Okay, I just want to say that I was a rock until August of 2005. I hadn't cried in probably 10 years until my grandma died that August. That's when the floodgates opened. And now I'm a flipping emotional basket case. But I just wanted to clarify that it was not always that way.
Now, with that said, if I have Sunday nights off of work there is probably a 99% chance that you will see me cry if you are in my apartment between 7 and 8 pm. Why? you ask. That's easy. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I don't know what it is about this show, but it never fails to make me cry. This Sunday's episode was the 100th family, and boy was it a whopper. The family actually had a nice house to begin with, so they were able to donate the windows and trim and appliances and a lot of other things to other families in need. It didn't seem like this family needed to be chosen, but it turns out that four of the 7 (soon to be 8) children were actually the mom's sister's kids. These kids lost their dad 6 years ago in a car accident, and their mom had a hard time dealing with it. She began to get past it when she started to date a guy and then broke it off. He did not take it well and went to her house and attacked her with butcher knives. She survived this attack, but the lunatic did not spend much time in jail. The mom began to date another guy and the first guy came to her house again and shot both the mom and the boyfriend, killing them both. So these four kids, the oldest of whom is now 13, lost both of their parents in 6 years and were taken in by their mom's sister. Their aunt/new mom has devoted much of the past year to serving as an advocate for women and children effected by domestic abuse. That's why this family was chosen.
If that wasn't bad enough, other families from previous episodes came and helped this family's build. They gave updates on these families, and their stories were so powerful I cried every time they showed clips of past episodes. Like I said, emotional basket case.
All this to say that Dr. Kreider was right. The secular world gets it when the church may not. The church has been called to be the body of Christ, sharing His love to the nations. The problem is we are really good at sharing His love with ourselves and not reaching out to those outside our comfort zone. But we can see evidence of God's love outside the church. I realize I haven't articulated it very well, but it is deeply convicting to realize that others are stepping out to love the hurting when the church has failed. As the Casting Crowns song says, if we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching? Why aren't His hands healing? Why aren't His words teaching? ... Why aren't his feet going? Why is His loving not showing them there is a way?
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