"YES"...the word that is changing my life

What a rollercoaster of emotions I’ve been on since I’ve been in Africa. Just five weeks ago, I had never left the United States. Beyond living in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area, my lifetime travel experience spanned visiting West Virginia, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina with some college residence in Pennsylvania and New York. The crazy thing was I hated traveling. I used to tell friends that I wish whenever I had to go somewhere that would take more than 1 hour to travel to, I wanted to be the woman from “I Dream of Genie”. You know…nod my head and instantly, I’d appear in my destination. Yet here I was at 37 years old, passport in hand, headed on a 16-hour flight to Ethiopia to live alone with my infant daughter for anywhere between 1 ½ - 2 months as I waited the completion of her adoption. It’s amazing how a simple prayer “God, break my heart for what breaks yours” has so many complexities that when earnestly prayed, I believe God is in heaven saying, “Are you sure, you’re ready for this?” I’ve heard it said before but now I believe it with all of my heart – God simply wants our “Yes” and a surrendered, teachable, servant’s heart as He sends us out into the world to be His hands and feet. I think back to elementary school and you know the kid in the classroom who is sitting there with hand raised at his teacher, saying “Ewww…pick me. Pick me.”

I believe God desires that in His children. How amazing would it be for Him to look into His classroom of life and see a sea of us with raised hands saying, “Ewww…ewww….ewww…Here I am, Lord. Send me. Send me.” Instead, many of us, including myself, had become the kid in the back of the room, enjoying the benefits of a relationship with Him but slouching in our seats thinking, “I hope He doesn’t call on me for that.” God is looking through the earth for people who He can send to the hard places that no one really wants to go. It’s so much easier, I think, for us to stay in our comfortable lives where our names become recognized in our collegiate circles, among Twitter followers, blogs, Bible studies of discipleship,  and speaking platforms. But once you become a disciple and you have embraced the Good News, the question becomes are we ready to go to the hard places that will make us uncomfortable? The places where we’ll have to hug and love those that the world just wants to sweep under the rug and pretend that ‘those people over there’ do not exist. For me, when I prayed that prayer (break my heart for what breaks yours), He ended up sending me to Ethiopia. For you, it may be right in your own back yard, your community or the one a few streets down that when you pass by, you quickly lock the doors. Wherever your ‘there’ is, God wants to know are you willing to go to love even them? What are you afraid of? He’s waiting for you to surrender and I promise you, you haven’t much time left to wait for the right opportunity. Just Go. I’m not going to lie, the road will be hard but what He produces in you in the end and how He uses you will blow your mind away. Don’t leave that kind of blessing and reward on the table of your life unused. ‘They” are waiting and God is waiting to transform your heart to become more like His in the process.  Start where you are with what you have and tell Him, Yes. Here I am Lord. Send me.

My Brother's Keeper