I am humbled and somber with conviction today. There has been a culmination of events that brings me here. I've noticed it in the last couple of weeks, although, I imagine it started long before then. I'll share a bit of the more recent part of this journey.
Last Sunday, Rob and I asked our friends, Ed and Mel, if they would be willing to come over for dinner and help us organize our finances, something at which they excel and we do not. They agreed and in trying to line up an evening, we learned that Friday nights would not work because Mel and their daughter, Greta, babysit someone's 5 kids EVERY Friday night. Rob and I heard that they do this a while back. but had no idea that this arrangement was still happening. It led to a conversation that evening, in the kitchen, after kids were in bed. We used words like "Wow!" and "Amazing!", but both agreed that this would be something we could never do. Give up every Friday night.
Fast forward a couple of days. I read a letter Paul wrote to a church in Corinth. It basically (summed up) says this, "Without love, Christianity is just a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." 1 Cor. 13:1. I notice there is a ringing in my ears.
Fast forward again to today. In church, my friend, Ed, shares a verse that has convicted his own family. It is taken from a passage in 1 John. "This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If any of you has material possessions and sees a brother and sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
A question was posed. Am I living for Christ or am I living for me? I pondered this for a minute. I know in theory that I am living for Christ. But in reality? I am most certainly, unequivocally living for me. I know this to be true, not by the words I say or the scripture I quote, but by how I live. I know this because of how I respond to Mel and Greta giving up every Friday night to watch someone else's 5 kids. I can't even imagine giving up Friday nights, even though I have a wonderful husband who is home more than not, that I can leave him with the kids, even if it is just for some fresh air. Even though I have 4 happy, healthy kids, a house, a car, food, safe drinking water and money to buy things. Even though I know someone who is raising 3 young kids on her own, alone, without child support. Even though this someone works really hard as a single parent just to put food on the table and a roof over her kid's heads...that getting fresh air for her is a luxury. I can't imagine giving up Friday nights? Even now?
3 comments:
Maybe God isn't asking you to give up Friday nights. Although you certainly gave up one a week ago to take my THREE kids in.
I am not trying to interrupt your conviction but encourage you to ask God how he is inviting you and your family to sacrifice in order to love him and his world.
I'm not convicted about Friday nights, per say, just the overall unwillingness to sacrifice to those with much less than I.
per say? I didn't feel good about that when I wrote it, then it hit me later in the car, per se, that's it, isn't it? Nothing that makes me feel more foolish than a misspelled word. I know I shouldn't care, but I do.
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