On Children

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

- Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet"

We must do what we can

Below is a copy of an email sent from Ryan Mobley, pastor of Delta Church:

As you all certainly know, a terrible 7.0 earthquake occurred in Haiti on Tuesday afternoon. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and upwards of 1 million people are homeless. 80% of Haiti's population lives below the poverty line, which makes them the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. By their own admission, they are no where near equipped to handle a disaster like this and are in need of tangible help. Please pray fervently for the people of Haiti and the relief workers. But beyond that, financial gifts are necessary to fund the relief efforts - everything from food, search & rescue, etc. Here are 5 tremendous organizations that you can send a financial gift to (even a small micro-gift of $10 will go a long way):

Baptist Global Response

http://www.baptistglobalresponse.com/new/giving.php

The Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.94aae335470e233f6cf911df43181aa0/?vgnextoid=15c0c5a210826210VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD

World Vision

http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10324

Samaritan's Purse

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Relief_and_Development/Emergency_Relief/

Compassion International

https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/disasterrelief.htm?referer=105910

Additionally, let me emphasize this as well: this is in no way any type of "judgment" from God punishing people. There are misinformed, arrogant, judgmental, non-gospel centered religious people who are saying and believing such things. Do not believe them. Romans 8:22 says "For we we know that the whole creation has been groaning..." The context is the suffering that this life brings because of the terrible effects of sin. The fall (Genesis 3) not only brought death to people, but to all of creation as well. An event like this earthquake is a stark reminder of the brokenness of the world and great need we have for the hope of the gospel to renew not just us, but all of creation. So let us be a people of prayer, a people on mission for the gospel, and a people who do what we can to renew this creation and bring comfort to those who are hurting for the glory of Jesus.