What's Missing - Guest Post

What’s Missing? - by Gwen Hawk

This past month as I watched the Olympics, I was inspired by the story of Canadian half pipe skier Sarah Burke.  She was a skier with a fiery passion for her sport. Sarah lobbied the International Olympic Committee to have women’s half pipe skiing included in the winter Olympics.  She was successful.  Sarah had followed her dream, worked for it, and found fulfillment.  But before she even had a chance to compete in the games, she died while training in Utah.  Sarah Burke had found that following her dream was something she thought was worth dying for.  

            “What can I do to find something worth dying for?” I wonder.  I want to find a dream that’s truly worth daring to risk everything.  A few weeks ago, I went to a Francesca Batistelli concert with my friends.  Before she came on stage, they showed a video about poor children all over the world that Compassion International provides sponsors for from the U.S. and other countries.  I was struck by how needy those children were and how most of all they needed someone to show that there is someone who cares for them.  Oh, how much I want to help them!  But what can I, a thirteen-year-old, do?  I had no answer. 

There are so many things in life that I have no answers for.  Like how Americans can just go through their lives oblivious to others around them.  Like how I can be so uncaring to my siblings for no reason at all.  Like how so many people have never experienced empathy and compassion.  I was at Dunkin Donuts the other day with two of my friends for our Bible study.  There was a woman and a little girl at another table.  I overheard the woman say, “I believe in God,” The little girl said, “Don’t say that.”  When we were about to leave, the woman asked us what church we went to.  When we answered, she told us, “I don’t go to church anymore, I got the Bible on my phone now.”  As we left, I thought about why she did not want to go to church.  It is heartbreaking to know, not that she does not go to church, but that the people there did not show her Jesus’ compassion.     

There are many things missing in the lives of those poor children in foreign countries.  There are so many things missing in the lives of the Americans.  But what are they missing most of all?

 I know a family who had the perfect American Dream life.  One job, an awesome son, and a healthy marriage.  The Wrights decided to go on a mission’s trip with their church to Mexico.  They worked with a program called Lightshine that helped kids get a good meal every week and learn about Jesus.  They learned to care for these kids and wanted to help them.  They were ready to give up everything to go and live in Mexico to help these kids and their families.  But God was calling them to something even bigger.  He called them to the Philippines, on the other side of the world.  Only through a desire to see God’s love spread to the nations that they can follow his dream for them across the sea.  But where did they get that love?  It’s something that’s brought them the kind of fulfillment I want to have.  

I have to say that their dream is the biggest I have ever known.  It more fulfilling than any other.  For years this family had shared their love with those in the U.S. like the woman and little girl that I met at Dunkin Donut’s.  People that were starving for love that only Jesus can give.  Now, the Wrights are giving up everything to share it with children and families like the kids I learned about in Compassion, people who have never even heard of love like this.

That family has taught me that there is a dream worth giving up everything for. Only through Jesus’ love can they reach people like that woman and little girl in Dunkin Donut’s and the needy people all over the world like those in Compassion International.  Jesus, through his sacrifice, has given the Wrights a love that is so enormous it is overflowing to others around them and touching their hearts, filling an empty place that they did not even know was there.  And they have found fulfillment in following God’s dream for them.  That family has found a dream even greater than Sarah Burke’s.  They have found that there is something not only worth dying for, but worth sacrificing everything just to show others that there is a love that surpasses all. They think of it as worth living for. That’s what I want.  I’ve found that my dream has become to follow Jesus’ dream for me to experience that love and share it with others, be it here or across the globe.  If everyone chose to follow the dream God has for us to experience and share his love, the world would change forever.  The woman and little girl that were at Dunkin Donuts would talk to Jesus’ followers and find a family of faith that would provide the fulfillment they needed.  The children like the ones in Compassion would know that they are loved.  I know now that love has the power to unite us, to overcome petty differences and weaknesses, and to change the world!