As Such
It is funny how God places someone in your path and expects you to do something, but doesn't always tell you exactly what it is you are supposed to do. We see things that tear at us and pull at our heartstrings, but we don't have the means to do anything to better the situation. A lot of times all we can do is pray and pray that prayer is enough. Sunshine is on my mind and in my heart today. I try to concentrate on something else, even as I prepare this writing to send out, but Sunshine keeps popping back up. Sunshine is a woman who is a homeless alcoholic who I met a few years back. I have taken her for doctor's appointments, bought her food, and prayed for her many times. She came by the store where I work yesterday evening asking people on the parking lot to help her with money for food. Of course, most of the money that she gets most likely goes for alcohol and not food. If she would stop drinking and smoking she would be allowed to stay at the local Salvation Army. If she would give up these vices she would be physically able to get a job and provide for herself like the rest of us. So, it seems the predicament she is in is totally her choice. Why is it then I allow this woman to cause me to feel sorrow and a yearning to help in some way?
Every time I see this frail little woman I think of what she must have looked like as a child. With a name like Sunshine, she had to have given a lot of people joy. Somewhere deep inside I can still see a small ray of the sunshine in her eyes when talking with her. I don't know her whole story. I don't know what caused her to lose everything and become who she is now. I don't know what made her turn to alcohol for comfort. All I know is God still loves her just as much as He did when He formed her in her mother's womb. He still knows the plans He has for her, even if she has strayed so far from that plan that none of us could ever imagine her finding her way back to it.
It is often said that God does not see little sin and big sin. To Him sin is sin. If I tell a lie to my neighbor, or go in and shoot up a movie theater God just looks at it as sin. Therefore, God just looks at the sinner as a sinner, not as bad sinner, a kind of bad sinner, or a really bad sinner. If I kill many as the shooter did at the theater this weekend, or if I judge one such as Sunshine at the grocery store this weekend it is sin.
Remember...For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
No, I am not homeless. But I could have been. No, I am not an alcoholic. But I could have been.
No, I have not lost all hope, but there was a time in my life that I came very close to being at that place.
There is a fine line between living for God and being of the world. The line is easy to cross especially for young people. Many of us did cross that line but found our way back. Some such as Sunshine didn't.
One of my favorite verses from
I Corinthians 6
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Remember what you once were before you were saved by the grace of God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Think about where you could be today if not for the grace of God.
Also when we see people who have lost their way like Sunshine, think about how Jesus looks at her.
He sees Sunshine as we do - lost. But He does not judge her but looks on her with compassion.
And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd... Mark 6:34
May we look on the lost with compassion. When you don't know of anything you can do to change their situation, pray. Remember as such were some of you, and as such could have been you