Sleeping On a Blanket By The Doorstep

A christian should be different but am I? How often do I help someone who is obviously struggling in life? We bend over backwards to help a person with influence and affluence. We feel good, we feel important when we help a significant person. Who knows when it will pay off!! Graduates seeking success are told: 'build relationships; expand your network and add a new name to your contact list today.'

We sure don't mind people seeing us talking to the Mayor downtown, or a hockey star at the airport or a lawyer at the coffee shop. Those are encounters we would be certain to tell others about. We would try to do it casually to suggest that we hob-knob with people like that every day. No big thing - nothing out of the ordinary for sure! We engage in the buggy little habit called 'name-dropping.' "Yeah, isn't that funny. I just happened to bump into Mayor Fulbright this morning and she was saying the long range forecast is calling for a cloudy wet summer."

As for the poor kid with the beat up old skateboard, or the man curled up on the blanket outside the store, or the single mom pushing the rickety old stroller puffing on a cigarette or the squeaky clean old lady in the shabby coat who sits on the bench every day - as for her? As for them? "Well, its not my thing to go up to a person like that and start a conversation. Besides, I am too busy. Government will help them out. They won't starve to death. If I befriend them, they will become a nuisance. Let them fend for themselves like the rest of us have to! If they made different choices in life, they wouldn't be living like that!"

Psalm 72 is beautiful. The social milieu is going to be different then. The power structure is going to shift and take on a completely new look. When Christ reigns for those 1000 years, the foster kids, the poor, the down and outers, the social misfits, the homeless, the oddities, the nuisance derelicts, the minorities, the under-privileged and the disadvantaged - all of them will be the special objects of His compassion and care. He will make sure they are not overlooked. He will make sure they get a fair trial. He will take 'affirmative action' to enable them to catch up with the rest of society. He will punish those who try to walk over the downtrodden, or take advantage of them.

When the Lord Jesus has "dominion...from sea to sea and from the River unto the ends of the earth" (Psalm 72:8) "He shall the judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy..." (vs.4) Someone has paraphrased verses 12-14 like this: "He rescues the poor at the first sign of need, the destitute who have run out of luck. He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out, He restores the wretched of the earth. He frees them from tyranny and torture..."

That's when He reigns on Earth. But today He is reigning in the Christian's heart! So His values, priorities and principles should govern my life today. If you want to be like Christ today, here is something concrete you can do: find someone who fits the description above and show them kindness - not feeling-sorry-for-you kindness, but respectful kindness with dignity. That's what Christ expects of me today!