“Religion that God our Father
accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (NIV)
About two weeks ago I had the
opportunity of going on a short missions trip to Southern California in a downtrodden neighborhood near L.A. When I
hear the word “missions trip,” the first thought that comes to mind is this: We are
going to help poor people to be more like us. We are going to bring Jesus into their lives
and everything is going to change. What a warped way of thinking. Sometimes without
even knowing it, we tend to think we are better than those we serve just because we have
everything we need, because we have money in our pockets, or simply because we
get to drive a nice enough car. Just for the record, we didn’t bring Jesus to anyone. Jesus
was already there. We just went there to
partner with the Holy Spirit and be the
hands and feet of Jesus.
In the book of James, the
word “religion” is described as helping or looking after the orphans and the widows in
their distress. Other translations say, "to help the fatherless." When we had the
chance to be there, we could see that there were plenty of fatherless people; there
were widows, people in pain, people asking not for money but for someone that
can be Jesus in their lives. Being a Christian is more than just going Sunday
morning to sing in a worship service and to hear someone preach. We often try so hard to convince
people that Christianity is not a religion but is a relationship with Jesus, but
sometimes our religious talk and actions say otherwise. Religious people do things out of a routine. They sometimes
think they have all of the answers for this needy world. As Christians, we tend to act
like the religious people rather than those whose hearts are knit with God's. We do not want to get out of our Christian bubble, why?
Well, simply because it is comfortable.
After coming back from
California, I began to ask myself why I do the things I do. Those people did not have
anything to offer me, but whatever little they had, they were willing to give away
without expecting anything back. I
thought I had the answers for them but honestly there were things I could not explain to
them or even to myself. To see their love for one another was something that I could not
explain. I went there because I thought I was going to teach them how to "be" better.
I wanted to treat them as if they were some sort of a project. Again, what a warped
thinking. I think I learned more from them than they did from me. Even though they were lacking in many areas of their physical needs, some of them
lived out the word of God by loving and caring for
one another. To be very transparent, I felt like an arrogant, hypocritical man of religion. I thought I had a lot to offer but once I was among them, the only thing they
needed was my friendship and for me to show Jesus’ real love.
No wonder Jesus hated
religion. And no wonder James describes pure religion as helping out the one in
need, the one in trouble, the one who cannot defend himself. Maybe the
Christian life I’m living is more than just living daily in that which feels comfortable. I want
to be able to step outside of the box and begin to see this world how Jesus would
see it. I don’t want to see Christianity as just a Sunday morning to lead
worship, do my devotionals, and pray for the sake of praying. I believe that God’s
calling goes far beyond that. I want to be able to show God’s love through my actions
and my words. The needy don’t need money thrown at them but instead
they need to be loved and cared for.
May God help me to not be a religious person and
to not be content surrounding myself with my comfortable Christian bubble. I want to
be able to help the poor, the fatherless, the widow, the homeless and the ones who
cannot defend themselves. I want to be uncomfortable and to reach the lost. I want
God to break my heart with the things that break His own heart.
Israel
No comments:
Post a Comment