Saved From Empty

March 24, 2016March 24, 2016 / Susie Stewart / 2 Comments

To this world:

I’ve been looking at you all wrong.

You stepped up to me when I was young and flung open your coat so I could see what you carried.

You cooed, “I’ve got it all. Anything you want.”

You seemed nice enough. So I took a hit.

First it was popularity, which has taken approximately my whole life to come down from.

Then you let me sample pride, possessions, power. It was all so strong. It was all so intoxicating. You spun me around until I was too dizzy to look straight and you sent me on my way, “I’m all yours, baby. Live it up.”

I guess it could have worked but in my reeling stupor the Savior of this world grabbed me by the shoulders, He called my name. And I was, with great resolve, wholly His. The aroma of His love exposed the aroma of you, which smells mostly like rot.

He set me straight and showed me how truly upside down you are.

You put the best looking first and the least of these last. You pour accolades on the rich and devastate the poor. You invite the popular first. You hide the unwanted in the shadows.

But can I blame it all on you? You convinced me that it’s my life I need to save – and for a time I agreed.

But His call was so inside out. It was so fantastically right. It went something like this, “Let’s lose your life and go save so many others.”

….We must act.

We must allow Him to use our life for something greater than this world has to offer.

– Brianne McKoy

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.

– Matthew 16:25 (NLT)

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up His life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

– 1 John 3:16 (NLT)

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.

– Mark 10:45 (NLT)

Photo by Susie Stewart

Mind The Gap

August 10, 2014January 13, 2016 / Susie Stewart / 5 Comments

You are there.

I am here.

There is a gap.

I cross the gap and I see you, truly see you.

And you live in extreme poverty

The walls of your home are mud and sticks

Your front door is a piece of torn fabric.

My door here…

Well it opens to a very large house

With too many rooms for the few people who live here

The echo of your voice heard in these large spaces

And your family, all of you, sleep on a mud floor in one room

And you don’t have a bed

And you are tired.

I’m tired too.

I’m tired of the huge gap between me and you

Between how I live and how you live.

That’s why I’m moving.

Out of this familiar and comfortable home

Where rooms are plenty and I forget….

How you are not comfortable

And you may only have one meal a day

And you are a servant to the relatives who took you in

When your parents died…

The gap is too large.

I want to mind the gap

I want to do more, and then more, and then more

And acknowledge that you are suffering.

Acknowledge that you are there.

And I am here.

And there is a gap.

Not just in distance

but in tolerance of suffering.

Just enough is not enough

Radical is what God is after.

Minding the gap

So that you will have a place to call home

With a bed

And a family

And I find joy and purpose and I am blessed

Because I know for you, life is better

Because life for me, has changed.

– Susie Stewart

Let us not love with words or speech, but with action and in truth.

– 1 John 3:18 (NIV)

Friends, please search your hearts for ways that you can love radically. There is still so much need in the world. God calls us to different things, but there is no doubt that He calls all of us to DO something. This has been a journey for me of how to live more simply so that others can simply live. I have been inspired by my daughter Nicole, who for so long has set an example of simplicity and a lack of materialism. The book “Crazy Love” has had a huge impact on our family and this sermon by Joshua Clemmons. No judgment cast on anyone else, just challenging all of us to find ways to do more.

http://www.trueimpactministries.com – a ministry that is minding the gap.

* “Mind the Gap” is a phrase that originated in London as a warning to passengers as they cross from a station platform to a train door.

Photos taken by Susie Stewart

Africa

June 29, 2013January 13, 2016 / Susie Stewart / 1 Comment

The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

– James 1:9-11

I read these words this morning. While I am still seeking God’s wisdom in all the meaning here, I think I have a pretty good concept of what He is getting at. My family, along with a team from different parts of the U.S., just returned from Uganda. This was personally my 6th time going, as my husband and I lead a ministry that serves there.

We have witnessed unbelievable poverty and need.

We have witnessed unbelievable riches, too.

The riches have nothing to do with material wealth. It is a wealth of the spirit. It is deep-seated joy. It is a depth of relationship with Jehovah Jireh, God our Provider, who provides our daily bread. It is relational depth with family and friends where posessions don’t take first place.

“The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position…” It’s interesting how God sees things upside down from the way we do. All throughout scripture you can see His heart for the poor. He says that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 19:24). Riches weigh down. Riches distract. Riches pull us away from what is important. Riches can make us complacent. Riches can make us not depend on God.

It’s all a facade, though. God has always been the One who provides it all. Our spirits long to be dependent and find solace in Jehovah Jireh, but we are blinded.

“But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower…”

Will our legacies as “rich Americans” be as selfISH or selfLESS people? Will we walk with God or walk with stuff?

I am positionally in a lowly position in God’s scheme of things. Humility is required.

Thank you to so many of my brothers and sisters in Africa for modeling what riches are truly made of.

– Susie Stewart

2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

http://www.trueimpactministries.com