"I want to be your Obsession"

Lately my life has been so wonderful - it's summer time and I've tried to soak up every minute. I've hiked along rivers and waterfalls, biked miles of wooded trails and swam in mountain lakes. I've grilled out, woken up early, stayed up too late and stared in awe at the thousands of brilliant stars above me. I moved into a little house on a downtown street, painted my walls a warm, inviting honey, rearranged my pictures and hung my hammock.

At the end of each day, I wonder, "Why me?"

I can't seem to wrap my mind around the juxtaposition of my life. I wake up in a clean, safe bed, open the cupboards to healthy food and walk to a job that allows me to provide for my needs. But today there are 380,000 refugees in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, on average, 1,000 Somali refugees arrive there each day. About 500,000 children in the Horn of Africa region are at great risk of dying from diseases like cholera and measles, thousands more are starving.

Today's news reads the following:

"Somali refugees seeking shelter in Kenya are the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable in the world, - UNHCR Chief Antonio Guterres

The lives of half a million children in the region are at risk, the U.N. Children's Fund said last week.
"The number of children severely acute malnourished, and that means at risk of death, in Kenya is 65,000 right now," UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said on Tuesday.

"The prospects for a rapid recovery before the end of the year are everything but promising. We need to act now to prevent this crisis from turning into a humanitarian catastrophe."

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/un-says-struggling-with-growing-somali-exodus/

I used to feel like church and worship was a time between just me and God. But I think words like, "When we arrive at eternity's shore, where death is just a memory and tears are no more, we'll enter in as the wedding bells ring, your bride will come together and we'll sing, You're Beautiful" are all about community, the body of Christ and God's plan to restore all things to Himself. They are words of intercession for this broken world. They are prayers with skin on them - melodies and harmonies and stories and problems and tears and pain and joy.

On Sunday, I found each song I sang become a prayer for the people in the Horn of Africa. I admit that I am frustrated, thankful and confused at the position in life God has given me. I don't know why I've been given so much opportunity while millions are suffering.

The question I keep coming back to is this: "God, what can I do?"

I want to go! I want to hand out food, bring water, heal people, hold children, comfort and console...but I'm here in Oregon....and that's where God has put me for this season.

I'm learning that God is not a silent God - he speaks. Sometimes with answers I don't want to hear. To my questions and frustrations and helplessness over the crisis in Africa my answer has been this:

Pray. Get on your knees for these people, for this broken world. Be a prayer warrior. Just BE with Me. Spend time with me. I want to be your obsession. I have not placed you here without purpose...but you must spend time with Me to learn it. Be diligent and faithful in the waiting. Actively wait. Pray.

I always underestimate prayer. It's the easy, right answer so often given...but it's hard work to be faithful in prayer. So here I am, in Bend, OR, waiting, failing and re-trying to be faithful. Praise God for grace...