All I wanted was a loaf of sour dough bread, that’s all! But no! What you want, and what’s available are not always the same. There were all kinds of sizes, varieties, flour, added ingredients and such that the entire isle in the store was filled to the brim. I never realized that there was such variety, never really paid attention, I guess. Hmmm, I’ll bet the Israelites would have gone nuts shopping for bread before the great exodus!
Oh yeah, and I needed a gallon of vanilla ice cream. Whoa, I guess I should have brought a dietician along with me! Regular vanilla (I think), fat free, low sugar, vanilla bean, French vanilla, all of them with luring verbiage that “they” were the best choice! I picked the cheapest one. Onto my final shopping assignment … Ginger Ale. OK, this choice was not so bad. There were only seven choices, unless I wanted to get into the “low-calorie” ones. Again, I grabbed the cheapest!
In the world today we have so many options and choices! Sure, there are parts of the world where this is not the case. Places where poverty runs rampant. But here in the West, for the most part we are living in abundance, and it feels hypocritical.
How can I have so much food around me that I have a hard time choosing? How can I have so many choices of food that my selection is not based on necessity or health, but on what I “feel” like trying, or what I “like” and how it makes me “feel” when I eat it? All of this wrapped in a package of poverty and human hunger around me?
Let’s be real. At one point in my life, I didn’t care. I didn’t. My lot in life was a good one, and the lot for others was let’s say, not so good. But I've come to realize that what Jesus said in Matthew 25 is the real deal.
“Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Whoa! If that doesn't floor you …!
Every time I satisfied my own desires without any cause of concern for the less fortunate, I ignored those that God has placed around me in my life! Every time I pampered my stomach while listening to the groans of hunger around me, I denied the Lord that gave His life for mine. I am guilty. I am selfish, and I am embarrassed to have acted the way I did in the many years God has blessed me with.
So, what is my penance? What is the atonement that I must make, that is if I should choose so? Is there any way of repairing the damage that I have willfully created? No, not really. It’s done, gone, behind me, there is no way of correction that I can see. Only God Himself can correct mistakes that have been made throughout time, but only if He chooses to. At this point I have only two options. First, I can simply ignore it and forget it. Afterall, that’s their lot in life, mine just happens to be better!
The other option is the most difficult. Since I can’t change my past behaviors or their effects, I can only ask for forgiveness and change my outlook and behaviors in order to follow the calling of God. As referenced above, whatever I do, or don’t do for those around me, I do or don’t do for Christ. It seems that human free will leaves much to be desired when it comes to being a follower of Jesus. Just sayin …
NOTE TO SELF: It’s never too late to repent, be forgiven and change … just sayin …
Oh yeah, and I needed a gallon of vanilla ice cream. Whoa, I guess I should have brought a dietician along with me! Regular vanilla (I think), fat free, low sugar, vanilla bean, French vanilla, all of them with luring verbiage that “they” were the best choice! I picked the cheapest one. Onto my final shopping assignment … Ginger Ale. OK, this choice was not so bad. There were only seven choices, unless I wanted to get into the “low-calorie” ones. Again, I grabbed the cheapest!
In the world today we have so many options and choices! Sure, there are parts of the world where this is not the case. Places where poverty runs rampant. But here in the West, for the most part we are living in abundance, and it feels hypocritical.
How can I have so much food around me that I have a hard time choosing? How can I have so many choices of food that my selection is not based on necessity or health, but on what I “feel” like trying, or what I “like” and how it makes me “feel” when I eat it? All of this wrapped in a package of poverty and human hunger around me?
Let’s be real. At one point in my life, I didn’t care. I didn’t. My lot in life was a good one, and the lot for others was let’s say, not so good. But I've come to realize that what Jesus said in Matthew 25 is the real deal.
“Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Whoa! If that doesn't floor you …!
Every time I satisfied my own desires without any cause of concern for the less fortunate, I ignored those that God has placed around me in my life! Every time I pampered my stomach while listening to the groans of hunger around me, I denied the Lord that gave His life for mine. I am guilty. I am selfish, and I am embarrassed to have acted the way I did in the many years God has blessed me with.
So, what is my penance? What is the atonement that I must make, that is if I should choose so? Is there any way of repairing the damage that I have willfully created? No, not really. It’s done, gone, behind me, there is no way of correction that I can see. Only God Himself can correct mistakes that have been made throughout time, but only if He chooses to. At this point I have only two options. First, I can simply ignore it and forget it. Afterall, that’s their lot in life, mine just happens to be better!
The other option is the most difficult. Since I can’t change my past behaviors or their effects, I can only ask for forgiveness and change my outlook and behaviors in order to follow the calling of God. As referenced above, whatever I do, or don’t do for those around me, I do or don’t do for Christ. It seems that human free will leaves much to be desired when it comes to being a follower of Jesus. Just sayin …
NOTE TO SELF: It’s never too late to repent, be forgiven and change … just sayin …