Matthew 25
31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Anderson Cooper is having a special tonight about the horrific struggles of the people in Niger tonight at 6:00 central on CNN. I would encourage each of you to watch it if you have the chance. My husband and our friend Steve Dilla have touched on it recently in their blogs. People, mostly children are dying every day.
It is my daily routine to go home at lunch time. I live close to where I work so it makes it easy. I let our dog Zacch out, eat my lunch and watch either Fox News or CNN. Today, I stopped at Sonic to get lunch. They got my order wrong so I sent it back and had them remake it. Not sure what happened to the food I sent back, probably got put in the trash. So I drive home and continue my daily routine. Zacch goes for a walk and them I proceed to sit down, eat my lunch and watch the news. As I am sitting stuffing my face an image of a child comes on the screen. I decide to watch and it is of a child in Niger, starving to death. He is hungry but almost unable to drink. If they are not able to drink by the time they reach the medical teams they usually die. He is crying, but not like I have ever heard a child cry...almost a moan. I look down at my food and almost throw up. I am still nauseous as I write this. How could I enjoy my lunch when there was so much need in the world. I could probably stand to loose about 30 pounds, here was a ten month old dying because he was so starved that he could no longer drink the milk that was being spooned into his mouth.
Then it hit me. I spend on average 50 dollars a week on lunches, Starbuck's, etc. That does not include groceries, eating out for dinner or on the weekend. I decided to start a fast. Why? Well for several reasons. First, so that I could start to, on a very small scale, empathize with the people of Niger. Second, to really see the over indulgent lifestyle most of us live for what it is. Third, to reconnect with God through prayer and fasting for the people of Niger and all people throughout the world who physically and spiritually hunger each day. Finally, to send money to a relief organization that is working in that region.
How could God allow this to happen? Well, evil is in the world. What are we as followers of Christ going to do? Please re-read the bible passage at the beginning, seems like an easy answer. The people of Niger need to feel the compassion of a generation of Christ followers who have had much, too much if you ask me.
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3 comments:
Thank you for sharing this, how this has touched your heart and your action to change and make a difference. This will move all of us to reflect what is in our lives - are we grateful and give glory to God in all that we do and that just one person can make a change, tell her friends and open our eyes - every life is on purpose.
Thanks for speaking out about an important subject, and praise God for giving you such a compassionate heart and mind.
Every move and step we take towards seeing the world's poverty as something we all could have a hand in can have a powerful ripple effect and make a huge difference.
As I sat down to read this, I was thinking to myself how hungry I was! What a reminder to me that my slight hunger pangs are nothing in comparison to how others are suffering! Thank you for sharing your heart. It was an important wake up call to hear.
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