Tonight while I was checking Facebook & twitter before getting ready for bed, the TV was on in my room. I don't know what channel it was on...but all of the sudden my heart was gripped by what I was hearing.
I watched a clip about a family in Guatemala whose son & daughter needed hearing aids. Someone had bought them hearing aids a while back, but they only had enough batteries for a month...and couldn't afford (or get to) new batteries. They looked to be teenagers, yet the girl had only successfully passed 1st grade and the boy hadn't even completed that much, because they couldn't hear. The parents talked of how it broke their hearts, but to get a bus ticket to the city where they could buy 2 batteries would cost an entire month's salary for them. So the kids worked hard, but in silence. This organization went down, took them to a hearing specialist, bought them new hearing aids & 10-year supply of batteries!
When I hear stories like this, tears are in my eyes and my heart aches. And then I remember different times I would be walking down my own street in Guangzhou, China, and see children begging...sometimes missing limbs, blind or looking emaciated. There were more times than I can remember that I emptied my wallet and cried because I didn't have more to give them. These are the moments I wish God had called me into a high-paying field and blessed me with a full-time job. (Mission work and worship leading isn't really for those seeking to get rich quick! ha!)
And then I stop to realize that sometimes I've been able to callous my heart in those moments...justifying that my money is from God & He wants to bless me for serving Him...and someone else will just have to provide for those people. I'm not saying that God doesn't want those who do His work to have nice things, don't get me wrong. But, I have to be careful to remember He entrusted me with that money, He didn't give it to me. And the nice things, He entrusted me with those too. They're really His, not mine.
When I keep the mindset that all money & things are really God's that He's lending to me, it makes it so much easier to give to "the least of these" among us. My prayer is that He keeps reminding me, and I keep my spirit open to hear those soft whispers & feel the gentle nudges to help others with whatever I have to give.
Even if I don't have money or material items to give, I always have Jesus to share with them...and, honestly, He's what we all need!
