Do Something By Cortney Donelson

Hebrews 13:16 (NIV)

“And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

God has put something on our hearts. Every one of us has this something. It’s a passion. A soft spot. A gift. A desire. The question is, when will we take that something and do something. 

One of the most irresistible questions of those who doubt the goodness of God is why He would allow such pain, anguish, injustice, and darkness in this world. I struggled with this at one time too. 

Through the years, I have seen and experienced a lot of darkness. I have traveled around the world visiting countries where people don’t seem to smile, where orphans share cribs and clothes with each other, where teenagers beg strangers for a pair of shoes, and where you walk down the city street with your backpack on your front side so nothing turns up missing at the end of your journey. 

I woke up this morning

Saw a world full of trouble now

Thought, how'd we ever get so far down

How's it ever gonna turn around

So I turned my eyes to Heaven

I thought, “God, why don't You do something?”

Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of

People living in poverty

Children sold into slavery

The thought disgusted me

So, I shook my fist at Heaven

Said, “God, why don't You do something?”

He said,

“I did…

I created you.”

Matthew West’s song “Do Something”

There was a time when I wanted to shake my fist at God. I wanted to know why He allows children to be abandoned and “raised” in institutions without a loving family. I vividly remember staring at a photo on CNN’s website showing dozens of tiny babies lined up in cribs. They filled a small, whitewashed room from one wall to the next. I cried. I once read a horrific story of children who were “aging out of their orphanages” and being forced onto the streets. My heart ached. The fist shaking was justified. However, I should have been shaking it at myself. 

God has put something on our hearts. He created us to do something. For me, that something is a desire to see every orphan’s crib empty. I realize I cannot adopt them all. Although, I have some friends who are trying to do just that. (Smile) I have also come to understand that sometimes adoption is not the answer. Often, the answer lies in the foundational reasons women relinquish their precious babies in the first place. Poverty. Addiction. Politics. Cultural Norms. Age. Fear. 

In Haiti and Russia, poverty is the number one answer women provide for why they make the tough choice to give up their newborns. 

My private, content, comfortable, ordinary world changed when I traveled to Russia to adopt our little boy. My eyes were opened to some of the darkness of this world. Here’s the thing about being near all that darkness – I also witnessed the light of those who have the love of God. They were shining in that darkness bringing hope, mercy, laughter, kindness, food, clothes, shoes, and even homes.  

After my son's adoption, a few years passed. Our family settled back into ordinary. I became comfortable again. Then, I felt the call to adopt once more. This time, God took us to China. Out of my comfort zone I went. Again, I witnessed and learned of things that children should never have to endure and decisions that birth mothers should never feel forced to make. I was changed again. 

A couple more years passed. Then, God sent me to Haiti. It was as if He kept pulling me closer to the needs of orphaned children and those who live in extreme poverty. To the people who believe they must give up their children – and to the children themselves. He broke my heart over and over until I realized that this was my something. It was time to “do something extraordinary,” not just do something every few years or worse, feel something and do nothing. This was my do something calling that would move my life from ordinary to extraordinary. 

I read an amazingly hopeful yet sadly true statistic the other day: If only 7% of the world's 2 billion Christians each cared for one orphan, the orphan crisis would end. We are not all called to adopt. We are all called to care for orphans. Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

I would not be surprised if in God’s perfect way, He has placed orphans on the hearts of at least 7% of us Believers. There are an estimated 100 million homeless in the world.* I bet He has placed homelessness on the hearts of 100 million of us.  I bet he has placed poverty, human trafficking, or hunger on the hearts of some percentage of us too.

God is doing something. Every day, with each new soul that turns toward Him, He is using people to change the world – one sacrificial act of love at a time. But, shouldn’t this kind of love produce more from us than just the posting of an article on social media or volunteering once a year at a crisis center? 

What has He pressed into the mercy parts of your heart? Is it seeing others – the lost – come to know and love Jesus? Is it creatively engaging in solutions that would make homelessness in this country a thing of the past? Or, perhaps it is related to a more socially and politically controversial something, such as the institution of marriage. Hebrews 13:16 implores us, “… do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” We all have something to share, something to give, something to do … some sacrifice we can make. That’s just it, though … it’s a sacrifice. It will require something of us to do this extraordinary something for another.

Do you want to be a difference maker?  Don’t settle for ordinary. Too many of us do. 

Do something! Become extraordinary.

Prayer – God, we know You created us to be the difference makers in a fallen world. Thank You for this Scripture – the one that calls us out of our comfortable lives and into something amazing. Help us discover what You have placed on our hearts then break our hearts for Your cause Move us into action, Lord! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

*Statistic taken from 2005 United Nations Report, number likely higher

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