Kick my spiritual tail

I have a friend from college, Cindy Foote.  She’s great.  Beautiful – won Miss CSU.  Talented – sang with “Truth”.  Spunky and spiritually strong – has Chritian counseling degree from Southwestern Seminary.

 I recently started following her blog and catching up on her life. She is married to Billy Foote who writes amazing Christian music.  They also travel and sing and minister together.  They have one adopted daughter from China and are adopting another from Ethopia.  They also are part of an incredible ministry that is developing relationships with the Somali Bintu refugees in their city in Texas.  They teach them to read and tutor their children and just love on them.  Pretty cool family, pretty cool ministry.  Today I want to include a very challenging word from her blog.  It is long but I challenge you to read it in its entirety, it is worth it.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

ClubRising is doing very well. In about 3 weeks the XTI trainees will return to volunteer positions and that will help us kick off a tremendous summer with our Somali friends! We are hoping to focus on tutoring the kids, but figuring out the best way to do that will be a challenge. Honestly -and here comes my occasional rant – finding people who will do more than say they love missions and who will actually stick with it despite it’s inconveniences and many challenges is the hard part. We have some amazing, dependable volunteers who are counting the cost and going the extra mile, but there’s always room for more – and in particular – there’s a need for volunteers who can/will come more than once a week and actually go into the Somali’s homes to tutor and develop relationships on a more regular basis. American life takes up so much space, doesn’t it? We all have to stop and ask ourselves what needs to give in order to fulfill the main call on our lives – to GO to the ends of the earth. I’m talking to myself, here, as well. Do we want the unreached to know Jesus or do we not? Most of us love our American busy-ness more – then we don’t have to think or wrestle with God over the idols in our own lives. It sounds great to say “I have a heart for missions” and so we all say it. But when it comes to committing to it there are so few. It’s way more popular and deceitfully well-rounded to go to Bible studies, fix a nutritious family meal, have a spotless kitchen floor, make sure our kids play several sports or take various lessons, and be “safe” than it is to sit on a stained, textured rug surrounded by unusual smells and unfamiliar language teaching the short vowel “a” sound to illiterate, uneducated, forgotten people in government housing on the “bad side” of town. Am I saying all the other activities are bad? – NO! I’m just saying that there’s more…. that’s all…. there’s just more. There are missionaries in this world who have given up every earthly luxury to go into extreme places to share Jesus. But we can’t seem to find people who want to minister to an unreached people group that God Himself delivered to our own city where we can return to our homes and sleep in our own air-conditioned homes and soft beds. We need whole families, single adults, retired couples and entire churches to recognize this sad reality and do something about it!

Everything about American life points to overindulgence and selfishness. We are, as a nation, overweight beyond belief and our houses are so full that storage facilities go up on every commercial corner. Where are the people who’ve had their fill on spiritual milk and meat? Our churches seem full of people who want giant screens, lights, comfortable seats, organic – modern style decor and candles lit for their perfect worship atmosphere – but we all know that only fulfills shallow desires which are the symptoms of emptiness – empty because we’ve forgotten the depth of our sin, the greatness of how we are forgiven and our life’s purpose to share that with the lost – and so all we know to do is be entertained a little more and find a little more physical comfort to sooth our empty souls.

So – there you have it – Cindy’s less-than-perfect thoughts. I guess this all started when I shared with Billy about a few people who were interested in helping with ClubRising and he asked, “are you excited about that?” and I said, “well, to tell you the truth, I’m learning that most people will say they want to get involved and they may even get involved – but only a few will really persevere and make it their life’s goal to see the Somali’s come to know Jesus. The mission field has a way of weeding out those whose hearts are not really in it and few people want to press into their own weaknesses to find the strength and heart of Jesus. It’s not fun or pretty. It’s scary, uncomfortable and it’s hard and most American Christians, it seems, aren’t interested in that kind of work.” – That conversation has wandered around in my heart and head for the last month as I’ve lifted up the Somali people to Jesus. As one of Billy’s songs says, “The fields are ripe and ready, but the laborers are few. You see the world is waiting. What will you do?” (Go To Everyone).