Sunday, October 1, 2006

compassion for reason
today, someone was just sharing about the compassion he shared toward the people in hongkong when he went there for missions the past three times. (i'm going to hongkong at the end of the year for a mission trip) he said something that really spoke to me, which was that the compassion he felt, toward the poor or the homeless, if a man needed food, he'd get him food, or if the person was cold and needed a jacket, he'd give him his jacket.

now, i have a schwipe jacket that costs over 200 dollars, and when i heard of such an action, i just naturally thought of my own worldly possesion. if this was me in hongkong, wearing my jacket, would i give it to someone who needed it more than me at the time? forget about buying the guy some other jacket or giving him something else to keep warm with. i'm just proposing that right here right now, someone needed the jacket off my shoulders and it happened to be my expensive jacket, would i have given it to him?

it's rather crippling, this price of compassion i can put on material things. i know i'm no saint, but.. man, i was confronted today by the holy spirit. it really caused me to ponder and re-inspect the things which i place value on in life. if so, material possesions probably ranks quite highly up there then. i dont know if i could have given a homeless man my jacket. the brand, or the quality or even the way it looks should actually not amount to anything should it? i mean, when push comes to shove. but i think i was shoved, and i took a second guess, and i didn't like what i saw.. didn't like how i valued my own things more than i valued the things of God.

and so, i take a step back, and review the things that i buy, things that i desire.. and have to realise that all things come from God, and things which we place before God ultimately become our stumbling blocks.

No comments: