At the Cross...

They sit alone on the streets... They don't look you in eye or ever say a word, but their presence screams at you. Their hopelessness is tangible. They have nothing and I have so much. They are beggars on the street and that's probably all they'll ever be. They are children who are abandoned and unloved. If I could, I would bring them all home with me. I would tell them of a father in Heaven who loves them and has plans for them, who can bring them out of the muck and the mire that is all they've ever known. I could spend days, weeks, years picking up one child after another and there would still be more who are sent to the streets to beg every day.

Some days I feel like if I could just have the money to provide for these kids everything would be okay. Sometimes I think that if I could just focus on the kids that I can help that faces will stop haunting me. If I just do for one what I wish I could do for everyone, then it would all be okay. There are some days that I feel like if I just curl up in my bed and block the world out, it will  be okay. But until God sets up His kingdom on Earth, it's not all going to be okay.

We live in a lost and broken world. God sends us as salt and light into the world, to be what He is. He sends to redeemed to redeem. He sends the healed to heal. He sends the found to find. He uses the restored to restore. 

We look at the world and think that there's nothing that can be done. The world is just too far gone. There is too much brokenness, too much suffering, too much hunger, too much sin. It seems so impossible to make a difference in the world. But the cross looked like an impossible situation. There is hope in Christ. There is restoration for the world coming and it's our job to be salt and light in the tiny corner of the world God has given us. We may not feel like we're making a huge difference. I may continue to have my heart broken by the things I see here, but God is doing eternal things every time we are faithful to what He calls us to.

As I typed this out, these lyrics are stuck in my head:

At the cross I bow my knee

Where Your blood was shed for me,

There's no greater love than this.

You have overcome the grave

Your glory fills the highest place

What can separate me now?

He has overcome the grave! Is there anything left that He can't overcome? Certainly not. I place my trust in Him and follow Him as faithfully as I can!


Until all have heard
lauren michelle gross