God has work to do, and he uses our hands to do it...

"Babies need hugs, children need good night tucks. Orphans need homes. God has work to do and he uses our hands to do it..." My acceptance letter for the Romania holiday team opened with that Max Lucado quote- and it resonated quite well with what has been on my heart lately. Our responsibility...the recent developments in life lately coupled with my crazy "Do something!" wiring have left me thinking about this a lot. Sometimes its easier to pretend there isn't a need... because then we dont have to do anything about it. There are so many children in this world who will never know the love of a father... How, if they never experience a tangible form of love on earth, can they ever even begin to comprehend a heavenly father who loves them?
I've always loved James 1:27...
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. but really- what does this mean? I started in a study of the words orphan and fatherless as they appear throughout the bible... Chapter 14 of Deuteronomy kind of caught me up a bit... and sent my thought process in a million different directions, we always pay attention to what it says about tithing... but how about at the end, when it talks about bringing out a tithe so that the "Levite, sojourner, fatherless, and widows" can come and eat and be filled... and this really gets me :that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do We tithe for new church buildings, we tithe to meet budgets... but what do we think the Lord would do if the Church as a whole took more of a responsibility for the least of these among us... What if, just maybe- care for orphans, homeless, people trapped in human trafficking, the ones too often forgotten- became more of an integral part of more of our church bodies... dont you think the Lord would bless the remaining resources all the more so? Consider yourself fortunate you're getting this thought process via my blog- I got a bit energized talking about his concept with one of my coworkers the other night- there's a bit of a crazy idea forming here too, but I'll spare you the details on that until I finish researching logistics... The point- we need to do something, I remember a conversation I had with a non christian family member years ago (I was 12- this shows you what an opionated spitfire I've always been) He was arguing the existence of God with me- questioning how, if a loving God exists, why are there so many starving kids in the world, so many people on the streets, the list goes on... My answer to him- "because people like you see the problem and dont do anything about it. What if you're supposed to be the answer to someones prayer" Ouch. (yeah... I dont always think about what I say...) Its true though... none of us on our own can accomplish much... but if everyone were to respond when they see a need, everyone were to take ownership and responsibility over the needs around them... those little bits would add up to shake the kingdom in ways we cant even comprehend. God has work to do... let Him use your hands to do it...