We are without lack of opportunities to help people here. There is always someone in need; always someone at our door asking for money for food, for doctor bills, for help with school bills, etc..
In America, communities and neighborhoods are divided up into classes. The rich live next to the rich; the middle-class live next to the middle-class; and the poor live next to the poor. Very seldom do these classes intermix within communities or housing tracts. So, if one did not live in a poor neighborhood, they very easily could rarely (if ever) come in close contact with a poor person. Usually, we have to intentionally go to "that area."
But living in Indonesia (at least here in Salatiga), this is not the case. The rich live NEXT DOOR to the poor. A home with 7-bedrooms, two cars, two motorcycles, washer & dryer, refrigerator, stove & oven, etc. will be situated right next to a home made out of thin-bamboo, a dirt floor, a campfire to cook food, and no bathroom - let alone any sort of transportation. This scene: the rich with the poor; is typical here.
Living in America, I was not confronted (daily) with poverty and those truly in need. So, the part of the verse in Mark 14, "For you will always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them..." (vs. 7) never really made a lot of sense to me. I didn't have the poor with me, I couldn't do good to them whenever I wished because they were far from me. But now, I see this verse...this verse is being lived out before my very eyes. The poor are here, living next to me, hurting next to me, sobbing next to me. Living among the poor will either do two things (I've seen them both already)...harden your heart or break it over and over and over again until it beautifully reflects the compassionate and merciful heart of Christ. I pray that the latter would be true of us.
"The rich and the poor have a common bond, the LORD is the maker of them all." Proverbs 22:2
No comments:
Post a Comment