A sassy girl desires to do something noble.

Her inner voice beckons, “just let go of your fear and anxiety for safety and security and jump off baby!”

Yet, the reasonable voice within, insistently presses: “Life is not all— adventure and living on the edge.”

But, in the end, that side of her that craves freedom and refuses to absolutely conform carries the day.

There is excitement, the thrill of adventure, the mystery of the unknown and most importantly: there is God.

In the course of this obscure adventure, she flops.

Wretchedly, dreadfully, terribly… the shutting down almost kind of flopping.

It seems that the sassy girl hadn’t the slightest idea that it was never really about the noble thing she desired to do, but what this quest desired to bring out in her.

She begins to see people.

She finds children who are just children – not a cluster of numbers on a screen somewhere.

Children and people who are searching for friendship, for acceptance, for security, for love and to be understood.

They are no longer “those distant people over there.”

They are not just a bunch of “the forgotten and overlooked people of the world.”

They are precious: their eyes are hopeful, their smiles feel like home, and their hearts are full of gentleness and forgiveness.

For some, the corrupting influence of the world has not yet gotten a hold of them.

Now, the sassy girl shares with these people.

She begins to see them for the first time.

She learns that it was never really about what she would give, but what she would experience.

For a brief moment, this vulnerability scares her almost to flight.

Still, she presses on anyway; heart, mind, body and soul.

♣