“Show me, O Lord…”
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010“Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.” (Psalm 39:4-7) Life is so fleeting. Just as the Word of God says, often people spend it “bustling about,” and His Word says that this is all “in vain.” Everything temporal that we see seems as if it will last forever, and so our time, energy, and effort are often put into building comfortable lives for ourselves and accumulating all of the “things” that seem to matter so much but that have no value of eternal investment. Life is real…it isn’t about seeking comfort and ease and it isn’t about avoiding all things difficult and uncomfortable. And it’s also not going to last forever. We have a very specific, very limited amount of time that God has given each and every one of us on earth…time to move and to breathe, to work and to play, to love and to give, to live and to die. How we spend the time is completely our own choice. It seems as if we’re naturally inclined to try and build the “American dream,” because it seems like a happy, comfortable life. Pouring out and giving is the hard road. But it’s the best one. We must each look for opportunities of service in the individual situation and circumstance God has placed us in. We can each have some type of ministry to one another, whether we’re living in suburban America or the slums of a third world country.New Beginnings cherishes its ministry to the orphans of Nepal. These orphans, though we don’t know most of them personally, are close to our hearts and we love them in a very deep and real way. God is faithfully continuing to lead us in our work in this country. More than 250 dossiers for families from all registered adoption agencies in the country have been sent and are awaiting matching with a child. At least three families that we know of have already been matched with children…three more children with people to call “family,” places to call “home.”
New Beginnings doesn’t seek to “heap up wealth, not knowing who will get it.” We seek to help these children in a way that will last longer than our agency or any of its employees lasts. Just as King David states, our hope is in God. Our hope is that an eternal difference will be made in the lives of these children. It is our hope to build with more than just “hay or straw” (1 Corinthians 3:12). At the end of man’s life, when his time on earth is coming to a close and his days are ending, may he be able to say that he helped more than just himself. May he be able to say that he, in some way, invested eternally into the life of another and into a purpose or cause that will last longer than his days on earth.
