OK as I
read this devotional in my inbox this morning, I just couldn't keep the tears in my eyes. Please click on the link and read so the rest of this makes sense. I don't know why this seemed to do this to me today. Maybe because I see these people. And now it makes me wonder. I see the man with no legs at the light begging for money. Now I think was he in an accident, got an infection, a witch doctor appointment gone bad, or did his parents chop them off. Or the woman with the growth in her stomach that literally looks like an alien is trying to come out of her body. Would she rather have this deformity because it is a money maker, than get an operation to fix her back to normal? I wonder how many doctors have offered her free surgery. Only to get a "Nah...I'm ok this is how I live. This deformity has become my job. No, really it is ok, I am blessed with this little money maker right here. Without this, who could give me money, I am just normal. Normal doesn't make money". Or what about the one legged man I have known at the beach for the past 4 years. He begs for money so he can buy a prosthetic leg. He has mismatched too short crutches. I want to take his crutches and adjust them to the right height for his tall lean body. But I think, the less put together he looks the more people feel bad and want to help him. Does he already have that new shiny leg, but keeps it at home since if he wore it now why would anyone want to give him money.
What about the kids that are out selling jhonnycakey (picture fried dough or funnel cake but with ketchup instead of butter, sugar and cinnamon) or palito de coco and all sorts of lolipops and treats. These kids should be in school, but their family needs money. The kids will probably sell more than the Mom could and although they should be in school, they might not have the proper paperwork to get into school.
I could never really understand all of this until I moved to the Dominican Republic and I got an eye opening to real extreme poverty. It is real here, and I wonder why I was born rich in the US, vs dirt poor in a third world country. We have no clue about real poverty in the US. We don't know people that have a sore on their foot that hasn't healed in 10 years. Yet, they get a new house with a concrete floor and that 10 year infection clears in a month. We don't know what we would do or what choices we would make if we hadn't eaten in a week or had clean drinking water to drink. What about if we were raised in such poverty that we barely ever got any protein to eat and we just lived a rice bloated life of filling ourselves when we could just hoping that we can survive the next day. Our only priority each day was how am I going to keep myself and my family alive. What if we were never taught to read or our brains were even capable of functioning correctly because of years of malnutrition. Or what if we lived in some little village in Africa and our Mothers fed us the left over mush after they made their alcohol and it at least filled our bellies and took us to a state that we were so sleepy we didn't ask for food anymore and we were so quiet when we were passed out.
I am not sure why I felt I had to say all of this...I guess because I was so clueless 4 years ago. And when you know better you do better. I was so inconvenienced by some many things back then I saw as important. Now I realize how could I have thought that a real inconvenience was how dare my favorite restaurant stop selling my favorite pecan encrusted swordfish entree. Or how dare my front loading washer decide today is the day to go on the fritz. I was so selfish, I was so unaware of what kind of inconveniences were real inconveniences. But I had no idea, I was in my own little US bubble. Now I see life differently. I feel guilty when I climb in my king size bed with clean sheets and too many pillows. Or when I made my dog a bed out of a $12 piece of foam and I know it is better than the little boy I know about who used to sleep on a mattress of old clothes infested with bugs and rats and throw in a few tarantula nests. Life is hard for most of the world. Really hard. I had no idea. What can we do about it? Well we can't help or save them all, but when I see them and I can help them I do. So can you. You see them. Do you walk on by? Do you drive past saying you don't have anything to give them on the way to buy a $5 frapachino? I don't know that you could just jump right in to putting your hands on a person who you might not know when the last time they bathed, but you can do other small things.
When you see that person begging for money, if you are able and have enough for you and your family, give them some. Don't judge them about what they will do with the money. Give and let that be between them and God. If you were homeless and cold and down in the dumps what would you want to escape your reality? A cheeseburger or a nip of tequila? Or instead of that after you go through the drive through for maybe the 10th time that month, pick them up something. Or even better, stop and ask them their name and ask their story. I don't know that this comes naturally to people. I am not sure if I have always had the gift of an empathetic heart. I think my Mom has it and she passed it on to me. She was always bringing home people who needed a family. I have always looked for a reason for people's irrational behavior. There has got to be a reason they are so angry or they hurt people because well hurt people hurt people. Or they must have something wrong with them mentally because normal healthy people don't usually shoot up movie theaters. When everyone is praying for the families of those affected I am the one praying for the one who started it all. And their families and their mothers because I can imagine that this isn't one of their favorite parenting moments. I am just like this and it keeps getting worse the more I deepen my relationship with Jesus. I see the world through the eyes of Jesus. I think about how he would see the people he came in contact with. I know it is cliche but "WWJD". What would Jesus do to the man who just walked away from the movie theater that he just shot up? I think He take him in His arms and give him a big hug. "Come my child, I have been waiting for me to come to me." That is Jesus kind of love. No judging love. Unconditional love. Agape Love. Outside of Christ living in us, I don't think we can ever love like this. Even with the spirit of God alive in us, this love can be hard if we let our flesh and our past cloud our current situation. I know what you are thinking..."So Jodi if someone killed your child you would just be like "So go be like Jesus and give him a hug" yea right! Well I can tell you I know someone personally who after a man driving an 18 wheeler didn't even see the car carrying her father, and two daughters, and a friend of her daughters, killing them all, she actually did just that. She went up to this man who was the last person to walk through the funeral home at 2 am and said "I forgive you". There is hope for me too. That was surely not her strength but Jesus' spirit in her that let her not put herself and her feelings first. She by no means liked her circumstances, but she loves Jesus. So when she loves people some of that Jesus in her just oozes out of her. I want to love like that. Like Jesus loves. Unconditionally. Selflessly. Crazy love. Every. Time. No. Matter. What.
Just think too that the circumstances they are in aren't always their fault. Sometimes it is but sometimes their parents broke their legs for their own personal gain. Sometimes they had the short end of the stick right out of the gate. Sometimes because someone never showed them real love they are not capable of showing it to themselves or others. Give people a break sometimes. Maybe you will be the first person that really cared about them in their whole lives.
In His Grip,
Jodi Shaheen
