So, Mr. 'Christian' did you have breakfast yet? How did you sleep last night? I imagine it was a fairly comfortable night, what with your nice fluffy pillow and 400 count egyptian cotton sheets. Heading off to work this morning? Are you catching the metro; braving the traffic so you can park in one of those $10.00 a day parking lots; or simply car-pooling? Talking about breakfast, isn't it tough how they make us have to go through so many choices? Bread: white, wheat, sourdough or rye? Meat: Do you want canadian bacon, turkey bacon, sausage patties or sausage links? While we're at it, how would you like your eggs? Over easy, medium, scrambled or how about a choice of six different omelets that we offer? Juice: you pick your 'poison'!
And still we complain and murmur about how difficult our lives are in light of the current recession!!! We fight over who we want as president. We are divided over who is God's choice to lead us through the next four years, yet we all 'prophesy' that our candidate is God's choice, and for good measure we remind you that if you don't vote for him, God's gonna getcha! We can't even agree on whether the economy, abortion, or the war in Iraq is forefront on God's mind, though we all 'prophesy' that whichever one is dearest to our hearts is dearest to God's. Funny though, that we only seem to have these disagreements every four years. Funnier still is that they seem to coincide with Presidential election years. While we rant and rave, and wield our big 'Christian stick' pointing out how everyone who doesn't believe like us is the 'enemy' , true Christianity is living in the places where the 'stench' of pain and poverty is at its greatest (James 2: 14-26).
So if you did have breakfast this morning (or even if you skipped it by choice), let this picture of a Congolese refugee child, a victim of tribal insurgence, remind you of what Jesus really died for. This child is eating his meal (who knows when and where the next one will come from) mixed with sand from the dirt trampled by a thousand people just trying to survive for one more day. You can interpret this post any way you want. You and I can pontificate and justify our often extravagant and ungrateful lifestyles, or we can fall on our knees in prayer, give generously to help someone live, or go and serve people who are less fortunate than us. Whatever you choose to do will reveal your own heart. Judging from true Biblical prophecy and the prevalent global trends though, we won't always be the most prosperous or for that matter, the most powerful nation on earth.
3 comments:
Joseph, The kids always break my heart. I want to bring them all home. Give them food clothes and stuffed animals. I want to hug them and kiss them and tell them how the world is suppose to be.
I try to do what I can. I sponser children. I donate to different charities. I pray for them. I sponsor missionaries.
Please Joseph, tell me what else I can do? What other ways can I help? I am serious.
I am a fulltime mother of two. Fulltime caregiver of my FIL. Wife to my husband, Parttime worker that donates 90% of my paycheck. I want to do more but don't know where to start.
Theresa, thanks for your candor. I'm certainly in no position to dictate what you should and shouldn't do, however, I'd say from what you wrote that it sounds to me as if you're doing just fine!
PJ - THanks for this post. Because...it's the truth. I have recently been discussing and considering why it is that in our culture, Christianity doens't take the Bible to be literal in many cases yet it does in others. For instance, I have rarely attended a church service where tithing wasn't considered the standard for giving and that at a minimum, yet, where the Bible says that rebellion is as witchcraft and that we are to take care of orphans and widows, people let it slip by the wayside (me included at times) and assume that the Bible must be insinuating that we should care "about" widows or orphans but not adopt them into our homes, etc. Churches used to sell their personal belongings and land, etc. to give money to those who needed it in the church. I know I haven't ever personally done that and I wouldn't ever expect that someone else would...but that's the type of thing I want to start doing. As you have said many times...this world is not our home. Thank God, right?
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