giving up.

We give up on people far faster than God does, don't we?

There have been several people in my life about whom I had basically thought, "She is a hopeless cause.  A mess, really.  God wouldn't want to deal with them, either."  Now, that thought may not have been iterated so concisely nor blatantly, and certainly not verbally, but it was still there, whether I acknowledged it or not.  God, on the other hand, had different plans.  Over the last few years, God has blown my mind with the people He has drawn to himself and I am in awe.

When my family moved into the house they live in now, we had some of the worst luck with neighbors.  A couple of the kids were so mean and awful and to my little sister that she would come home crying.  She would sometimes hide when they came to the door so that she didn't have to go out and play with them.  Another neighbor went off and on like that. She was sometimes nice to Kristen, and sometimes mean.  Sometimes manipulative, sometimes caring.

Kristen spent hours upon hours praying for this girl - for the last eight years!  Kristen never gave up hope; Kristen never let those mean words prevent her from praying that this girl would come to know the Lord.

On Wednesday night, she made a decision to follow Jesus!  Praise God!

God had not given up on her.  Kristen hadn't given up on God.  But we gave up on it.  Why do we give up hope?  Why do we doubt the goodness of God and His ability to save people?  He pulls us out of the pit.  He makes us clean.  He redeems us.  No matter how entrenched we are in the mire.

It makes me think of the girls here.  One, in particular, scares me.  She blew up at me the first night I was here and I've been intimidated ever since.  She says she's an atheist and she says she's bisexual, which makes the intimidation all the more intense.  But who am I to give up on her?  To (ashamedly) hope that she gets pulled from the program?

Lord, help me to see people with your eyes and with your heart - to know that you are capable of doing far more than we ask or imagine, hope or think.  You are God, worthy of all our praise.
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Today I bought Prayers for a Privileged People by Walter Brueggemann.  I am so excited to start going through it!