Back to real life

I read a wonderful essay from a sister named Rachelle who just recently returned from Haiti and in many ways her post, Wrestling With Life, could easily describe my experience as well. The whole thing is worth your time to read but this paragraph was especially powerful...

I do not want my experience in Haiti to become a series of Polaroids taped into my scrap book. I want to own my part in caring for the widows and orphans James speaks of. My hope is the church will take the words of James to heart. I believe we are the ones who will make a difference by building consistent relationships over time.

That is so important. Works of mercy cannot be isolated, one time actions that we can look back on with nostalgia but rather must be part of the fabric of our lives as individual followers of Christ and as the family of God. If we become "vacationaries" we are losing the sacrificial power of lives of service in the name of our King. It can be all too easy to return from some far away land full of zeal but then as the realities of life creep in begin to forget what we were so convicted about in the first place. Even worse we can let the business of "doing church" distract us from the business of being the church. That is a trite saying because it is overused but it is also true. Playing at church and being the church are not the same thing.

May God continue to place an insatiable burden for the work of mission and mercy in the hearts of His people such that the cares of this world can never begin to satisfy us.