Your Love Means Everything

 

 The ALL powerful creator of everything we know and everything we can even think of…. the Creator of the WORLD. He is so good. Each day, He pours His love, kindness, patience, grace and peace onto us, but do I even notice that?

  It's all around us, from the beauty of a sunrise each morning, the air we breathe, the refreshing water that brings us life, a hug from a friend, the melody of a beautiful song, a smile from a stranger, the breeze that gently sweeps across your face, the gift of rest, the steadfast rolling waves of the ocean. HE IS EVERYWHERE.

 The Lord has been opening my eyes lately to see the how He is continually blessing me. He has been opening my eyes to see how blind I have been to His goodness and mercy. I have selfishly focused on the cynical, sarcastic, jaded view of life, when all around me the Lord has been trying to show me glimmers of the wonder of His glory.  I am so incredibly blessed.

 

 I'm getting to experience the world hands on. I have the opportunity to see the sick, the hungry, the lonely, the hurt, the broken, the prisoner, the businessman, the homeless, the tourist, the orphan, the hippie, the mother, the father… the LOST. In each country I have traveled to so far, there are people that are lost. They need purpose, love, hope. They need Jesus. All around me I see the stark contrast of the rich American's eating meals that will cost them hundreds of dollars, while next to them are people making their cardboard beds in a front of a closing store fronts.

 It's hard to understand and I continually blame the rich for not helping the poor. I have seen them as Ebenezer Scrooge from "The Christmas Carol". A man who doesn't have any sympathy or compassion for the poor. He looks down at begging children and says, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? Let them die and decrease the surplus population." I have arrogantly judged others and become prideful for my 'sacrifice'. But last night the Lord convicted me as I vacantly passed homeless woman after homeless man, not truly seeing them. I finally realized as a small smelly child came up asking for money after a short street performance. And as he asked I did the same thing that I had been judging others for, and I turned him away saying that I couldn't give any money. Many times in the world today, there are scams, people lying and people decieving to take advantage of generosity, but where does that line up with being like Jesus? how does that line up with caring for people as if they were Jesus Himself?
 "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."- Matthew 25:35-40

  (This is the city dump in Santa Anna, El Salvador. Adults and children come here daily to crawl around through the rotting, over-heated garbage to search for food and things to sell. )