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Sep
23
Looking into their Eyes
Posted September 23rd, 2009 @ 12:15 am by | | PrintFiled Under Food for Thought
Compassion was a distinguishing mark of Jesus’ ministry. This would have been a significant diversion from the religious leaders of the day who were more concerned about minding their Pharisaic p’s and q’s than they were with hungry masses, wayward women or the blind, lame, leprous and poor among them. To the Pharisess, Saducees, teachers of the law and the High Priest, these were people to be shunned, ignored and avoided.
Not to Jesus. Wayward women followed Him around and gave financial support to His work. He befriended tax collectors, zealouts and fisherman. He ate with sinners and celebrated with drunks. He hung out in the seedy part of town and only got His ire up when confronted by those clad with false piety. Scripture says that when Jesus saw hungry people, He had compassion on them. When He saw sick people, He had compassion on them. When He saw a crowd of people who needed divine guidance, He had compassion on them.
I’ve passed by far too many street people while clinging to a recently discovered five dollar bill in my coat pocket and refused to give it to someone in need because they might use it to make yet another poor choice. I’ve looked down my nose at too many who were less fortunate than me without ever considering that I might have been blessed in order to be a blessing to them. For much too long, I’ve not given a second thought to suffering people, poor people, needy people, hurting, lost, desperate, dying people. You know, I have a lot to do. I need to wash my car and fill my pantry and dust my flat panel tv.
Pathetic. No. Excuse. Period.
God is changing all that. For the past several years, He’s been prying my eyes open no matter how hard I try to squeeze them shut. He pries. It hurts. Mostly, it hurts because I know my eyes should be opened. It’s just easier to keep them closed. Sure, it’s dark, but it’s comfortable. And easy. And empty.
Yesterday’s message at church took us to Acts 3:1-10 where a lame man looks at Peter and John and asks for what he thinks he needs: money. Peter and John both look at him. Then Peter commands him in the name of Jesus to get up and walk and reaches out a hand to help them man to his feet. The man not only stands but leaps around the temple gate in utter delight over legs he’d never considered using. He praises God and the people are amazed. 2,000 people place their faith in Christ.
The hang up in this story is that Peter performed a bona fide miracle on behalf of this crippled man, and it’s easy enough for us to dismiss our personal connection to the whole thing because we get lost in the miracle. Our Senior Pastor, Randy Frazee, so beautifully helped us see beyond the miracle by taking a closer look at Peter’s example. He pointed out three things that any of us can do:
- Look them in the eyes. Acknowledge them. Give them your attention. Look at them with eyes of compassion, and you will see an eternal soul whose life has intersected with yours.
- Pray for them in Jesus’ name. That’s where the action is found. Jesus’ name truly is the name above all names, and anything good I might have to offer to someone else is because of Him.
- Extend a helping hand. Get involved. Get in the middle of people who are hurting to let them know you really care. It will make all the difference in the world.
Our family spent a good deal of time talking about this message this afternoon and considered our response. Then later in the day we joined with some of our dearest friends to do help pack boxes of food to feed the hungry who live right here in San Antonio…one out of four children in our city goes to bed hungry every night. This seems a fitting way to have ended our day together as we take steps to shine the light of compassion into the darkest corners of our world. Here are some pictures of our food packing assembly line. This is how we started off our Sunday evening Life Group meeting…followed by a Bible study on, you guessed it, the healing of the lame man in Acts 3.
(1) The masterminds: Cliff & Bill; (2) The food: May those who eat it find life that is truly life
(3) The assembly line: The finest group of food box packers I know; (4) My job: Tuna, 4 cans per box
(5) My lovely assistants: I’m going to be in trouble for posting this; (5) The boxes: All packed up and shrink wrapped by my man
We plan to pack between 1,500 and 2,000 of these boxes as we help our church collect and distribute 10,000 of them by the end of October. This is a large effort, but we’re equally thrilled to hear about smaller efforts that are equally significant. One newly married couple has packed a box for themselves and will eat only what is in that box for dinner for two weeks so they can save money to pack more boxes that will distributed around our city.
I love doing work like this. I love sharing it with my family. I love dreaming and praying about what God will do with it all. And we’ve only just begun…to be continued.
Oh, yes, you are in trouble.
How did you get all the food?
The food was all donated. What a wonderful thing to see the body of Christ working together.
I loved this blog post! Thank you for taking the time to put into words what the Lord is doing in your heart and through your life…it was a blessing and the Lord used it to bring edification to my heart.