June 25, 2021 – Click here to listen
I live on an island, and they are working on the bridge that we must use to come and go to our home. So, due to a 4 ton load limit big heavy trucks cannot cross the bridges and that means I must take our household garbage to a temporary dump a few miles from my house in my pickup truck.
It is a dirty job and I dread Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, (our garbage days,) to come around. Yesterday one of the cans slipped out of my hands and covered me with what I call garbage juice. I had to scrub and rescrub in the shower to remove the smell and my wife did likewise with the clothes I’d been wearing.
As I was muttering about it in the shower, I thought of those poor souls that do that job for a living. Prior to this experience, my only thought about them was anger when they threw my emptied garbage cans askew in my yard after emptying them and of course getting angry when their huge trucks blocked the road.
I never stopped and thought that these are real people with families of their own, with hopes, and dreams every bit as important as mine. More importantly they are loved by God and even the hairs on their heads are numbered. They were created with a soul that is immortal and those who follow Jesus will live forever with him in paradise.
I’m reminded of multi-billionaire Leona Helmsley wealthy real estate tycoon who was dubbed the “Queen of Mean” in the NYC press due to her tyrannical behavior towards employees and others. So, she wouldn’t pay some contractors who worked to remodel her home and amazingly it led to an investigation for crimes including tax evasion that she eventually went to trial and was sentenced to prison. During the trial, a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Helmsley say: “We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes”, a quote which was identified with her for the rest of her life. I can only imagine what her reception was like from her fellow inmates with a rep like that. LOL
I guess I fall into the “little people” designation because I have paid an enormous amount in taxes and still do. I do have compassion for those less fortunate and if I need reminding, God allows me to see through their eyes like He did with the garbage incident.
The next time you are at a restaurant and a busboy gathers your dirty dishes, think about him or her in human terms. Or if you’re at the airport and see a janitor cleaning out the nasty bathroom, don’t ignore him, smile, and wish him a good day.
In comparison to God, we are all “little people” and yet He loves us all. Shouldn’t we feel the same way? Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Someone once asked Billy Graham what did Jesus mean when he said we ought to be poor in spirit and shouldn’t we strive to be rich in spirit? Graham brilliantly responded: “What did He mean? Simply this: We must be humble in our spirits. If you put the word “humble” in place of the word “poor,” you will understand what He meant.”
When I was homeless, I cannot tell you how many times people looked down upon me in disgust. Behind every homeless person lies a story of what possessed them to end up on the streets. Usually, it is due to being raised in a home devoid of love with an absentee or abusive father. I never met anyone who began life with a desire to be homeless, a drug addict, or an alcoholic.
So, what makes us better than someone who is not on the same social scale? According to the Bible we all need Christ and those who find Him will be adopted as His children. The differentiator is not money, power, or social status; it is the relationship we have with Jesus.
We must realize our own sin, and spiritual emptiness and poverty and not be proud in our hearts and look down on others who are less fortunate or worse ignore them and look through them as though they don’t exist. Just remember but for the grace of God we would be nothing.
James 4:6
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”
Have a great weekend and go to church Sunday!