Please Don’t Give – Invest.
If you know anything about venture capitalism, you know angel investors don’t dump a million dollars on MIT kids in a garage just to be nice. They do it because they believe in the idea or an undervalued company and expect to reap boatloads of cash.
Which got me to thinking about my soon-to-be friends Telise and Fidelise in Zambia.
Six years ago, Telise and Fidelise were orphans in the capitol city of Lusaka. They were passed from family to family because nobody could afford to raise them. Finally, their grandmother left them with Pastors Jasper and Zion Mutale – the people I am going to work for in July.
This was them six years ago.
This is them today.
Jasper and Zion poured the love and mercy of Jesus Christ into them. Now, Telise (left) dreams of being a pilot or an engineer. Mama Zion says he’s intelligent, really funny and has learned to play the guitar.
But this is where my heart skips.
Take a look at the top picture again. Look at Fidelise on the left, look at her eyes. Zion said she doesn’t talk about it much, but during her orphan days, she was “mistreated” and it affects her confidence. Do you know what Fidelise dreams of doing with her life? She wants to be a lawyer and defend poor people and orphans.
My friends, these companies are undervalued.
These kids have the potential to do massive damage to the enemy that messed with them. They just need some angel investors, people like us who can help get them to the private high school, where they can get an education befitting a future lawyer and engineer.
I’m not asking you to give toward their educations which cost about $1200 a year each, I’m asking you to invest because there’s something in it for you.
Jesus said:
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. Luke 6:38
The Apostle Paul said:
Let us not become wearing in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:9-10
Malachi the prophet said:
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Malachi 3:10
Of course, you might donate just because it feels good to give or you’re an attentive follower of Jesus. But if you want to give just to see what will come back, God says in Malachi it’s ok – give it a whirl.
In July, I’m going to meet these kids face to face and I’m going to tell them about you, by name – Americans who want to help them go to school.
Will you join me? If you click that little widget and make a tax-deductible contribution to SCRUBS Medical Mission, you’re not kissing your cash goodbye, you’re sowing seed into the ground, investing for your future harvest.
We Are All Bombers.
Oh America.
I felt so helpless this morning as I prayed for the people in Boston. How Lord, have we gotten here?
They don’t know who planted those bombs but surely it’s the question on everyone’s mind. Was it a McVeigh or an Al-Zarqawi. The answer changes the context but not the bottom line.
(Photo credit: @Doug88888)
Here’s how you know we live in a civilized nation: As the bombs exploded, cops, firemen and volunteers ran toward the blast, offering brave and selfless effort on behalf of strangers. As Mr. Rogers’ Facebook meme said yesterday, when something scary happens, people always run to help. May God richly bless you public servants and kindhearts everywhere.
Here’s how you know we don’t live in a civilized nation: All of us inflict lesser forms violence on one another every day. Given the ease with which we can do it on-line with no personal consequence, we spew hate on Facebook, slander our President, denigrate other cultures and shoot the bird in traffic, running up on their bumper to make sure they know we hate them for cutting us off.
Is it so hard to imagine that Boston’s bombing is the same behavior writ large? It’s hate. It’s unforgiveness. It’s our unregenerate, unrepentant human selves running the show like we know what we are doing. Like the coward who planted the bombs in Boston, we hide behind online profiles and wheel of our car. Rarely do we call someone an asshole to their face. We the plant bomb and run.
We are releasing our frustration and negativity into the world, in ways we believe are harmless. But our personal violence has spiritual impact on this planet we don’t even understand.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
Evil celebrates every time a bomb explodes or a name is slandered. So when we pray to our God today, thinking ourselves righteous and civilized, asking how such evil happens, pause and consider that it happens everyday in our own hearts.
Friends, the answer is Jesus.
As he was mocked, whipped then tortured to death he said, “Lord please forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”
We don’t know. We are selfish, fearful, unforgiving little creatures who carry all the potential in the universe to become the love of God. But if we could do it without him, we’d have done it by now. Jesus is the love of God incarnate, the Prince of Peace and the Messiah who came to the world, not judge it, but to save it. John 3:16-17.
It’s still our choice to believe that and live accordingly.
Going to the Sea 