qualified?

I don’t feel qualified. 

Ever feel that way? I see the mountain … the mountain of how many orphans there are and the abortion-minded worldview of so many on planet earth; the snowball of laws being passed by States justifying the murder of infants and the advertisements that celebrate free sex on TV. I see how clearly they are intertwined in a creeping malevolent determination to suck the very life out of the souls of millions … and I don’t feel qualified.

I feel overwhelmed would be another way to phrase it. Overwhelmed by quick and loquacious tongues that babble on Capitol Hill with plans to supposedly bless the planet with less toxicity while they blithely quip the rhetoric of PETA, wondering naively if we should stop procreating to protect this precious globe. With the same seeming innocence and loving zeal support is garnered to therefore justify the termination of lives that are not wanted; the already disqualified myth of socialism is quipped; laws are pushed to put Planned Parenthoods number on the cellphone of every girl ages twelve and over; and candidates running for president celebrate the heinous rant propelling America to murder its babies. 

It was not for naught that Christ challenged us to see mountains and cast them into the sea. When I feel overwhelmed and unqualified I remind myself of Who He Is and what He says I can do since He now lives in me. 

On the one hand, just to show myself the size of the mountain, I do a little math. Jesus did say to count the costs and know what one is facing. 

Hmmm. I see that even if I over calculate and say that our 7.7 billion population was 8.2 when I divide that by the 43,554,640.88 square miles of inhabitable earth I see that 188 square miles per person indicates that God has given us more than plenty of earth. Even if I said there was 16.4 billion on earth, and only half the land was usable, we would still each end up with over 60,000 acres a person. So apparently, when God said to be fruitful and multiply He also knew how to provide the land to support that. 

Encouraged, I math on. There are apparently 153 million children who are considered orphans by the UN because they have only one parent. Of those 26 million are actual orphans, which is 0.3% of the population. Add to that 400,000 children in foster care in America and 881,000 babies aborted last year. That’s roughly 27 million children who need to be adopted or cared for asap. Now narrow down potential solution providers to how many Christians there are in America between the ages of 20 and 65 - ages when we could readily adopt - and we have 146,565,000. Simple math shows that if we each took in five children, the problem would be solved. This proves to me that the mountain is not as high or challenging as the talking heads have made it.

Secondly, I remind myself that it is not by might or power, but by His Spirit that Anything happens. In the spirit of that Truth I have recently centered on the reality that much of the world today - America perhaps worst of all -  has become on par with what Rome exemplified in its heyday. Stadiums and arenas are full of crowd drawing, mind-numbing entertainment which has expanded to the screens of our living rooms. Orgies and free sex, complete with the latest who’s who at the top of a false ladder of success scream at us with standards and idols to follow. And, like in Rome, the unwanted of society are gotten rid of in a myth of my rights and my quality of life being an imperative. 

Also, like in Rome, the Christians of our day can view this as an opportunity to Be Light. And this is where the qualifications and the overwhelmingness of it all fall away in a laugh. A God-sized laugh. For He who sits in the heavens laughs those who do evil into derision. And, meanwhile, His Holy Spirit fills those who are willing to respond, and they do as the Christians in Rome did. They go out and find those unwanted babies and children and bring them into their own homes. They care for the elderly and dying. They visit those in prison. They take the Gospel to every nation and neighborhood. And, when needed, they die in the stadium of persecution. 

It ends up being really, really simple. Love. Go and love. Let the world froth itself into a head-on confrontation with the reality of the Creator who will bring them to their knees. Let God manage when and whether they repent. We have work to do in the small and forgotten corners where others don’t have the time to go because they are caught up in the noise of it all. I am not qualified. But I am loved, and that changes everything. I am no longer overwhelmed, because He qualified and fills and empowers me.