In dialoguing with friends and family about our Haiti trip, I’ve been asked THIS more times than I can count:

“Why???”

To many, the math doesn’t add up. To me, the answer is simple:

Because somebody once reached into my darkness and offered a little light.

I hit the end of my rope about 11 years ago. We’re not talking a bad day or a rough season or a challenging time. I WAS AT THE END. Unable to believe in the reality of a God who seemed like He didn’t show up in my hour of greatest need, I fell hard. Completely devoid of hope’s light, life’s dark side got the best of me.

When I believed I was too far gone to save, God used one person to change my odds.  Like a single beam in a black night, he spoke the words of Isaiah 61:1-3 over the mess of my life. I didn’t believe it, but he did. And the truth penetrated my dead soul, breathing hope into my heart again. It took years—YEARS—for the healing and redemption to come full circle. But it all began with one individual who dared to step outside his world and reach into the brokenness of mine.

That’s why I blog … why I write … and why I’m going to Haiti this week.

Because when you get down to the math of it, I shouldn’t even be here. But as long as I am, I want to do the same.

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” ~ Isaiah 58:10