Last night I read a blog post about a family whom I feel inadequate to even describe. This family of 5 has been through, or, I should say, are going through a season of loss, grief, unknown, and trial that words are unable to accurately portray. In effort to not distract from their story or to trivialize it with my retelling, I ask you to please take a few minutes to read this blog post in their own words….sorry, I don’t know how to insert a hyperlink into this thing, just copy and paste, please.
http://charliessong.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/from-the-eye-of-the-rain-storm/
Do you need a second to compose your thoughts? I know I did. I read that blog last night and was just tore up. I can’t even begin to fathom how it would feel to lose everything on that level. I mean, every. single. thing. you own. It’s too much, really. And than to lose children. Your own health. I felt like I was reading a passage from Job.
I lay in bed last night, trying to fall asleep, but I was unable to stop thinking about this family. One of the hardest things for me to come to terms with as we follow God’s calling on our lives to leave the military and step into the unknown, has been the very real and tangible reality of selling almost everything we own. I mean, I have cried tears many times as I think about starting over with only a few of the things we have spent the last 10+ years acquiring. One of the most amazing things about this whole process of going to Kauai has been seeing the way that God has totally changed my heart, our hearts, in regards to materialistic attachment to things. Than I read that blog post and I was reminded how little I am really giving up. How much more some people are having to go through as God gives them the scripts to their lives. I have this “woe is me” mentality sometimes and I feel like nobody really gets how much we are giving up. In my sin, I want recognition from others for the “sacrifices” we are making as we seek to walk by faith. Instead of believing God when He says that, “our reward is in Heaven,” or “our light and momentary struggles are not worthy of comparing with what is to come,” I instead spend time wondering why other people just don’t “get” what we are doing. It’s so lame. God I need you.
I say all that, because then I read that blog post and I was just completely humbled. I am so so blessed. Blessed doesn’t even seem like a big enough word to express how much and in how many ways God has provided for me and my family. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with a desire to DO something. The Zeller Family and their story moved me to tears, but I didn’t want to just read about it, say a prayer for the, cry a bit and then move on. Suddenly I knew just what to do, and this is why I am writing this post and why I have titled it as I have.
We use facebook for so many things. Just a quick scroll down my news feed and I can see pictures of my friends kids, my family’s new baby chickens, my girlfriends dinner plans, ect., ect., ect……Not that those things are bad. Don’t think that’s what I’m saying. Here’s the thing, though, I have 659 friends on facebook. My photography page has another 527 followers. Do all those people care about the fact that my daughter is looking very cute walking around with her new backpack? Probably not. We have all lamented from time to time about how facebook is nothing more than a “look at me” fest. And i’m just as guilty as the next. What if those 1,000+ people actually read this post and did something.
What if today, though, instead of just reading a blog on facebook about the very real struggles our brother and sister in Christ are going through, what if we actually did something. What if we gave. Yep, I’m asking you to give money to someone. I don’t even know these people. I have no idea what they’re going through right now. I can’t bring them a meal or offer to watch their kids or even hold their hands and pray for peace. What I do know, and what I can do, though, is help in the one way they have asked and reached out for. I am asking you, please, be the body. When you see or hear of a brother or sister in need, don’t just pray and wish them well. DO something. Anything. Give $5.00 if that’s all you can. You can’t help everyone. I know that. Here’s an opportunity to help someone, though. I would love to see this family’s need ($100,000.00) met with excess and abundance. I know there are people struggling everywhere. I know there are people whose struggles make even these ones seem pithy. I just can’t help but think that God placed this family and their story on my heart to share with you.
If you are unable to give, that’s ok. It’s more than ok, actually. Only you know your situation and I would be ignorant to think that I know what you should do. I’m just asking you to, please, think and pray and consider if you can help these brothers and sisters in the Lord.
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”
1 John 3:17
Here is the link to the website where the Zeller Family is being loved on by the generosity of others: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/rain-blessings-on-the-zellers/140813
