Yesterday, I stood at my kitchen counter and thought about Aleppo as I cut up onions.
Dumping slices atop a chuck roast, I glanced outside my window and marveled at the fact that I get anxious, and shut my blinds, and pray for safety when I see a car in my drive that I don’t recognize.
Seriously.
And there in Syria, children and babies and fellow mothers are witnessing horrors, living nightmares, seeing and hearing death and devastation.
I imagine it.
My mind’s wiring causes me to crawl into their heads. I break inside as I dream up what those children are having to withstand and process.
This practice I have of attempting to put myself in their line of life and thinking….sometimes I have to pray it away… because it leads me to depression and sorrow. Sometimes I fight and ask for it to flee.
But then sometimes, I remember that I’m a writer. And writers are artists. And artists should really feel things. It’s the only way to reach the world. Sensitivity, when tinged with the Holy Spirit, is incomparably powerful.
So I shattered some inside yesterday. And I let myself.
The world is busted and its discrepancies are vast. And it all makes me morn and punch my fist to the sky.
Standing there on my tiled floor, behind my locked doors, inside my well-stocked kitchen – I asked God to show me what to do. What is my assignment in this?
While the wholeness of it is still unfolding, and while I know I’m called to pray and ponder it all, one thing that I am certain I’m supposed to offer up is what’s been placed within, and so I extend an arm out to you here.
Today….
1) I implore you to pray.
2) I encourage you to really let yourself sit in the news and reality of it.
3) And I ask you to give.
Give with time, talents, bents, and resources, yes. But today I’m asking you to give from the pocket.
Many folks from our church are affiliated with an organization called Preemptive Love. Some of my most trusted friends and seniors know the founder personally. This is a safe avenue. If you feel so led and inspired, please click here to learn more and give.
I’m grateful for each of you. I trust we will all find our place to love in this crisis. And I have hope in a God that is still acting, and moving, and saving, and able.
