Saturday, August 11, 2012

Crossing the Road to the Other Side

Our Daily Bread

This is a little switch up … normally I use My Utmost for His Highest as a springboard for my devotion.  I also read Our Daily Bread and decided to use it today, instead …

‘Then I [the writer was looking at the promise land from where the Jews had likely stood before they entered it for the first time] understood. I had ridden across the barren desert in the luxury of an air-conditioned bus stocked with cold bottled water. To me, an oasis was nothing spectacular. The Israelites had spent years wandering in a hot, dry desert. To them, the sprawling patch of pale green in the hazy distance meant refreshing, life-sustaining water. They were parched; I was refreshed. They were exhausted; I was rested. They had spent 40 years getting there; I had spent 4 hours.
Like an oasis, God’s goodness is found in dry and difficult places. How often, I wonder, do we fail to see His goodness because our spiritual senses have been dulled by comfort. Sometimes God’s gifts are seen more clearly when we are tired and thirsty. May we always thirst for Him (Ps. 143:6)’

As Americans, we have a very distorted understanding of life.  Because for most Americans, our basic needs are met, education and health care are a common part of life.  We throw away more food in a day than many people in the world get to eat.  (Do you remember someone (your mom maybe) saying .. "there are people starving in the world" when we would not eat our food and we respond callously … “Send it to them”)  We panic if we don’t have electricity or worse yet air conditioning.  We are dependent upon convenience.  Because of that,  like the writer, we see the world from our experience.  When most Americans come to Haiti their reaction is like being in a dark room and suddenly having the lights turned on.  It is startling.  Shocking.

The question is, does it matter?  All Americans come to Haiti with a “parachute”.  By that I mean we all have a passport that will get us out of this place of poverty, disease, hunger, hopelessness and desolation back to our comfort zone. Jesus talked about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37.  He described three people who saw the same thing.  Only one was moved to an act of compassion.  The others were focused on themselves.  Are you willing to have your life interrupted by others? Are you focused on yourself so much that having to give up what makes you comfortable is the test for whether you will help someone in need?

In Matthew 25, Jesus said “"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  (32)  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  (33)  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  (34)  Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:”  (Matthew 25:31-34)

The point is not that if you don’t help others you are not a Christian .. the point is that IF you are a Christian you are commanded to help others … to love others more than your own life … frankly if you don’t, it is because the eyes of your heart have been dulled by the desires of your flesh and your drive for self-satisfaction.  Ouch!

God does not bless you so you can live a life of comfort where your biggest worry is whether you should super-size your order because you have been picking up a few pounds .. but so you can bless others.  Come on people!

Therefore I “do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:  (17)  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,  (18)  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:16-18)

Cross over to the other side of the road today .. and let your light shine.

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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