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Sometimes I choose not to do certain things simply because I don’t want to get all dirty.  You should see how I get jacked-up ugly hair when I sweat and there are days I’m just not willing to let myself go like that.  I suppose it’s okay to have this slack-like attitude at the gym or in your flower garden.  There's nothing tragic about burning less calories or killing a few pansies.  But I can’t think this way on my Jesus journey.  I can’t look at the brokenness in Haiti and decide not to run hard just because I’m not in the mood or I don't feel like getting dirty.  The ramifications of this sort of mindset on my life journey reach past the appearance of my hair and miniature rose bushes.  Carelessness in this area leaves the orphaned and needy children forgotten and voiceless and I miss out on deeper intimacy with my Jesus.  So when I hear the call of my Maker, a wooing of my soul to intermingle with the least of these, I have to follow.  I have to follow this call with reckless abandonment (which by the way is the only way to follow the call of the Creator).  To follow this call means I’ll land smack-dab in the thick of all the filth.  I’ll get dirty.  I’ll even lose my life.

I think only full blown established maniacs would sign up for this.  Am I willing to let myself go this way?

My answer:  YES! 

A big huge unambiguous YES!  Because I can’t forget the sound of the least of these crying out.  I'm one of them.  And I can’t forget how I see my Maker when I hold their little faces in my hands. 

Like a maniac, I follow this call because something deep down assures me this is not a mistake. 

And I remember exactly how Jesus tells me I have to do it.  I deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Him.  It involves getting dirty and it's an every day thing.        

 But there's an ironic twist about this journey and it's the best part.  In losing my life I find new life in my Savior, Jesus—this new life is true, real, and wonderful.  It’s the full life.  

Jesus tells me the secret.  What were His exact words again? 

"...anyone losing his life because of Me will find it." (Matthew 10:39) 

       

There's a whole lot I don't know but I believe if I want to find the meaningful life I have to follow His call to the lowly—I have to carry my cross.  I have to be willing to go places no one else wants to go and love the unlovely.  

"My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me."  John 10:27