I (Dave) have been walking around in the centre of the city quite a lot this last week, having to replace our laptop (twice!) and do various other things. In my wonderings, God often opens my eyes to the homeless and poor who are begging but somehow I never seem to have enough time to stop for them and sit with them, even though I get a conviction to do so. So I just give them some money and move on. But I believe God desires more from me (and maybe you too) than that. Is that what showing God's compassion is about?
Last week, when walking to Gideon's school from the centre, about 25 mins walk, I decided to take a different route which I thought was less hilly. Sometimes walking up and down the steep streets can be exhausting, especially in the heat of the day. I was walking down a road I had not been down before in a 'nice' part of the city when I was approached by a lady who was probably in her early 40s, dressed in fairly revealing clothes...actually more like rags...and looking very thin. She told me that she was hungry and offered me her body in exchange for some food. I told her to come with me and bought her some food from a nearby snack bar but did not take her up on her offer!
For me, it is incredible when people value themselves so little. She thought she was worth a couple of 'salgados' - snack-things - but God's value on her life is so much more than that...so great is his love for her that he paid for her life with his. It was quite a heart-wrenching experience seeing the desperation of someone's heart. It is so easy to get embarassed and walk past people like her or try and make my (our) conscience(s) clear by tossing them some loose change but God's desire is for me (us) to spend ourselves for these people like he did, to value them higher than ourselvesand to actually STOP for them.