Grains of Sand

Reading: 2 Corinthians 5-9 I was researching some material yesterday for an upcoming series of studies I am preparing. During that research I came across some astonishing facts about money. J. John writes in Ten Laws of Love Set in Stone that: “At the beginning of the year 2000 the three richest people in the world together had more wealth than the poorest forty-seven countries put together. A total of 342 people had more money than half the world’s population put together. We might not be in that 342, but we are rich by the standards of most of the world” (page 37). One of the commercials that really annoys me is that of a well-known actor and political activist who comments on how much money is devoted to bailouts and other things by rolling out lines of money with his foot. Then he puts down one single bill on the floor to demonstrate how much money goes to feed the hungry. He’s probably right, but my reaction to him is: “And where do your millions go except to travel aro...

“ He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done ” —Proverbs 19:17, NIV. One of the subjects that frequently came up for discussion among our people in Venezuela was how to respond to the poor begging for money at so many of the intersections throughout the city. The topic wasn’t whether or not to help them, but which ones were genuinely in need. I always remembered the story told by a colleague of her experience while she was at language school in Costa Rica. It was pouring rain the night the knock came to the door of her house. When she opened the door, a bedraggled woman dressed in tattered clothes stood in the doorway. She was soaking wet and clutching a baby in her arms. There was another small child clinging to her skirts. She told my friend her sad story and asked for any kind of help that she could give her. How could my friend refuse? She gave the woman some money for which she was profusely thanked. After the woman had gone ...