Mrs. Smith said that she had sustained a neck injury after falling backwards onto concrete. She was taken to the hospital immediately, but spent six hours sitting with a neck brace before a doctor examined her. When she arrived home, she wrote a letter to the hospital expressing her disappointment at the poor treatment that she had received. The hospital replied, “We apologise for any inconvenience and hope that Cameron is recovering well.” Mrs Smith is still wondering who Cameron is.
As independent as we may like to think we are, we are in fact dependent upon a large team of citizens to sustain us over the course of our lives. We are blessed to be born in countries where we have little concern for the necessaries of life. In fact, we have enough for two lifetimes.
We must remember the forgotten poor. I have seen people living in conditions not spoken about in polite conversations. Innocent people who wake with their children to corrugated iron walls, a dirt floor, a pot over a fire, basic food, no running water, and not a bathroom in sight.
What could I do about it? Not much. The number of people and their needs were beyond the scope of one person. I could meet some immediate needs, but it takes the great resources of a country like that of my birth to impact the many over the long term.
Jesus put the church in place to bring goodness into the world, and Christianity most certainly has taken that goodness wherever it has gone.
I praise God that our congregations send money and resources to members of the Lord’s church who are taking care of the needy. However, I am challenged to ask myself if God is expecting more from me.
Living in a country where Mrs. Smith, the mysterious Cameron, and I, despite the unnecessary shortcomings of the Public Health System, are basically taken care of, it is easy to forget those who have nothing.
When recounting his time with the other apostles Paul wrote: “They only asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do” (Galatians 2:10)
John Staiger
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