Some things just don't jive

I'm finding myself in a funky mood today.Out of sorts with so many things. Nothing seem to jive.  You know this feeling?

I could give you a million reasons excuses, explanations. I won't bore you with them. Perhaps I ought to just go in a closet and stay until I'm all better. Not really a viable option.  Besides, our closet space in Camelot is not sufficient for all the things stuffed into the closets and me, too. 

This morning I read (and cried through) several blog posts from Compassion International.  You see, there is a group of bloggers on a trip to Ecuador and they are writing about the poverty there.  The pictures of the children are heart wrenching.  In a way I didn't expect.  They have such hope in their eyes.   And it takes so little from our abundance to help them.  Compassion is doing such good work for the Kingdom, but there are so many children who are waiting to be sponsored.  And those pictures tug at my heart.

That made me think about the child we sponsor in Kenya.  Our Grace who is 7 years old.  We received a letter from her yesterday and I was undone.  She thanked us for loving her.  For praying for her.  Asked that we pray she will do well in school and assured me that she is listening to her teachers.  She wants to be an accountant when she grows up.  Then she said she prays for us every day.  Imagine, a child named Grace in a village in Kenya praying for us. 

Then, I clicked on the news to see what was happening in the world.  And I saw one story marked urgent.  And it was a piece about whether or not a football coach at a university should resign now or retire at the end of the season. 

Seriously?  With children dying by the thousands daily around the world of diseases that are often preventable?  And this is the news piece marked URGENT!

I have a soundtrack which plays in my head. {You do that, too, don't you? Have a soundtrack and if you listen to it, you can figure out what sort of a mood you are in? Please don't tell me I'm the only one} After reading the blog posts and the news, I realized that my soundtrack was spinning away.  I was hearing a song from the 1960s, recorded by Simon and Garfunkel. 7:00 O'Clock News/ Silent Night.  It fits my mood today.

Do you know this piece?  I've linked it below.  Seems like it sort of fits the world today.  Protests, demonstrations, the world turned upside down...yet people going to help and live for a week among the poorest of the poor.  Bringing hope and stretching our ideas of love.

I pray that I never grow too content, too settled, too wrapped up in my own world that I fail to see what really matters. And I pray that these funky, unsettled moods prod me on to be open to giving to those in need. Whether it is a precious child in Kenya whose family needs our support just to exist, or a wealthy man who is in need of a smile. Everyone we meet has great and deep needs.  I pray that my notions of love never become rigid and unable to be stretched. 

I pray for grace.  And for Grace.  That, my friends...that jives!

~Mollianne