For With the Measure You Use . . .

When we hear and see these things we must not feel guilty for not living poor, but we must change how we live rich.

I read Ann again today and weep. More than yesterday.

I think of Cristian, and Virginia and Nancy Elizabeth, and remind myself that they tilter on the edge of a doomed world.

We all tilter.

I pray for Ann and the others on life-changing trips. I pray for lives changing at computer screens everywhere today.

Why, God? Why?

I can scream at Him, I can get angry. Why not?

He knows every corner of my being and what good is hiding from the Father?

Our troubles sometimes cause us to question the character of God.  Yes, sometimes He leads us into the barren wilderness and leaves us hungry and scared.  Hard faith lies in our circumstances. Remembering His goodness in our past. The promise of His goodness in our future. And this - believing in His goodness in our present.

He tells me to pray.  There is no better way to help than prayer.

I look at Ann's picture of a father with his arm around his son, praying to his Father.

He still prays to his Father. In this despair is a man with hope. A man who believes in the Jesus who has rescued him and his family.

Rescued. Not from hurricane destruction or hunger or poverty that aches at his heart. But rescued his soul from a death and eternal life of breathing through death over and over. Of seperation. Of a despair that words and pictures can't speak of.

That is it. The answer.  As Compassion - in the name of Jesus - seeks to cast so the Mighty One, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End, can wrap and rescue and save.

I must not pity. What I must do is work. Reap for the harvest. And pray.

And ask myself this question -
This question Ann says I must look in the mirror and really ask -

Maybe we don't need to know the names of the men, women, children, fastened to the edge of the world. Maybe we only have to look in our own mirrors and ask of the faces there, ask of the way we invest our money, ask of how we live and spend and steer our lives:

"Is this about Jesus' name?"

Or the comfort and ease and furtherance of mine?

Now comes my pity. Pity for the reflection in the mirror. Pity for that person who only sees herself too often. Is His face there? Now, at this moment of once again understanding.  Stay here.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6:38

For with the measure you use . . .