Do We Have Impaired Vision?

Recently, we had a Christian brother from a far away land, visit our church. The visit was surrounded in some quietness and secrecy as the country he is from does not look favorably on Christians and his life and the lives of his family could be in danger. This brother has visited us a few times before..... about every year or two, I guess. The last time he was here, he showed some slides and one comment he made a couple of times caught my attention.... He said, "Here is an old woman, doing her work." Well, that "old" woman wasn't very old! Another time he said, "Here is another old woman... she's about 45".  He was speaking very respectfully, but I felt offended for the women, as 45 is not OLD.... until I realized that in their culture, 45 years old IS old and their lives do not last as long as ours, and I felt sad.

This year, he was so excited about the new school building God has provided and the building is helping so much. I looked at this "wonderful new school building" and I saw a rather small building that looked somewhat like a plain cement block building that was painted white. It was nice, BUT I wouldn't have called it wonderful. I was humbled by the realization that for what they live with, it IS wonderful.... it is such a blessing to them.

Then he told of the wonderful and beautiful benches inside the school. When he showed the pictures, I saw nice benches with no backs to them. The benches were painted red... and they were very functional.... but "wonderful" and "beautiful"?  My heart began to ache as I realized anew just how much we take for granted.

That man rejoiced over simple sewing machines that have been provided for some of the women to use.... electricity is very unreliable there and the sewing machines have to be very simple to work there. The women were using them to sew school clothes for the children in the school.... and they are so thankful. He said that someday, they hope to be able to have a sewing machine that will make buttonholes. I thought of my own sewing machine that sews buttonholes nicely... and I use it... sometimes..... but life is so busy.

He was REALLY rejoicing over some sand water purifiers that had been bought with money given for that purpose in the last year. They have to get water from a little ditch.... and he showed the difference between the cloudy water they had been using and the clear water with the filter. What a difference.These are very basic things that we take for granted.

His excitement was for the people in his ministry.... for the needs being met so the name of the Lord Jesus Christ could be glorified and spread. Something else they hope to get are solar projectors to help the people in the villages to learn.... the projectors are $1500.00 each.... that is a lot of money, and yet, they have no electricity in the villages and solar powered projectors would work there.  Money is tight for us, but we have so much.... compared to those in that country and other countries.

It is so easy to have vision problems and to feel they are normal... because it is what we always see. We see opulence and excess. We see food wasted... or food eaten to stave off boredom, not because of hunger. We see a zest for trying to be "happy". What if our main goal in life was to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and to bring others to Christ? What if we said no to ourselves more often and used more of the provisions God gives to us.... to help others?  I'm not saying we shouldn't enjoy our lives wherever God has put us.... I really think we should.... but maybe we need to clear up our vision problems so that we can see the needs of brothers and sisters in Christ also.

Thank you for visiting today... I hope you have a wonderful day. :)

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