When I am tired of the way things are...

 
I wrote this a few weeks ago when Bill was still here. We were asked by so many for school fees for their kids - the price of schooling here is comparable with the school fees that are paid in Australia, yet the earning power of even the lowest income family in Australia is so vastly different that comparisons are nonsensical. It’s hard sometimes to be seen as a dollar sign but then I have not lived life where being hungry is a motivation for asking for money. So I am continually learning about living by God’s grace and not in my own human understanding.
 
After someone else asked if we could help pay school fees for their child...
Sometimes I want to bludgeon the world with the truth - you know how it says in the bible that we are to speak the truth in love? - sometimes I want to yell it, scream it because it isn't nice and it isn't beautiful - it's ugly.
 
The truth?

Is that the dreams we are given at school - that we can be anything we want - are dreams of the first world. They are dreams that rich people dream. They are dreams that I can afford. Because I have a computer. Because I have owned a car. Because I went to school. Because even on low wage working part time I could afford to rent my own house. Because I live in a house made of bricks that can't be easily broken.
When we dream these dreams they are achievable, all that is required is a bit of hard work, not even all that hard, just a little bit of work.
 
I want to scream and shout and say that it's not fair. Why is okay that I will never have to wonder how I'm going to feed my kids or that I wont have to think about which one of them to send to school? Why do we have so much for so little struggle? Why can't we be satisfied with comfortable and give the rest away? Why do we complain about our lack?
 
But the truth in love?

That's hard. That requires something beyond me. Because I have been here so little time and already spoken to so many who just want their kids to go to school. Or money for a fan to move the stifling air in their tiny 4x8metre house. Or money for their next meal. And I just get angry that it is this way.

Truth in love.

Requires faith. That if I don't yell and scream that God will still open eyes. That God can do immeasurably more than I can hope for or imagine. That somehow, someone, somewhere will be moved to do something to help. That governments will change. That aid money will reach it's intended target. (Did you know that for every dollar in aid that developing countries receive, over $25 is spent on debt repayment?)

But here I can understand why faith is so a part of life. And why when something good happens - like you wake up and you are alive and able to work - it is God who is praised. Because it is all a miracle. If you get shoes, God has had a hand in it. If you are able to feed your children, He is good. If you succeed in school it is God's favour. Because all around you are examples of people still waiting for their miracle. It challenges me daily to be thankful for everything - because everything comes from God and in him we live and move and have our being.
 
So today (and daily), I choose to let go of my weapon of truth and choose instead to hang on to faith, hope and the greatest of all, love.
 
I guess I needed to get that off my chest. Most of the time I am not too overwhelmed – if it was all too much I don’t think I could be here. But I also meet those whose stories make it all worthwhile – I meet the ones we are able to help. And that makes it all okay.
These are some of those we are helping. If you also want to help out feel free to check out www.ahi.org.au
 
  
    
  

Bless ya heaps
bron