"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirty and you gave me to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed cloths and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. The king will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (NIV) Matthew 25:35, 36, 40

I remember complaining that the economy is not "friendly" to my pocket and that things are too expensive and life is now too difficult. Before I could finish complaining, my dad chipped in saying, things have never been cheap. Back in their days, things were expensive and they are not going to get any cheaper. He added that good planning and spending within what you earn have always been the antidotes. Many a times, we find it so hard to show compassion through arms giving because of a similar complaint above.

When was the last time you showed compassion through giving or parting with something? The economy is not friendly for such gestures right? That is the only excuse we come up with when we refuse to do one of our duties as Christians. Unfortunately, in heaven, God will not accept excuses no matter how well we believe they make sense. What will be accepted will be a YES or NO to the question, “did you show compassion to those who were hungry, thirsty, sick, in prison and homeless?”

In as much as we have been blessed with jobs that have helped us to provide for our basic needs, God expect us to extend a helping hand to those who cannot afford these basic needs. The poor will always be among us because God allowed them to be among us so we as Christians can practice what makes us Christians. This is what a friend told me when I questioned why God made some people poor. A story is told about a barber who was telling one of his clients that he did not believe God exists. So the client who is a Christian then asked the barber why he thought so? The barber then said “if God exists, why do we have so many wars and people are killed, why are there so many homeless people? etc.” The client then went out of the barber’s shop briefly and then returned and asked the barber, “do we have a barber at this place?” The barber proudly said, “yes”. Then the client asked, “why then do I see a homeless man with an unkempt hair across the street?” The morale is, it takes a fellow human to physically offer a help to another human. God will not do for us what He has empowered us to do for ourselves and each other.

Let us extend helping hands to all those we suspect or know need any help because it has both earthly and heavenly reward (Luke 6:38, Matthew 25:34-40). May God bless you!

  Antidotes to the problem of life (II) || More