Are You Willing to be Disturbed?

That was the question she posed to us..."are you willing to be disturbed"?

It was a weekday morning in mid-December and I was listening to a radio broadcast.  I don't even remember the speaker's name, but her question caught my attention.  She was talking about the cushions we place around us so as not to allow the ugliness of what's "out there" to threaten our nice, comfortable lives.  Things like poverty and disease, rampant in so much of the world, but which "we" like to keep at a safe distance.  Hers was a story of how she came out from behind the cushions and eventually began birthing aid's orphanages.  Although her question tugged at me, I found some of her thinking to be, well, radical, which in turn made me skeptical.  And so I went on with my mostly neat and tidy life.

A couple of days later, as I opened the newspaper to peruse for a few minutes over breakfast, I was met with the headline, "U.N. LOSES WAR AGAINST POVERTY", accompanied by a picture of a young child, half naked, standing in a garbage dump.  And my initial inner response was, "I just want to eat my breakfast in peace...I don't want to see THIS."

And then I heard the question again, "are you willing to be disturbed?"  And with probably an audible sigh, I said, "yes.".  I read the article, and then prayed for this young boy and his hopeless existence. What more could I do?

A day or so following, as I was getting ready for my day, the Spirit seemed to gently provoke me.  "So...what are you going to do about it?"  I knew the Spirit was not just talking about the little boy in the garbage dump, or even poverty in general, but ME.  This was about me.  And as I pushed gel through my wet hair, remembering that I needed to get that appointment made to have highlights put in my hair, I heard the Spirit asking yet another question, "are you willing to give up your hilites?"

Ouch! Not my hilites!!!  I wanted them for Christmas...they would look awesome...just brighten me up for this festive season.  I really wanted highlights.  So, would I give them up?????  It took a few minutes until I could say yes in my heart.  But I did.  I knew it was right and good and quite frankly... really hard.  It wasn't about sending $$ for the little boy in the garbage dump.  It was about my heart, and a willingness to sacrifice something I wanted.

That was a pivotal day for me.  The beginning of something incredibly challenging, something that would eventually change my life and put me on a very different course that still, to this day, is largely unknown. It's big and deep and freeing and difficult and overwhelming and God-size.  Which is why I'm on the journey with Him.

To think it all started with six word question.