Is the question I heard on the other end of the receiver as I was telling my mom about my mission trip to Uganda in September. It burned through my heart like fire..How could she ask me that? Does she not understand why I am going? Has she not seen what goes on there? It saddens my soul to know that so many go on about there daily lives unaffected by a hurting world around us and I too admit I was once one of those people, I was oblivious to the fact that I had so much and took so many things for granted, I too was a spoiled American. We so often forget that even the poorest American is considered “spoiled” in many parts of the world. And then I began to pray, I began to ask God to give me a heart like His, I wanted to see people the way He sees them, I wanted to care about the things He cared about, and He answered that prayer and my life will never be the same..
I can’t eat a meal or feed my children without seeing images and hearing cries of starving children in this world. I can't play with my children without thinking about the lonely orphans wishing they too had a family, I can’t lie in bed at night without images of a homeless people filling my mind wishing they too had a place to lay their head. I can’t buy a stick of gum without thinking to myself is it worth it? Is it worth it to waste this money on gum while a child somewhere hasn’t eaten for days? I am haunted by these images and so many more everyday, every second of my life, because I prayed to have a heart and eyes like my Daddy. There are times I wish I could just have my old eyes and heart back..But the other part of me knows it’s needed..Jesus didn’t want to go to the cross, He cried out in the Garden ..Father is their another way? He knew what was ahead of Him..The pain, the torment, but I think the hardest for Him was to know He was about to see the images and feel the pain in his heart..Images of our sin flashed before His eyes..And He saw what would become of us if He didn’t go through with the cross..And with a heavy heart He went.Through the mocking He heard..Is it worth it?...Is this beating worth it? Is this pain worth it? Through the spit and laughter..maybe just for a moment He did wonder and turned His head toward heaven and asked…Father is this worth it? And then His eyes met the ones who would choose Him ..And from the core of His being He whispered…Yes they are more than worth it…
And now He is asking us the same question..Are the orphans worth it? Are the homeless worth it ? Poverty and places like Uganda exist because God is waiting for His children to listen to His call to GO and be His hands, feet, heart, mouth, arms..His Body to a lost and dying world…I am aware of the things that could happen to me when I travel to Uganda..I learned a long time ago that to Live is to Live for Christ and to die is gain because I get to spend eternity with Christ..Either way I win;) Its in the orphans, the widows, the homeless, and the outcast that Jesus said, you want to find me?.. then come to me here..This is where I will be…waiting for you...I have looked into the eyes of an orphan and it was there that I seen the face Jesus and I can say with everything in me that IT IS WORTH IT!.......
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