I wondered
if he was dead. He was just lying there,
sprawled out beside the road. It was
dark as we drove by but it was definitely someone. As we continued driving, I thought “Welcome
to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.”
It was my
first time to Ethiopia, my first time to the continent of Africa. I have lived in cities before so I knew a
little bit what to expect but going to a third-world nation assaults all of
your senses. And it is almost
overwhelming. I had similar experiences
when I worked in the inner-city of Chicago, touring abandoned apartment buildings
that still had people living in them and when I went through Tijuana, Mexico.
Our natural
instinct when we come face-to-face with poverty is to turn away. We change the channel to not look at the
starving African children, we avert our gaze from the panhandler on the
off-ramp, we drive by the bag lady pushing her shopping cart. In our community, we don’t have to avoid
scenes of poverty nearly as much because they are more hidden. We don’t see the elderly woman sitting alone
night after night with a solitary dinner that barely provides enough calories
but it is all she can afford. We don’t
recognize the eighteen-years-old-and-one-day young man who just aged out of the
foster care system and has now been put out on the street to figure out how to
survive. We don’t know about the teen
mom with the new baby living with her mom who was a teen mom herself and both
too young to have kids and grandkids.
But they are all there. And Jesus
loves them.
The Bible
makes it clear God has a bias toward the poor.
He is especially fond of the widow and the fatherless. (“ ‘Cursed
be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and
the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” Deuteronomy 27:19, ESV.) It is also clear that God does not hate the
rich. But it is quite true more often
than not that the rich tend to hate God.
So, if we are a follower of Jesus, what are we to do?
I remember asking my friend Steve
Bryan, who has lived in Ethiopia for the last 20 years, how he deals with all
the poverty and need around him. He
clearly couldn’t help every person he saw who was needy. Steve said he helped the people he could, the
people God put in front of him.
As followers of Jesus, we can’t meet
every need – and that is not sin nor failure before God. What IS sin is helping no one. Greed and envy are not exclusive sins of the
wealthy – some of the most greedy people I have met were those of little
resources. And generosity is not exclusive
to the rich – some of the most generous people I have met have had tremendous
needs themselves.
Cold Springs Church is committed to
growing up disciples that see with the eyes of Jesus. We want to be people who see the needs God
places in front of us and then begin doing something to meet those needs. And that is what God wants from us – to be
willing to see the need and meet the need.
That is what a disciple of Jesus does.
The rich man’s sin against Lazarus was ignoring the person at his gate. (Luke
16:19-31) Jesus tells us that ignorance
nor ignoring is not an excuse.
God doesn’t want you to save the
world. That’s his job. But he does expect you to open your eyes to
the needs at your gate. And do something. A heart like that makes God happy. And a heart like that will be a blessing and
experience blessings.
Who’s at your gate? Are you willing to do something?
A
Prayer: God, show us who you put at our
gate. Give us the courage to see and
then the wisdom to do what is right.
Amen.
Peace
and grace,
David
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