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)
No comments:
Post a Comment