Sean Dietrich
While I don't have trouble "keeping the faith," it's not always rosy. Not always easy. Sometimes it's hard. Respecting others' faith when they use is as a weapon to hurt people they don't like is impossible. Respecting their right to have that faith is a little easier, but not at all rosy.
But sometimes it is easy. When nurses on horseback, and linemen from all over, and 1000s of FEMA employees go toward trouble instead of away from it, it's easy to have faith in humankind.
When catastrophes strike others, the often promised thoughts and prayers are easy. When I came out here this morning well before daylight and heard the hum of the combines and saw their bright lights in nearby fields, it was easy to mumble, "Keep them safe."
It's easy to pray when school buses are on the road before and after school. To be thankful for kids who give of their time and sometimes their muscles to help others. To remember “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34)
When you have enough and others don't, it's easy to share whether you have the same values or not. It's even easier when you just think about your own values instead of giving a lot of attention to theirs.
If you are a person of faith, it's easier to tell the truth than otherwise. Especially because if you're laying a groundwork of lies, you have to remember what they were. If you choose to believe the liar, what does that say about your faith? Or you?
In case you think I'm sounding more righteous than I'm entitled to, you have a good point. I was not a truth-telling child. I don't like when people take advantage of charity just because they can and they'd rather not work. I judge them even though I know better. Sometimes faith is easy because I'm not the one doing the work, bearing the burden, mourning the loss.
I don't have an end for this, because it's not something that ends. Faith is ongoing, doing for others is ongoing, catastrophes are ongoing, truth--although it's often buried--is ongoing, loving one another is ongoing.
Have a good week. Pray for others if that's what you do, simply wish for the greater good if it's not. Stay safe. Be nice to somebody.
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I was told once that if someone takes advantage of charity, that's their sin. If you walk by them and judge/don't give what you can, that's your sin. That makes sense to me. And it's good to keep in mind Hebrews 13:2, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." I love the idea of that. We could entertain angels! Pretty cool! The same person that told me the above said he had an experience once where someone came into his office looking for a handout and he was in the middle of something and didn't look up and was about to brush him off and when he did look up, they had vanished. I had a similar experience once. I saw an elderly gentleman toting groceries. I drove around the block to come back and ask him if he needed a ride. He was gone. He had been passing an area where they were building a big apartment complex. There would have been no place for him to go in that amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way. Thanks, Mary.
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ReplyDeleteThank you!
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