Pride and Prejudice

David and I had an interesting conversation. It started with President Bush. We both agreed that because he's our preseident, we need to support him. Granted, I didn't support Bill Clinton, but excuse me if I think a husband should be faithful to his wife- but that's another story in and of itself. See, I may not agree with all the decisions that Bush has made, but he hasn't completely shattered by belief that he has the ability to lead this country.

So then our conversation moved to how America has this underlying pride. America thinks that "the West knows best" and because of this, I think that there are parts of this world that truly resent us. Understandable, I suppose. I then made the comment that the consumerism in America is a huge hindrance to God's work. All the stuff we have makes it hard for us to truly have faith that GOd can move mountains and calm the raging seas. After the tsunami of 2004, one of the students at my college told stories of God's power at work. He was from Sri Lanka and his father is a pastor there. He told us how a pastor stood on the steps of his church and as the waters came towards him he said "in the name fo Jesus Christ, do not come near this church" and amazingly, the water split and went around the building, leaving it undamaged by water. Does that not blow your mind? The next question I would ask is when was the last time you saw this happen?

The sad thing is that consumerism has covered our hearts with a blanket of comfort. I'll be the first to admit that I have a hard time working outside of my upper-class frame of mind. I grew-up in wealth and have never known what it's like to be in need. I have to believe that there is a reason God placed me in the environment that I was in. But yes, sometimes I have toruble seeing past what I have always known. But I can tell you that I can see enough to know that there are about 40 kids in my life that need to be loved. I believe with all my heart that God has given me the awesome responsibility of being Jesus to these kids, who have come to know poverty, drugs, and abuse as the normal way of life. This is not ok to me. These kids have opened my eyes to so much and showed me that yes, I can work outside of my box. I have to be and honestly, I want to.

Switchfoot has an amazing song from about 4 years back called 24. Here are some lyrics from it:
I wanna see miracles
To see the world change
Wrestled the angel for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing 'Spirit, take me up in arms with You'
And you're raising the dead in me

I DO want to see miracles. I want more than just a feeling or a cause. I want the dead in me to be raised to a new life with Christ because lets face it, we all have "deadness" in us that only God can bring life to. And He wants to and that's the most amazing part of it all. God is just waiting for us to hand him the reigns of this consumer-driven society and he's just waiting to bust out some miraculous, mind-boggling things. Are we ready for it????? "I want to see miracles, see the world change...."

In His Mercy.