A Prison of Restriction

"Come ye near unto me, hear ye this, I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD and his Spirit, hath sent me.Thus saith the LORD thy Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." Isaiah 48: 16-17

I was thinking today how sometimes our own minds become a prison to our thoughts.  Our minds can enable us from seeing the reality of many different  situations based on our own personal scotomas. Scotomas are blind spots that cover a portion of something that is actually there.  I was reading one of my favorite books today and realized that I have been thinking so restrictively in regards to God's people.  The book is called Kisses from Katie  by Katie Davis and Beth Clark.  The book is about a phenomenal young woman who allowed herself to become found in the purpose that God planned for her life. It is a phenomenal read but more so than that, as I am reading this book it is challenging me to push past my own blind spots to a place of uncomfortability.  In the book Katie explains the needs of people all over the world:

"People are People.  They all need food and water and medicine, but mostly they need love and truth and Jesus.  I can do that.  We can do that.  We can give people food, water, medicine, love, truth, and Jesus.  The same God that created all of us for a purpose, which is to serve Him and to love and care for His people.  It is universal.  We can't do it in our own strength or out of our own resources, but as we follow God to wherever He is leading us, He makes the impossible happen." (Davis, 2011)

I couldn't have explained this journey any better than that excerpt from Katie's book.  The people of Ethiopia are not very much different than us westerners in the United States.  We all have the same basic needs and wants.  And when I began to think about that, I realized that Ethiopia, although separated by an Ocean, is not vastly different from the surroundings that I am familiar with everyday.  I even began to think about the great amount of orphaned children and street children found in Ethiopia.  There, it is very common to see children on the street begging for help. You may even run into a "street child" who has left home or was abandoned and now lives on the streets of Ethiopia.  And I began to think about my experience serving God's children over the years. 

Here, in the United States of America, God has allowed me to minister to children of all ages from every different background.  No, I did not find all of these children wandering the streets but they still had the same need as the children thousands of miles away.....the need to know that Jesus Loves them, Died for them, and wishes to save them.  Once I began to think about this I began to put two and two together.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever more and He is not bound by a physical location.  He is Everywhere, in Everything and by Him all things exist.  So because of this, I know without a doubt that His eye is even watching the country of Ethiopia. 

This is not about me.  It's not about my wonderful caring husband.  It's not about the pain that I felt when I lost our children.  It's not about my goal of opening a school in a third world country.  It is not even about my desires or expectations.  This journey is truly all about the love that God has for His people.  A love that will cause a petite young lady to bow her own dreams, goals, desires, wants and will to realize that there is a bigger purpose for her life.