I straying from my journals today, and posting a link to a great, (but short) video I saw a while back. Clean water is a huge problem in South Sudan, and waterborne illness is rampant. You can go in and preach the gospel, but if you do nothing to alleviate the physical suffering, you do the former without love. As James said; What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Put more simply, faith is as faith does.
So with that, here is the video, to cleanse the palate and bring a little perspective.
In my travels through Africa, I’ve taken on a different perspective in terms of what blessing is. In the west, when people pray for blessing, they are almost always praying for financial blessing. This in itself is often an oxymoron. How many people do we know who are physically sick, or have broken relationships with parents or children or ex-spouses, or live with depression, but because they have money they consider themselves blessed. Revelation 3:17 ESV, English Standard Version, says; “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” How little has changed since this was written. Having financial blessing often leads to a lack of character, because without trial we don’t grow.
Have you ever considered yourself blessed because you had a plastic fan blade and two bottle caps to play with?
How many other things are considered blessings in other cultures that we gloss over in a mammon-centered culture? How about health, or sound mind, or children? Yes, they may drive you nuts sometimes, but children are a blessing and a legacy that you leave behind, unless of course you neglect to raise them because you’re chasing the other “blessing”. Then they become a testament to misguided aspirations. How about going to bed with food in your stomach, or not having to fear your village will be raided in the night? These are things that the South Sudanese do not take for granted. When all our basic needs are met, we lose perspective about what is truly a blessing, and only consider ourselves blessed when not only our needs but also our wants are all met. It leads us to become truly ugly people who feel we’re entitled. It leads to pride and arrogance and a lack of love for our neighbors.
Ever considered yourself blessed because you have all your limbs?
I strongly recommend anyone with the ability visit a third world nation and spend some time there, not at resorts or taking tours, but in a village or in a slum. Live with a family and find out how most of the world lives. (Yes, I do mean most of the world.) It will give you a different idea about what needs are, and a different attitude about consumables. It will give you a different idea about what blessings are, and help you to realize just how blessed most of us truly are. And when we realize that, we’ll be that much more likely to bless those around us.
This is what blessing looks like. A man with tears, praising God because he has so much to be joyful about.A little boy, proud of the toy he made out of empty powdered milk container and bottle lids.
South Sudan Traveler 