When the wrong things become offensive.

Wednesday evening Jeremy told me he had special plans for us! I was excited, there are few times since the family expanding that we have had a date that involved special plans vs running errands or checking things off the to do list while we were kidless! To my surprise he had gotten us tickets to see David Crowder Band in concert! How fabulous!

While we were there we were introduced to an organization that is connected with the work Bono is doing called "One" Organization.  My heart has been feeling stretched in so many ways with a huge perplexing issue. Since our trip to Ethiopia, and being part of seeing the extreme poverty there but also seeing the effects of that poverty still in the eyes of my little boy every day I have felt anguish over what to do! In the meantime I have been reading, "Kisses from Katie" a story of a twenty something girl that has given up everything for others.  I was intrigued by the ONE organization, they just needed my name and email and zip code to petition for aid for famine and relief for the hungry and hurting in Africa. So today I logged on to facebook and decided to give them a look up! I was sorta floored. Floored shocked, and then after my shock settled I was amazed with myself and the lesson I had learned. I'd like to share it with you!

If you go to the ONE organization facebook page  you will see a video that pops up. Them being at the David Crowder Concert, I assumed to find a emotional, compassionate, video to promote me to sign up for their cause. To my surprise I was caught off guard. The video started with a several people saying F***, over and over again, and my eyes were wide and confused and thinking David Crowder what are you thinking! LOL Then After several people ended their words, with beeping, they began saying one word... FAMINE, FAMINE, FAMINE, FAMINE....... as they started talking I was posed with a question of my own. Why was this word F***. So Offensive to me? The emotions it provoked made my heart race, it made me want to do something to stop it from happening, it made me want to act and to tell them to stop. Then the thought occurred. What has become offensive to me, in one word has created more emotion to me than something that followed it. FAMINE. Something so much worse. Something that is man made, something that takes life, something that can be stopped, something we can be offended by, yet so often we choose to be offended by the wrong thing. We fight to stop things that hurt nothing, but choose to ignore the things that flood countries and wipe out thousands. If we took the harshness we feel about these little things with the same intensity to the realness of what we can do something about, what could we do? Could we start changing our sights on the minimal words that might not be so offensive after all in comparison to the word that follows. I agree with the ONE campaign, FAMINE is a much more offensive word.


Click Here to See ONE video.

Brotherly Love.

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Romans 12:9-10

I was thinking back about 8 months ago when Tadios stepped into our home speaking no English. And for Zadyn meeting his new brother for the first time was quite terrifying. If you think about it, they had no way to communicate. But on specific day they both were forced into brother-hood.

I think about what these photos say about these boys today. And tears stream down my face at the hurdles they have overcome. Two boys not related by blood, culture, having no similarities except one, they are practically the same age. Which could have for them spelled disaster in every form.  When I see these photos I guess what is so intoxicating about them is the pure genuine love they have for each other. That what started out terrifying for them both, has been a journey like no other, they have found their best friends, they have become brothers. They have over come sharing a room together, being the youngest together, they have learned how to teach each other who they are without a language. A knot starts to form in my throat just thinking about the love that has developed between these brothers. Something so fantastic, so complex but yet so simple. I admire the love they have for each other, it is remarkable that 8 months later they see not the differences in each other as a division to a friendship but an opening to new kind of love. That of a brother.