Micah 6:8He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.    And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy    and to walk humbly with your God.

Last night, Casey led our Connect Group for Hillsong, which is mostly made up of people who aren't part of Hillsong, but our great friends who live near us and share life together with us.  LOVE THESE FRIENDS.  I spent most of the time in Kieren's room with kids and my great friend Kate Senekal (which was way fun and great convo anyways), but Casey shared about this scripture from the Old Testament book of Micah.  Interestingly enough, in our group of friends, four families are fostering children that are not their own, two of us having (difficult) teenagers.  In studying the scriptures, it becomes clear that God tells us to care for the widows and orphans, but He does NOT promise blessing or reward for it.  We can be certain that God himself will show up in the mix, but there is no pot of gold at the end of this crazy rainbow.  So the group wrestled together with this idea, and at the same time, Kate and I  also were talking about the difficulties of taking in orphaned children.  She is caring for a three year old little boy, and we both lamented at not knowing all the stories of these children's' lives up to this point.  What we experience today is likely not just the situation at hand, but a mix of stories and pain from the past.  Her 'son' cries all the time in over-emotional ways while my 'daughter' has MAJOR attitude and completely shuts down when anything gets hard.  This is HARD.  And no reward at the end?  Only God himself; and that should be enough.  But this we know, we can't go back, and we know we are doing God's work.  So we move ahead, and in our own little ways, try to make the wrongs in the world a little more right, one person at a time.  


Who around you has been wronged or hurt?  Who do you know that is lonely or alone?  This week why don't you turn a 'wrong' into a 'right' by loving them in real and tangible ways.  God won't give you a gold star, but He will be in the mix, and actually that is more than enough.


Lots of love,
Sarah