S.A.V.E, justice, and worship.

I suppose I should start with Friday night and how awesome God was at the SAVE worship night. So I will share this story with you. Tighten your belt, because this post is about to get intense.

The surprising thing is that it wasn't mainly the worship that moved me this time.

To be truthful, the testimonies that a few girls shared in front of everyone were very intense and heart-moving, and it was brave of them to share what they did. I know how difficult it is to open up to others about things you don't prefer to share. However, This specifically wasn't what shook me that night.

We watched the documentary S.A.V.E (Sustaining A Villiage Everyday, which was started by a group of students to support a town in Haiti) had put together from their Haiti trip this past summer.
The reality is that ten teenagers raised $27,000 for this tiny town in Haiti because God called them to and gave them what they needed. He just needed people that said YES to what he was calling them to do. And so these ten teenagers put their hand to work and said Yes to God and to greater purposes. And so there, in this tiny town in Haiti, was built a fresh water well for the first time ever. A fresh water well for people with no hope and literally nothing but the torn clothes on their back, the one small meal in their bellies and the leaky shelter ontop of their head that they're still grateful for.

To be completely truthful, what struck me the entire night and shook the very core of my being was the statistics shown in the documentary.
On the left a tiny red percentage of the profit in Haiti and their income, and here on the right side is America, the U.S.A, the land of the free and the home of the brave, which was about twenty times the size of the bar next to it.
I can't remember the numbers but they were drastic.
And I remember feeling this disgusting feeling inside and wanting to stand at the top of the empire state building and scream "WHAT ARE WE DOING, AMERICA!? WHAT IS FREEDOM!?"
We're wasting our money on crap like Jersey Shore, basically people who sit around and do nothing but party and "live it up" with everything they could ever want and buy stuff they don't need when there are people dying in a country that is closer to the east coast than California. To be blatantly honest.
I couldn't help but to cry. So close to one of the the richest countries in the world is the only 4th world country that is full of sick and dying people who have literally nothing. Food is so readily available to us and is an easy fix here in the states, but to them?

Here are some more statistics if you're interested.

http://haitipartners.org/who-we-are/haiti-statistics/

I remember after the video went off it seemed like everyone else was sucked back out of it. Happy music played at the end, and when it was over everyone clapped (not for the statistics, but for what the group had done). Then we jumped back into worship.

But I couldn't concentrate on the moment,
 because I felt like someone had damaged me on the inside.

I made some new friends that night, bonded with the friends I went with, prayed for some friends, and we had a lot of God-talk. But when I went home, I found myself sitting on my bed and quickly realizing that I couldn't do anything or think anything without feeling the weight of what was happening in a place closer to my home than California sink my heart.

I couldn't smile and pretend everything was okay after watching that, because it's not.
Nothing is okay when they're hurting.
It's not that I feel guilty for having money or living in America, but I felt disgusting for being selfish and for not even bothering to research what things are like over there. I felt awful for ignoring the facts and pretending that everything is okay in my own small world. But beyond the gates of Murfreesboro is a bigger world. Beyond the U.S and the east coast are lands that we could never dream. Some are richer and others are so poverty stricken that we couldn't bear it.

I paced around for the next couple of days wondering what to do with myself. I prayed about it and still felt this heaviness. I've never left the country and I feel this heaviness for these people I don't even know that are hungry and poor. I even got mad at myself and was confused and asked God, "Why am I here in my own comfort when they're sick and dying over there? Why didn't you call me to be a missionary and to live in other countries to help these people, God?"

The fact of the matter is that not everyone is called to live on the mission field. However, we're called to spread the gospel to every nation, and we're called to 24/7 Worship and 24/7 Works of Justice. This may include going on a trip out of the country to serve somewhere far away. Or perhapse it's rebuilding homes in your own city. Whatever the cost, whatever the calling, we're all called to serve God and to serve people. I've determined to give to the poor for the rest of my life and to sow into nations in need.

And to share something that I don't typically share publicly, I felt him whisper some things in my heart. He told me that it's okay. That I have only barley skimmed what he has called me to and that there is so much more about to open up in front of me.
He reminded me how not everyone in the world can be a full-time missionary among nations just like not everyone can be a prophetic musician.
For there are injustices in the earth.
There are hungry bellies, empty pockets, roofless homes, naked children, and dirty water.
But another ultimate injustice in the world is that our God isn't being universally worshipped.
And right now, we're living in a time of a worship revolution.
He also told me that when they (the people of the earth; the blind and the deaf) hear the sound of heaven- the very heartbeat of God, through the sound of worship- the songs of the prophetic musicians, they'll hear  he cries of the hungry and the poor. And they will spring fourth to fight for them.



1 Peter 4:10

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.



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