Have you ever encountered someone who is without and thought to yourself I wish there was something I could do about it. I think this is something that we may have all experienced at sometime or another. I know I have! Keeping with this thought, I would now like to invite you to examine it with me for a minute, remembering that this is my personal conviction and you are only invited to join me in my thinking and not required to agree with it.
I recently sold my house and am now just killing time until the deal closes. My wife and I were praying diligently for the house to sell, for it to sell quickly and for us to receive a certain amount for it. All three prayers were answered, praise God! Without going into our personal financial details, I will tell you that we bought at the right time and are now in the best financial situation in both of our lives. We are now forced to ask a question quite foreign to us, what do we do with the extra money? Although the amount is not huge, it is to us. Sadly enough, the very first thing that came to my mind was to buy a Nintendo Wii. Interesting isn't it, that the first thing that I think of is a thing and not a person. What does this say about my earlier thoughts of wishing I could help? What it tells me is I would love to help as long as I am first completely satisfied materially, which we all know is a chasing after the wind and can never be accomplished.
So when will I help? The day I help is the day I understand that my personal comfort and pleasure comes secondary to the lives of others. We need the right car, the right house and the proper amount of savings for retirement, and if somewhere along the way we are able to give up a cup of coffee a day for the sake of a child we can now sleep at night knowing we have done our part. When will we get it! When will we understand that we have the means to change the world. Some call this line of thinking idealistic and impractical. I call it the very nature of Christian love, but that's just my opinion.
Rob
3 comments:
Powerful.
Here's the other thing too, the ability to help isn't just contained within extra sums of money. It's all about relationship. We heard testament to this when our African friends told us how they felt degraded when people would "throw their money at them" without knowing who they were. They were more impacted by a simple note J-M had sent to them that expressed how much he treasured their friendship. The money - if you have it - should accompany the love.
And what about the kids? They don't have money so if we only serve by giving money then the message is that they can't participate until they can get a paycheck. Last time I checked, the bible never mentions Jesus getting a paycheck before healing the sick or casting out demons.
I understand what you are both saying, but let's no forget what Jesus said to the rich young ruler. Sometimes there is a call to rid our selves of what binds us. In the case of the young ruler, the only thing that separated him from the kingdom was his inability to give it all away. One is not more important than the other, but both are intrinsically connected in what it means to be a holistic Christian.
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