Great Loss and Hopelessness

"We have volunteers that come to our program... and then they go home."

I had the great opportunity to have coffee with a guest lecturer at GVSU a week ago.  She spoke of her program in Tijuana, Mexico (yes, she only spoke Spanish!) that is working with recently deported to get them back on their feet.  As we spoke, she reaffirmed my calling in so many ways.

First, she asked what I knew about the border.  She acknowledged that I had obviously done my research and thought that I had a good vision of what was happening.

Second, I asked her what she thinks we can do.  She reaffirmed my calling here in two ways:
She stated that we cannot just look at it as a checklist of things to do.  We need to change the system.  The border is functioning properly according to the policies that the government has put in place.  If the machine is working well, obviously the policies are what is flawed.
The other way she confirmed my calling is by making sure that I understand that this isn't something that's going to change overnight.  This is something that will take a lifetime to change.  She wanted to make sure that I understood that it was a lifelong commitment before I jumped in.  I do understand.  I get it and I will commit to that.

I couldn't help but think about her statement about workers coming... and then going home... when I read this passage.  I've been in those volunteers' shoes.  I've gone... and I've worked... and I've gone home.  There's been no continuation in the work I did overseas.  For selfish reasons, I always thought that it was good work.

As I read about the guys walking down the road to Emmaus and how hurt they were that someone who had come to do good work and then left to go home, I couldn't help but feel for those organizations needed lifelong commitments.  The loss and hopelessness of losing volunteers or lack of commitment is one that cannot be ignored.

Thankfully, God didn't think the same way we do.  He sent Jesus to do good work in His Name.  He died, but He didn't stay dead.  He rose again and continues to live today and continues to work among us.  Now THAT'S love for a cause.



Luke 24:13-35 - Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast.  One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.  The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.  In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.  Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther.  But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.  They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”  Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.