Where to begin...

[Listening to: Jesus To These - Ryan Richardson - Delve]

Lord I want to be…
To be your hands and your feet.
To walk where you walk,
See what you see.
To feed a hungry soul,
To love a world so poor.
I want to be Jesus to these.
- Ryan Richardson - Jesus to These on Delve


I have never felt quite the way I do here. The pages of the gospel seem to come to life. I have greater mental images of what it looked like to walk out of the temple and be surrounded by beggars. I see them everyday…everywhere…but especially just outside the churches and mosques. Those who worship there move closer to God by giving to the poor.


I hurt for them (the poor and the deceived worshipers), but I also struggle with becoming cold. Poverty is so rampant; it is hard to know who is poor and who has found a good gig to cover for the lack of work in the city. Even the nationals distinguish between three kinds of beggars. Some are truly homeless and have no option, some are using it as a scheme, and some are merely troublemakers. This last group is looking for a quick way to get money. They aren't opposed to lying to you and/or stealing it from you.


Yesterday Daniel walked up to me on the road. He began to walk and talk English with me. (A travel guide about this country tells of the newest scam. Young people, apparently students, invite you to a "cultural event" that is only there on that day. Once they convince you to go with them, they take you somewhere to run up a very large bill and have you pay for it. It is no joke…happened to me last summer…before I read the book.) Daniel tried to pull the scam. I didn't bite. He then began to tell me numerous stories about not being able to work and having to pay for school and his family living in the country. All of his stories may have been true; I have no idea. I chose not to give him money or buy him lunch which he asked for several times.


I'm not sure how to deal with the poor. We are told to care for them; we are told they will always be with us. For that matter I don't know how to be Jesus to anyone. This week I have had a long talk with a national friend. There is a mistranslation in their Bible. It defines secular music (listening to, singing, creating) as removing one from God. It is in the same list with jealousy, envy, orgies, impurity.


I have my own thoughts on music, that isn't the important thing. What matters is how I be Jesus to him and how I encourage him to do the same with others here. Are his beliefs on music important? Do I just leave them be and worry about other things. Or is this a slippery slope down a dangerous hill. My fear is legalism. My desire is love and grace. I desire it for him; I desire it for me; I desire it for the church.


Ryan's song is my desire. Where do I even begin?