Driving or just walking along the streets of Manila, I normally encounter street kids selling all sorts of stuff—from cigarettes, to strings of sampaguita, or wiper boys, who try to offer their services by wiping your car’s windshield during traffic stops.
And for quite some time, I admit that I had been desensitized by the numerous encounters I had with these streets kids, who at a very young age, have been thrust with a heavy responsibility to either support their families or simply do it for their daily survival.
However, on Monday (Aug. 31), as I listen to Pastor Miles McPherson speak during the Miles Ahead evangelistic festival rally at the Greenhills Christian Fellowship, I was struck by what he said about identifying with the brokenness of people in our community.
Truth is, as we walk across the streets of the city, we’d see people experiencing varying degrees of hurts—from failing academically, to experiencing failure in relationship or marriage, to losing millions in business or simply getting retrenched at work.
Of course, the hurting also includes people who live in deplorable condition daily, wondering how they could survive or live the next day with their basic needs met.
I’m challenged to rethink how I basically live my life as a Christian.
Jesus lived to see the various spiritual conditions of people during His time. There were the lepers, the lame, the blind and the mute, the deaf, the tax collectors and prostitutes who were despised in society.
But in all these encounters he had with them, Jesus showed them His love and compassion.
My prayer now is that God would continue transforming my heart, far from being desensitized. Making it sensitive and caring towards the hurting and the broken.
The whole point of caring and loving people can be best summarized by what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthian believers– “9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” (2 Corinthians 5:9)
Photo Source: http://www.hobotraveler.com/blogphotos/187-02-street-children-philippines.jpg