"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8
As I sat on the ferry during our trip back to Tema from Kete Krachi the day before we were departing to head home, I had very mixed emotions. I was certainly more than ready to see my sweet baby girl and was beginning to really anticipate the moment when I could hold her in my arms and kiss her chubby cheeks again. But, I was also nervous about making the transition back to the USA. My heart was touched, and I was changed during my time in Ghana. I was afraid of what it would feel like to go home to a place where everything is in abundance and at my fingertips. I knew what was previously comfortable and the norm would seem trivial. I was nervous that I would be angry about the way I and people around me lived, completely oblivious to what was going on with these children in Ghana. So, I began praying that my heart would not be hardened to what I had seen and experienced the past week and that God would grant me patience and understanding with the people in my life. God has been gracious and answered that prayer over and over in the past few weeks.
Since returning from Ghana, a verse has really been on my mind. It's a verse that has actually been a huge part of Chris and my life for the past year. On July 20, 2009, we found out our sweet baby was going to be a precious girl. We had of course been brainstorming names and settled on Micah Elisabeth. As we chose her name, we also chose a life verse for her, Micah 6:8. I painted this verse on a canvas that hangs above her bed, and this is our greatest prayer for her life. It is what we hope will be the cornerstone of who she is. And as we have reflected on our time in Ghana, Chris and I have talked a lot about this verse. Micah, our daughter, and this verse were the inspiration for the name of the Mercy Project, our nonprofit organization. We believe that God is calling us to be people of justice and mercy in our world.
The Sunday after we got home from Ghana, a few of us shared some of what we experienced with our congregation at church, and because it was so soon after we got home that I wrote these words, I feel like they are an accurate representation of what I was feeling and still feel about our time there. So, I have included most of it here. I think it comes a little closer to doing justice to what happened in Ghana.
Micah 6:8 has been a verse that has been planted on our hearts and minds for about the last year. As we have prayed every night that our Micah will become a child and woman of justice and mercy, we also hope the same thing for ourselves. I believe that God continues to be gracious in giving me glimpses of what justice and mercy can and does look like in the world, and last week was no exception to that.
God gave me another glimpse of what justice and mercy looks like through meeting Abraham on the lake. It looks like the smallest grin on the face of a child in slavery when someone lovingly speaks his name and holds his hand. It looks like 12 people who sacrifice a week to go and love on children across the world and spend part of that time on a lake with children that desperately need some love. God’s justice and mercy was present in a moment on a boat in the middle of Ghana, West Africa, and His kingdom came on earth. I believe that when we are people of justice and mercy that God’s kingdom continues to break out everywhere that we go. I believe that God delights in every single person on His earth, and for these children that are treated with such injustice and so mercilessly, they need to know that God delights in them. I am so thankful for the chance I had to be part of a significant moment when God’s justice and mercy reigned.
As I sat on the plane during the last leg of our trip home, I was listening to my ipod, and the song “In You” by Mercy Me began playing. Music has always spoken to me in powerful ways, and the words in the song seemed a perfect way to end our week. I want to share those words with you as we think about being people of justice and mercy as we help the kingdom of God to break out in our world. “It’s the creator, calling the created. The maker beckoning the made. The bride finding what she’s always waited for. When we find ourselves that day…in you, where the hungry feast at the table. The blind frozen by colors in view. The lame will dance, they’ll dance for they are able. When the weary find rest. Oh, the weary find rest in you.” I witnessed that rest in the 44 kids at the Village of Life, the ones that have been rescued, the ones that have received justice and mercy on this earth. I witnessed them feasting at His table when they sang songs like God is So Good and Jesus is the Sweetest Name I Know. I witnessed them dancing at His feet when we said the Lord’s Prayer with them each night. I also got to witness a small piece of His rest coming for Abraham when a group of 12 people said “send me” to God, and He sent us to His place to His children for His justice and mercy to reign and His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. This last week, I was blessed over and over by people living out justice and mercy in real ways, and my prayer is that I can be a person of justice and mercy in every part of my life.
{Chris and I with 2 of the kids that he was able to help rescue last summer}
No comments:
Post a Comment