The days when I wish life was easier

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - CS Lewis

There are days when I find myself like this child playing in the mud. I like where I'm at. I don't want to look outside of myself and see the beauty that God offers. I put my fingers in my ears and sing "la-la-la-la" ignoring everything God has to say.

I find my flesh winning out and being satisfied by things that are just not important. Things like March Madness or Pinterest or the Hunger Games.

My gracious God does not abandon me here but whispers in my ear "Come, child" and waits ever patient for me to repent of my lack of vision.

And there are other days when I feel like I'm a child who has been taken away from the mud and yet has not seen the sea. I'm in transit.

I feel ripped away from what I know and like and yet can not see the end goal. I know that I'll ultimately end up in a place of beauty but right now all I see is pain and discontentment from leaving my comfort.

The Lord has recently led me to put my money where my mouth is in regards to Human Trafficking. You all know how much I hate the evil of slavery. Whether it's girls in Cambodia being sold for sex or men being exploited in coffee plantations in South America or children being kidnapped and forced into being soldiers in Africa.

Me and Hannah on a mission trip last year

I was talking to a friend of mine, Hannah, (who happens to be in Cambodia right now!) about Fair Trade Coffee. She said something that I might never forget "Sure I look at the price of this coffee and wince because it's so expensive, but then I think about what the slaves are going through to make my coffee cheaper and suddenly the price just doesn't matter"

And I knew right then and there I had to stop buying coffee that was made using slave labor.

Just imagine if one of those slaves was your brother, or child, or friend. Wouldn't you do everything in your power to bring them freedom? Wouldn't you move mountains, fly across the world, fight governments and authorities to free them and bring them safety? Wouldn't money be the last thing on your mind?

I was on board. Hook, line and sinker. I'm all in. Only Fair-Trade coffee for me.

But then I realized that meant giving up my beloved Starbucks. My four-times a week Starbucks. My convient and there for me anywhere I need it Starbucks.

I can do it, by the power of God living in me, I can do it. But I don't always want to.

I catch myself longing for the days of ignorance where my actions didn't matter. Where I didn't care if my stewardship was pleasing to the Lord. Where I made decisions based on my feelings and desires rather than what brings the most glory to the Lord.

I feel like the child lost in transit. Knowing that I'm heading in the right direction but unable to see it. Not wanting to be satisfied by only mud pies, but missing the comfort of the sandbox.

I beg the Lord that I won't be easily satisfied. That he will make me into a woman who does not desire things of this world but the God who created me. I plead for an eternal perspective so that
 I might look to the holiday at sea rather than a measly mud pie. I ask that while I'm in transit he'll continue to remind me of the race marked out for me.

{I know that not everyone has the same convictions and that's okay, but if the Lord leads you to invest your money in Fair-Trade coffee would you consider purchasing it here? You would not only be helping free slaves but also helping my friends bring home their precious baby girl through adoption (my other heart!) It would mean the world to me and them!}

{Also, would you check out my sweet friends' blogs today? They love the trafficked and orphan too. Laura at Beholding Glory and Sara at the Nutt House}


Linking up with: On Your Heart, Finding Heaven, Write it, Girl, We are THAT family, Women Living Well,  Good Morning Girls