Casandra Martin

He was walking through the streets, taking in all the wonders that come with settling into a new place. Our oldest son is being blessed with the opportunity to spend some time this summer in another country. He has already seen one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, served soup to refugees living in makeshift tents, wept with a mother fearful that her daughter had been captured by human traffickers, and stood humbled as a new Christian from Iran explained how he will be killed when he goes home, but is filled with joy because he has Jesus. Today it was a homeless child who opened his eyes and shifted his perspective. A pickpocket to be exact.

He called us very early in the morning to tell us that his wallet had been stolen. Everything was gone – ID, money, bank cards. He had taken the precautions, but still got taken by a thief. It wasn’t the missing stuff that was breaking his heart. Thinking back through the moments around when his wallet went missing, he remembered a small group of homeless children swarming around his group. Malnourished bodies, filthy clothes, the stamp of poverty and hopelessness etched deeply on their little faces. “I would have given them the money,” he said. “All they had to do was ask.”

That is my son. He has a bottomless heart. I wish I was more like him. Instead, I see myself in the pickpocket. How many times do I think that I have to steal blessings, grab my own joy, stuff myself with stuff, and run around frantically to fill an emptiness that scares me because it reveals my broken desperation? Our world teaches us to seize, grasp, snatch, and steal because if we don’t take care of ourselves, no one else will.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8

My Jesus Resolution today is to ask. I am going to slow down, mute the world’s whispers, and turn my face to God. He is full of compassion, overflowing with mercy, and rich in love. Too often I try to solve my own problems, answer my own questions, and fill my own emptiness. Today I am going to ask, waiting for the richness God longs to pour into the deep crevices of my soul. I am going to seek His purpose rather than trying to live out my own agenda. I am going to knock, anticipating the moment today when I will see Him reach into His pocket and fill me Himself.