TUG 06

Well, it has definitely been five months since we returned from our trip to Africa, and I am just now putting up pictures for all to see. It was an amazing trip, to say the least. Trips like this are so... I think overwhelming might be the word I'm looking for. To go from living in a place like we live, to experiencing something SO different, it is down-right shocking. When you're there you feel so inspired, so motivated to change, and upon return and being thrown back into the rat race I feel so much of that inspiration is lost. Oh, by the grace of God all things work out for good; but really, the way we live here has been so rightly coined as a "consumer society," and tragically, I'm certain we are being consumed more than we are consuming, and I don't think we even realize it. What are we doing with our lives? God says "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 82:3-4 and "If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10

"I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditated, my spirit faints." Selah Psalm 77:1-3

Unfortunately I can't say that I can pray that psalm and it be a proper representation of where my heart is. On some small scale I feel that way, but I know I am calloused, shallow, and selfish. Lord, again... where is my heart? Where is the heart of the church? You have revealed Yourself, disclosed where Your heart is, it's just a road not many are willing to follow... Father give us strength...

Well, that was heavy, and I want to say enjoy the slideshow ya'll... but realize it's not simply a jolly remembrance of another vacation, there's so much more...