The story behind “Waiting for the Sky to Fall”

Every couple of days for the next 2 weeks or so, I’m going to write a post about one of the songs from the CD that we’ll be releasing soon. I wrote all but one of the songs on the record, and I really hope you’ll be moved by them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

To understand this song, there’s someone you need to meet.

Her name is Ellah. She’s a 6-year-old girl from Zimbabwe. She has the same birthday as I do, November 24. She lives with her family in a small two-room brick-under-asbestos house, in a little village that is hot and dry because of a lack of rain. Ellah’s family is peasantry and relies on rain-fed agriculture. Her family raises goats and chickens, but they can’t afford cattle, which are essential for draught power. They have a small garden that they tend, which sits on the bank of a stream in their village. They’re also able to draw a small amount of water from that stream.

Ellah and her brother and sister live in a community severely affected by the HIV and AIDS crisis. Her family doesn’t have money to pay for food, school, or medical care. Because of that, Ellah did not attend school for several years. She helps her mother cook meals, and likes to play ball games.

For a little while now, Ellah has been my sponsored child through World Vision. We’ve all seen commercials on TV of some guy walking along the railroad tracks carrying a sick-looking child, or sitting in a slum with a poor family from a third-world country, or standing next to a bedside of a dying boy or girl. How many times have you seen one of those commercials and ignored it or changed the channel?

Let me tell you that now more than ever, the need is real. If you missed my last post about God’s design for religion, the short version is that James 1:27 tells us that God’s intention for the church is to care for those with needs. Not just spiritual needs, but physical and emotional needs. Health needs. Hunger needs. Educational needs.

You see, by meeting physical needs, we’re able to meet spiritual needs as well. By giving them water, the door is opened to give them Jesus. If we teach them to read in school, then the Bible can come alive. That’s how lives are changed.

On one hand, I picked Ellah because we share a birthday, and I thought that was pretty cool. On the other hand, FCC has a working relationship with a mission in Zimbabwe, and my hope is to someday go to meet Ellah and her family face-to-face. I write to her from time-to-time, and she writes back. I hope that through the funds provided by the sponsors of children in her village, that hope can come into a world of fear and darkness and sickness.

WAITING FOR THE SKY TO FALL

I wrote “Waiting for the Sky to Fall” for Ellah and the hundreds of thousands of children just like her all across the world who are waiting too. They’re waiting for a hand to extend hope, and all the while, it seems like we’re sitting around waiting for God-knows-what. We’re looking for Jesus to come back, while she’s looking for her next meal, if you can call it that.

My friends, I say this with love, but I hope it stings: children die every day, and when we “change the channel” or emotionally disconnect from the problem, we might as well be killing them.

I’m not asking or expecting any one person to change the world. I’m pleading with you, with the church, with Americans, with anyone who hears this, to stop disconnecting and start fulfilling the mission that we were given by the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE. Talk about getting orders from the top.

“Waiting for the Sky to Fall” is all about realizing that we have the power to change lives, one at a time, and bring Jesus’ hope to the hurting people of the world. And it’s about time to step things up.

If you want to get involved and make a difference, check out World Vision’s website. To sponsor a child really does cost less than you’d pay for a cup of coffee each morning at McDonald’s. And if sponsoring one child isn’t enough for you, you can sponsor entire families, or even go so far as to adopt an orphan through organizations like Holt International. You can start making a difference today, and that, my friends, is one killer way to find fulfillment and purpose in life.

No more waiting…let’s go be the church.

The entire song, “Waiting for the Sky to Fall,” should load in the player below. If it doesn’t check out Mercy Rising’s MySpace or Facebook page for a preview.

How are you helping to meet the physical, spiritual, or emotional needs of others? Leave a comment and tell me about it.

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Images are copyright 2006 World Vision Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission. 1-888-511-6548 http://www.worldvision.org