Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Words of Wisdom... (a very long post, i know)

My little brother
(I don't know who the girl is)

It always humbles me when somebody gives me their words of wisdom. A couple weeks back, maybe even months back I posted a blog titled Passion Refocus (you can Click Here If you haven't read it) and my little brother replied and gave me his words of wisdom on what I had wrote. Here is what he had to say:

In response to your article Passion RefocusEveryone has a calling and you have always been conflicted with the fact that you dont feel for peoples pain where you've lived but the thing that i dont get is your idea that you should start with people around you before you can help people who are not around you. i just see it as you have much more of a calling to be in a place where you see that the problems are not trivial or simple. do you look at people around you and have a lack of compassion? or a lack of willingness to help? or both? philosophically i dont believe that the location of someone should be in any way influential on whether or not you should help them. i read in my philosophy book about whether you should give your money to someone in a different country or if you should use that money for the people where you live to help them out. i basically came to the conclusion that poverty should be dealt with wherever it might exist but if the extent of poverty in another country is worse than where you live you should first help them first instead of the people around where you live because the people around where you live are already living a better life than those in another country. i think that you might feel simalarly but in your case it's not your money but how much good you can do. and i think that the reason that you feel a longing for people in other countries is because you can see that they are worse off than the majority of people here in the US and an even bigger difference is that they dont have anyone that they forsee coming to help.... they have a lack of hope which i think you would like to give and most def. could give. dont worry about it rachele you will go to africa one of these days. even if that means that i have to help ya get there. love ya sis. ~jordan
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I love my brother! I have been struggling with this concept.. and when he wrote back to me it helped things come into focus. I do have a passion for people here, but it may not be as strong as a passion as I have for people overseas, but I shouldn't get that confused with lack of passion because that is not the case. (are you still following me? ha ha)

I'm sure all of you have stopped reading this by now, but those of you who haven't I will share this. I don't know what the future holds for me... I don't know if I will go back to New Tribes Bible Institute or if I will finish up my Social Work degree... I don't know what God's plans are for the future, but I do know that right now God is calling me to set aside those worries and to focus on two things; restoring relationships in my life and getting involved in the church and that is what I am going to focus on and with that I believe great things will happen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Girl, I had tears a-flowin' after reading this one... Whhoooo... very good words you shared, and awesome words from Jordan as well! Praise God!! :) Just continue on forward, be obedient to where God has called you RIGHT NOW because like you said, you don't know what God has planned for you in the future. Here's a passage I read the other day that spoke to me, thought I'd share: Mark 11:22-24 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'God, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours." AWESOME!!!! I love the promises & HOPE in God's Word!!! Check this out.. a quote, "Our responsibility is to let people see God through us." Does it matter what vicinity you reside or what country you travel to? No. Speak Christ, if necessary - use words :D I love you, girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for always being there for me to listen, hug, cry, laugh, and share Koa & Gabi with me.. they're such a GREAT GREAT blessing just being around them when you've opened that door for me to be able to visit them while you care for KoKo!!! :D Hug KoKo & Gabi for me!!!!!