As promised last time, taken verbatim from Pages 23-26 in James Robison’s book “Living Amazed.”
Several years ago while I was at a luncheon with a group of business leaders, Cathy Hendrick of the Hendrick Motorsports family, was sharing with us at the table about a trip she had made with our LIFE Outreach mission team to India, where it was like stepping onto the set of the Academy Award – winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire.”
If you’ve seen the film, you know that it portrays a group of children who have been taken captive and forced to beg on the streets of Mumbai – enriching their captors while the children live in poverty. Some were blinded or had their fingers or a hand cut off to make them more effective beggars. But the kids Cathy saw on the streets of India were not movie actors, and the suffering was real.
She told of how our mission team went to these children and loved and cared for them in our LIFE Centers, which are homes we have established in nations around the world to provide a loving atmosphere, food and clothing, a safe place to sleep, an education, and godly instruction for children in need. And then she said, “I just watched these little kids who were staring at our team, and we would talk to them, and they would say that somebody had left them and they didn’t know if they were ever coming back.”
When she said that, I just broke down and wept at the head table. I cried so hard that I had to lay my head down on the table . You see, I flashed back to the first five years of my life, when my mother would come and get me at the Hales’ when I was three or four years old, and she would take me with her for three or four days at a time, but then she would leave me at somebody’s house because she would have to work and couldn’t take me with her into the homes of her patients.
The people she would leave me with were always really nice to me and would say, “Hey, James, here’s your room, if you want to go into your room.” But I can remember just going to the front window and putting my nose up against the glass or the screen, staring outside for hours, wondering if my mother was coming back to get me. Those times gave me a real feeling of being overlooked – and it hit me like a ton of bricks when Cathy Hendricks shared her experiences in India.
I think that’s why, when I read my Bible, I have such a tender heart for King David. David was a kid who, in the eyes of his own family, didn’t seem very significant. When Samuel came to anoint the next king of Israel from among the sons of Jesse, Jesse didn’t even think to call his youngest son in for consideration. But David was faithful in taking care of the sheep. He loved and protected them. Toiling in obscurity while his older brothers were off serving in Saul’s army, David killed a lion and a bear to protect his sheep. And one day in the same confidence, he would kill Goliath, the enemy of God’s people. David lived amazed, and God still did amazing things in and through his life. He wasn’t perfect. His failures were epic and legendary. But in the balance, he became known as a man after God’s own heart. Even in his darkest days, he couldn’t stand to be away from the presence of his heavenly Father. He not only lived amazed, but he showed the world amazing grace and a brief glimpse of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
When looking at David’s exploits, it’s easy to forget that he wasn’t born into privilege; he was plucked from obscurity. And yet God used him mightily. And God can do the same with you and me – if we’re faithful while tending the sheep and not being noticed; if we love the Father; and if we love the family of God, even when they don’t notice us and don’t think we have any ability; and even if we’re young, shy, and scared.
I think also of Gideon, whom the Bible describes as the least of the least – not because he was insignificant, but because he felt that way. But God had bigger plans for Gideon, and all Gideon had to do was respond in faith and obedience. How would you like you like to put to flight an army of soldiers “as numerous as locusts” and camels “as numerous as the sand on the seashore,” and do it with only three hundred soldiers of your own?” That’s the equivalent of an average-sized church congregation in America today taking victory over enemies beyond number. (Sounds rather like our odds today. mle) That’s what living amazed is all about.
Those years that I lived with my mother allowed me to see the reality of people’s pain. (God never wastes our pain. mle) Today, whenever I see an overlooked child or people who are hurting or lonely, I want to go to them and help them, because I know that God wants to reach out to them. Much of the world today is looking out their windows, with their noses pressed to the glass, and they’re wondering if anyone is noticing, if anyone sees their need or their pain.
Perhaps, if we would just allow the truth of God to penetrate our minds, and then receive the love of God into our hearts, perhaps we could then release God’s truth and love into the world to the folks around us. We would become like a river of life, like the channels of blessings we are intended to be, to those in our proximity who are hurting, lonely, or in despair enabling them to find peace, hope, and rest.
God absolutely sees what is in our hearts. He loves us like a father. He cares about what we care about. Even when we seem not to care about him, He always cares about us, and he’s always watching over us – even before we come to trust Him with our lives and realize that every good and perfect gift comes from above.(Wow, we need to just ruminate on that last paragraph, and drink deeply! Blessings HERE FORWARD!>>>>> mle)