Take Heart

Since Friday's attack on Paris, as most of probably have, I have had a roller coaster of emotions.  I think to not, is to not really give full attention to what is really happening.  The biggest question facing us is the obvious one of whether or not to welcome refugees onto our soil.  This one has had me stumped.  When I first saw the pictures of the masses fleeing my heart ached.  You see, from the first time, at age 15, when I went overseas on a mission trip to Tirana, Albania shortly after they had seen war, my heart and mind were opened to the atrocities that happen in the world around us.  Up to that point, all I knew was the comfort of my American life.  Coming home and actually sitting down on a toilet seat seemed too good to be true! Since then, my compassion for the oppressed has only grown.  I remember watching the horror unfold after the tsunami and feeling my heart literally jumping out of my body and racing across open seas longing to pick up those lost people and hold them and bring them to safety.  I think that compassion runs deep in my son.  After the earthquake in Haiti, we were watching as Anderson Cooper was holding a little boy named Monley who had lost his family and was asking anyone who knew anything about him to please come forward.  My son, who at the time was in second grade, leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Mama, I want him."  He prayed for  him. He talked about him  and he worried for him.  We followed up and learned he had family in Florida and upon learning of this, his little heart was so happy that he was able to come to this country to be safe.  God will do mighty things with this, I know.  But, despite this, there is the question of whether or not to bring them here? The great debate....my first reaction to all this has been one of fear, and I have to admit that this has disturbed me.  I think I expected more from myself as a Christian.  I expected to react in a place of deeper faith, but I read an article yesterday that was a response to a Washington Post article that I also read that said it this way, "While fear - whose effects, Aquinas says, are contraction, deliberation, and trembling - can hinder our capacity for rational deliberation, it is often a motivation for seeking wise counsel and pursuing positive action.  According to Aquinas, the opposite of fear is not compassion, but boldness or daring, which inspires us to meet danger head on - with a certain hope that we shall prevail." This says it so well. It points to the fact that our fear is there to point us to seek counsel, to pray, to read God's Word.  And then we can pray for boldness that will motivate us to meet danger head on...how? Well... that is the question. The writer of this article is not for bringing refugees here right now.  I happen to lean that way, but I think we need to think in a broader sense.  When Eve ate that fruit, sin entered the world and made a complicated mess of everything.  And now we are finding ourselves in the most complicated mess this world has arguably ever faced.  I don't think there is a right answer.  I also read this article.  This writer lives among the refugees in Iraq.  He is there to comfort, and is finding so many asking about the Christian faith. This moved me.  It moved me because at another time in my life I might actually be there myself.  I think we all have a job to do.  Some of us are called to go.  I believe God has called me to stay here and instill a heart of compassion and boldness for the lost into the heart of my children.  I think wherever we fall on this debate, wherever God is calling us, we need to be reminded of this...God is a sovereign God and His ways are not our ways.  John 16:33 says, "...In this world you will have tribulation. But, take heart. I have overcome the world." Refugees will come as they come.  We need to ready to face what we will face knowing that all our days have already been written.  He has ordered our steps.  In our Bible study, we just finished studying Acts, and one thing I can't stop thinking is how similar the evil is today as it was then; and throughout the book, again and again, God would thwart the evil for the advancement of the Gospel.  Are we now faced with such a similar time? We keep hearing of missionaries who are working the front lines in refugee camps where so many are coming to saving faith in Christ.  I believe the front lines are coming to us.  I don't think this will get any less complicated of an issue, but with our eyes open and our swords of God's word in our hands, we know that wherever we are, that is where God has us and He will use us for His glory.  Until He comes again, we look heavenward and press on. This is how we meet it.  We press on.