Give

Okay, so I’m going to write just to get some things out of my system. I am still struggling with this sense of guilt. It comes and goes. Having nothing to do the past few days due to the snow has left my mind sort of idol, which is never good. Last night I walked through the living room and Randy stopped me to look at the television. It was horrible flooding in Australia. Homes and cars were being swept away. Lots of people have already been killed and lots, including entire families, are still missing.

Today on the way to work I heard that it is the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. It is also on the front page of MSN with a link to pictures. 200,000 people were killed and 1.5 MILLION were left homeless. I can’t even imagine that many people! The majority of those (including children) are still living in tents. They don’t even have a real roof over their head. They certainly don’t have clean water to drink.

In the past, I would have seen these stories and not thought much about them. I would have felt badly for them, but not worried too much because it was happening to someone else. Now, I am physically nauseated. I keep thinking about the kids I saw in Honduras. Some were eating out of the trash, some were living next to the dump, some were out begging for money on the sides of the roads all day, others were holding a cardboard box trying to collect anything they could to eat or sell. They drank filthy, contaminated water. They hadn’t been able to bathe. Many didn’t wear clothing or shoes. People did their laundry in rivers. Oh my goodness. I am feeling overwhelmed. We live in a crazy world. We are so rich. We just have no idea how wealthy and truly blessed that we really are.

Every day I hear people complaining about this, that, or the other. Don’t get me wrong; I understand that venting seems to be part of our human nature. We all do it. It has become a little frustrating to me though. After seeing life in Honduras, I’ve come to realize that we have absolutely nothing to complain about. We haven’t done anything to deserve all of the blessings we have. We should be thanking God every day for all we have. We should be thanking Him for our jobs, co-workers, families, friends, etc. I know all of those things cause frustrations and pain sometimes, but at least we have them. At least we have a job that allows us to feed our children and families. We have reliable transportation. We have food on our tables. We never have to question where our next meal is coming from; we just go out and buy it. So many others aren’t as fortunate.

Here are a few photos of squatter houses in front of the dumps outside of Tegucigalpa:

 The following are kids, homeless, people and dogs digging through and eating out of the dumpster in Talanga:

 See the dogs? One is actually standing in the dumpster. The other one is trying to get up there.

 Neither child below is wearing pants.

 This is David from La Ermita. He lives behind the mission with his mother and siblings.

The Bible teaches us to give to the poor and to help the needy. There are so many scriptures, but here are just a few:

Deuteronomy 15:7 says, “If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother”.

Deuteronomy 15:10 says, “Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto”.

Proverbs 19:17 says, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again”.

1 John 3:17 says, “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

Proverbs 29:7 really spoke to me. The Bible says, “The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it”. If seeing people hurt and suffer doesn’t do something to you, then I suggest that you examine your heart and life. We are called to help the poor. If we are where we should be in our walk with Christ, we should be aware and considerate of those around us suffering. It doesn’t matter if they are our next door neighbor our halfway across the world. Our eyes need to be opened and we, who are so richly blessed, are called to help them however we can.

God reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver”. We should give out of our hearts. Scratch that, we shouldn’t just give out of our hearts, we should give our hearts. We should give everything we can to help those who are less fortunate than us. We should give until it hurts. After all, they are hurting tremendously.

Lastly, Matthew 6:2-4 says, “When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you".

We have a heavenly father who is omniscient. He sees all and knows all. When you give, don’t give so others can see. Give without boasting or bragging. Anybody can do that. Be unpretentious and humble. God will bless you for it.