiddos who don't yet have sponsors... and the ones who don't yet know Your heart toward them.

And there is SO. MUCH. NEED.

But God... I know that when my heart has swung to the first extreme, my eyes are on the problems and not on Your ability to bring change.... 

And when I've swung in the other direction, I'm trading in the ability to experience and connect with Your heart for my own personal comfort...maybe even numbness.

Lord, there's this line that I feel You inviting me to walk... right down the middle between those 2 extremes... the line of greater intimacy with You, of willingness to share in Your heart for children who are in such great need, of being willing to advocate for them, to be a voice for those who have none, to seek new ways that I can practically demonstrate the Gospel to these precious ones.  To try to intentionally BE a manifestation of Your heart and Your love to the "least of these..."

The least of these... who are actually not "the least" at all in Your eyes.

And so today I'm asking You for grace.  Grace to walk that line of intimacy, hand-in-hand with You.  

And for willingness for my heart to be broken by the things that break Yours.

And for faith, that as I choose to open my eyes at a greater level to these places where the need feels insurmountable, that I will simultaneously look at YOU, trust Your heart, believe that You are who You say that You are, and that Your heart really is to loose the chains of injustice.

For tenacity to partner with Your heart, to stand firm in this gap...until we see Your Kingdom come in the lives of these precious children.  

And I ask You God to bring it.  BRING YOUR KINGDOM.  Bring extravagant healing and restoration and supernatural provision.  Nothing is too difficult for You.  And most of all... reveal Your Son to their hearts.  Reveal Your love... Your desire to fight on their behalf... and capture and captivate their hearts.

Your Kingdom come, Father, on Earth... ALL OVER the Earth... as it is in Heaven.

FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR GLORY, GOD.  FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR NAME.

Related: Share in God's Heart in a New Way Today

Compassion's Sponsorship Page Again