It is Sunday Morning in Pune, India. The sun is out and I hear the honking of many horns as the people go about the daily life of livening in Pune. As for me, I am running on empty, my flight arrived in Bombay at 11:30 pm Saturday night, and I arrived at my hotel at 3:45 Sunday morning. Not very sleepy, and I was hungry, so I unpacked, showered and went to the hotel restaurant. Let me tell you, they have great food in the hotel. The hotel itself is a 5 star hotel, and I am not use to the treatment I am getting, but man is it nice.
Jesus told us that we will always have to poor, and from where I sit looking out my 5th floor window, I see that. The poverty here will take your breath away. I saw it on my ride in from the airport, and I see it now.
Seeing the poverty really makes you stop and think, places everything in to perspective. Sure I still have concerns over my financial situation back home, but I also am reminded that too many I am rich.
This trip will, I am sure, prove to be very enriching for me in many ways. It reminds me of my trip to Brazil; there also I experienced the poor among the rich, a shack next to a mansion. The haves and have not’s… Now to some this would only confirm that they need to make less, purchase fair trade coffee and give more. To me it only confirms that I need to work harder, to remain diligent and use the gifts that God has given me to better my situation in life.
God graced me with a life in the US, where possibilities are endless and my ability to affect the world is greater than any other place on earth. If I choose not to use the graces of God, I would be tossing out the gifts He has seen fit to place in my hands. Now I am not suggesting that I should ignore the poor, not at all, but rather, use my station in life to do more for them.
Jesus did not intend for us all to stop working and volunteer our time in a homeless shelter, if we did, well, we would all end up in one. Jesus did not believe that money was evil, only the way we choose to us it is.
It’s a complicated issue, one with many differing opinions on how best to serve the poor. Based on what I know and what I have learned, the best way to help the poor is not by doing for them, but by offering a hand and teaching them to do for themselves. As the old saying goes, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, eats for life”. What I am suggesting is, give him a few days of fish, at the same time teach him to fish and how to help others to learn how to fish.
I am not sure if my ramblings are making any sense, my mind is still sleeping, so I will stop here, and who knows the next time I post, I may even have something worth saying….
Paul
The STATIC Shop
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