Helpless

Do any of us really care about God's Word or His Truth? Because I'm convinced I don't. How many laws has God given concerning the helpless? Those people who are widowed, orphans or poor? He warns Israel not to forget these people. David desired to be a king who truly obeyed this law. Psalm 72 says of the righteous king: "For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight."

My main task here in Lima is to help the children's program in Huayan, a city just north of here and said to be one of the poorest in the region. I believe it. When I go, I help feed them, I tell them of the hope of Christ, I teach them to read. But when I leave, they are out of my head. Forgotten. And they probably will be forgotten after I leave. What a wicked person I am. Do I fulfill the law of God to remember the helpless by coming here to South America to help them? Not at all. I lack compassion and true love.

What's worse, I don't even think of this law in the states. What of the helpless and needy in Norman? The ones that by default I am called to remember daily? God requires me to care for them, love them, to share His generosity with them. I don't.

I realize that the Terry Schiavo case is disgusting. It seems that her life was neither cherished nor protected. But as I'm here, in another world, surrounded by people who desperately need their life to be protected and cherished and preserved, I'm reminded of the fact that we really don't care. We care about Terry. But God's law required Israel to help the helpless among them. I hope I learn to love enough to consider them precious in my sight.