Compassion in Action

Its only day four and Im already starting to panic about doing one good thing every day. !!   Life is busy and no sooner have I got out of bed than its tea time and Im realising that Ive barely thought about God let alone asked Him what good thing He might have in mind for the day.   Im sure most of you are well disciplined folk who fall out of bed onto your knees every morning and have a lovely quiet time with your Bible and a cup of tea.  Sadly that's not me.  It never has been.  After several decades of feeling constantly rubbish about not being able to do a set time with God each day I gave up and decided rather to try to be in regular contact with Him throughout the day.  Sometimes that works better than other times.  Recently Ive felt pretty convicted that I need to be listening to worship music in the mornings as I drive into work.  Mostly because I have Ben in the car with me and it seems significant that he and I are listening together.  Occasionally he sings along with me and that makes me super happy.  Sometimes the worship prompts me to pray something specific for Ben as he heads into school. 

 Thereafter when Im in the car I mostly listen to Radio 4 and its surprising just how much of the content of the programmes lead me to God thinking.  Sometimes to praying but more often to pondering what He is doing in the world and what the enemy is planning in response.  Quite often I hear God speaking to me about the things I listen to.   But equally I can go through whole days when I barely spare Him a passing thought.   Which is why the Advent and Lent blogs are so good for me.  They help to focus my mind every single day.  Pressure.  Aaaarrrrgh

So yesterday I got all the way through till 11.30pm without really having had a minute to stop and ponder God things.  And bizarrely one of the reasons I had no time to catch my breath was because in the evening I was helping lead worship at a prayer and praise event.   It might seem counter-intuitive, but just because you are involved in doing something FOR God doesnt always mean you connect WITH God.    The worship was great and the praying was meaningful and I was all set to tell you that my one good thing for yesterday was offering to pray for the minister of the church which hosted the event.  And I guess that would have counted as a good thing.  I think he appreciated it.  

But as I sat down to write this I suddenly remembered that today I did something else.  Something which took so little effort and was so quick that it almost didnt register until God reminded me about it.  I gave a donation to a charity.  It was their special ' giving day' and Id decided a while ago that I was going to give them something as their usual Christmas Shoebox appeal, which Ive been doing for years, had to stop because of Covid.    

Briefly, the charity is called Helping Hands Healing Hearts and it was set up by one young woman from my local area who went out to the Philippines several years ago and was horrified to see sick and disabled children being abandoned on the streets by their families because they could not afford medical care.   She came home, raised some funds and went back to try to help.  She now runs an amazing orphanage/hospital which rescues children from dire situations, provides them with free medical care and reunites them with families or arranges for them to be adopted.  Kids have cancer, serious physical and mental disabilities, life threatening illnesses, profound medical needs.  No-one is turned away.  All are loved and clothed and fed and treated.  Many are led to the Lord.  Some die.  Most are treated and make good progress.  Every treatment is paid for by donations from supporters.  The stories of hope and courage and joy are inspirational.  It is a truly worthy cause. 

Once upon a time I had a dream that I was going to be someone who rescued the destitute and provided for their needs and led them to the Lord.  As it happens God didn't see fit to fulfil that dream in the way I had imagined He might.  Or at least, He hasn't yet.  There's still time I suppose :)  In the meantime I can sponsor someone else to fulfil my dream.   Do you have a secret desire to do something for God which isn't happening right now?   Maybe you can resource someone else who is doing that thing whilst you wait for God to work out your own dreams and visions?  

Have a wonderful day y'all