Two quotes came out of what I listened to this weekend.
Christian courage is choosing to do the will of God even when it is risky and you are afraid. - Rich NathanWe had a few of the neighbors over on Friday night just to hang out and then on Saturday we had one of the neighbor families over for diner. We like our neighborhood more and more - it seems we could become more than neighbors and might even become friends. This is important to us. We do not believe God has us here to take up space.
When I was young, I admired intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people. - Abraham Joshua Heschel
Rather than the usual outreach of simple service projects, since it was the first Saturday of the month, I went down to The Outlet for homeless. I'd love to tell you about the characters that I met there but for privacy reasons I cannot. Bottom line, this is neat way to simply go to the marginalized and share life and love with them.
I am reminded that generosity toward God and toward others is why we exist. To serve the poor, the homeless, the needy gives God glory. But there is a personal benefit, the only way to be free from the control of money and stuff, is to be generous. As the expression goes, if you want to be free from something, give it away. The cool thing about God's economy is that typically even more comes back.
This also links with kindness. I don't want to take any pleasure in the fall of another man. I've read about Ted Haggard and just now about the sentencing of Saddam Hussein. I don't even want to be a megaphone rebroadcasting the fall of others. I want to be as the writer of Hebrews who said of Abraham (who had a child through a concubine) that he didn't waver in faith and like David who greived the news of Saul's death. I want to see others as God sees them and speak of them with kindness.
I often wonder, would history record me as a kind and generos man? If not, I think I would have missed the mark.
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