So i got the opportunity to ride on a boat.
To a little island.
And we got to visit a school. A school that doesn't have much. But desires to educate kids and teach them about God's love. And so with little, they are doing what they can.
So we got to bring pens and pencils to the kids. And they sang for us. And performed all the things they had learned.
But pens and pencils was all.
The school was made of mud, and didn't have a good roof. They got rained in a lot. And all the kids didn't have a place to sit. But pens and pencils was what we got to bring. And it's all they needed. You would have thought that we just brought them the finest of all gifts.
And then again, I'm reminded.
Thats its not about what we do.
Or what we give.
Or to the extent that we give.
It's not solely about those things.
It was just pens and pencils.
But to them, it was everything.
Because we came to them. That was important to them.
They didn't ask for anything.
And every time that I go to "give" something like this, I end up gaining a lot more.
And learning once again, that its not about me.
And its not about things.
My word if you read through the Bible, Jesus wasn't going around giving tons of goods away.
He didn't have much with him on the earth -- materially speaking.
But he lived to show us to give something greater than any object.
That its about giving love.
Giving attention.
Giving unconditional favor towards people.
And that if I look to these people as charity acts or as lesser people than I, I am missing the whole point.
Because there are none greater on this earth.
And if my heart is to really serve. If we are praying for God to show us how to serve, I think that we have a lot to learn from the very way He lived on the earth.
He didn't serve charity cases.
He wasn't this big man handing out fliers.
He was one of them. Among them.
Among the dirty, poor, and sinners.
He was just there with them.
Loving them.
Talking to them.
And LISTENING.
Listening so intently because their story mattered to them.
In fact, their stories were everything to Him, the reason He came to the earth in the first place.
I have friends who I learn a lot about this from.
And I'm so pumped that I have people in my life I can watch and learn from.
Because me, sometimes, likes to get the superhero mentality.
And gets caught up on the DO.
And i'm thankful for people in my life who are just tangible proof of how God works in our hearts to be real towards people.
To just spend time with people.
And show them truth by our very lives.
And its THEN that change happens.
Because I can give out things all day.
Give out hand outs all day.
And at the end of the day, all that people got out of it was a good pencil.
And I could title this, "Showing love by just a few pens and pencils."
Ha, but that's not it. Not it at all.
Giving is good and it is NECESSARY. We are called to give things to people in need.
But Heaven forbid our hearts, my heart, becomes JUST about giving out good pencils to people.
Because then, those people will die,
with a good pencil in their hands,
that got them no where.
You see where I'm going with this?
RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE.
Africa, Central America, Georgia...
People need to be heard.
They have stories to tell.
And hearts that are hurting.
People need friends, true friends, who won't let them fall.
People need truth.
And here I am learning this again.
And these beautiful people, once again, are teaching me to just be a friend.
And to be real. Because we are all on the same level here. Not one single person above the other. African or American.
Below the poverty line or not below the poverty line.
It's not about charity work.
Because we are all crazy sinners saved by Grace.
And Grace alone.
26-31Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.
-The Message. 1 Corinthians 1
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