I think I need to stay off the internet

…My heart is breaking. I feel it crack just a little more each night, as I sit pouring over new blogs I’ve discovered. I don’t believe I’ve found any of this by happenstance. I read scripture and verses jump out from the page like never before. Verses that tell me that my faith is not enough, that I must have deeds to accompany my faith. That I am to “look after orphans and widows in their distress…” Hands and Feet. I see it everywhere. I am to be His hands and feet. I need to leave the comfort of my home and get out and do something!

Uganda…Uganda…Uganda. Our church is partnered with a church in El Salvador. Why do I feel such a pull to Uganda? I can’t sleep at night, I toss and turn and think about what I’m supposed to do. How can I help? How can I use my hands and feet to be His hands and feet? As Katie Davis so eloquently put it, I want to see Jesus. I want to see Him as I reach out to the hungry, poor and oppressed. “As you did it for the least of these, you did it for ME.” 150 million orphans world wide. 150,000,000. And I am just one part of the solution. But my deepest desire is that I continually allow myself to be fully used by God, to be an effective part of the solution. Sometimes it scares me. Sometimes it keeps me up at night. But if being scared and awake is part of what we are called to do, then scared and awake it is. I don’t know what all of this is going to look like in the end, none of us really should. ‘Now listen you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.’ (James 4:13-14 niv)

May I live each day to the full glory of my Savior, sacrificing myself for others, as He so selflessly sacrificed Himself for me.

I find it rather sad.

Statistics. Numbers that you can’t ignore. I’ve really been bothered this week by statistics, simple statistics. Allow me to share. Hopefully they will bother you, too and as a result, we will all be changed a little.

The Pioneer Woman is one of my favorite blogs. I love her writing style, her humor, her recipes and her heart. She has give aways. Often. She gives away mixers, pans, knives and cameras on a regular basis. I typically leave my comment as an entry, with hopes to win the prize. But lately the odds have been brutal! This past week she gave away 2 sets of All Clad Stainless Steel cookware. We had 48 hours or so to enter. She received 38,590 comments, or entries. In the past few months she gave away 4 custom designed (for her) Kitchen Aid mixers. She received over 65,000 entries for each one!

Why is this an issue for me? Well it wouldn’t be if it weren’t for this week’s give away. She’s gave away quarters, as in $0.25. Let me explain. The “prize” was a $500 donation to the charity of your choice. All you had to do, as usual, is leave a comment to enter. The bonus was the quarter. For every comment she received, she pledged to donate a quarter to the recent tornado victims in the south. When I first read it I thought wow, with her average of about 45,000 entries that would be an $11,250 donation. Awesome. And the fact that she held this one open for a week, I thought wow, this could be something to watch!

And herein lies my issue. After 5 days, the contest ended with a mere 22,820 entries. At twice the length of her typical give aways, she received about 1/3 the entries than she does for a kitchen mixer!

Now I realize the “sell everything you have and give to the poor” philosophy is a little difficult sometimes, but this wouldn’t cost anyone, except the Pioneer Woman, one single cent! Even if you didn’t have a favorite charity, she had suggestions for you.

So there’s my statistical sadness for the day. I wonder if we all tried just a little bit harder, took one step closer, gave one percent more effort, how much of an effect we could have on the world….