"Am I My Brother's Keeper?"

I have a confession to make.  Ok, a couple of confessions.

Firstly, I missed a day in my blog challenge.  (Oh no!  Yet the world is still moving on...) Internet went kaput and I only just got it fixed this morning.  I still had internet on my phone but somehow writing a blog post on there just didn't seem too appealing!

My second confession leads into my ramblings for the day, which is the only reason I feel the need to share.  I have a very active imagination so when I am in a situation where I must sit and wait and there is no stimulation (music, tv, etc)...such as when I am hold with internet support....my mind wanders itself into some pretty weird situations.   Apparently I have a flair for the dramatic because most of these wanderings go into some heroic situation where I end up dying and I have to come up with my last words.

I know.  I'm weird.

Today's mind wandering led instead to me being the final comfort in someone's life and how I wanted to give them strength with God's word.  They responded with the understandable and oft-heard question, "How can there be a God who is good if He lets pain such as this happen?"

I have to say that this is one of those questions that I am kind of scared to get in real life.  How do I answer?  Its so hard when you are put on the spot!  What if you say something wrong and instead turn someone FURTHER from God?  I guess that is why God helps me by having me ask myself these questions when there is no pressure.  Practice makes perfect right?

Anyway, He shared with me a wonderful answer.

Since our God is a god who loves us so much He will not take away our free will, He cannot just come down and stop us from doing evil.  If He could, there wouldn't have been much need to send His Son to die for us, would there?

God shared with me how much He needs us.

Wait a second...did I just write that??  GOD needs US?  Sinful, prideful, ever-failing US?

Yes.  He NEEDS us to be a witness to His love in the world.  He NEEDS us to care for the poor, the suffering, the lonely.

The well-known verse popped into my head: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain says this to the Lord as though accusing Him of not caring for His own well enough.  God's response puts the blame where it really belongs though....back on Cain.  "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!"  In re-reading all of this in Genesis:4 I realize that God warned Cain directly before he even raised a hand against his brother.

"If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you but you must rule over it."

The very next thing Cain does is kill Abel.  *Sigh*

God gave us literally everything we could ever want or need- even a way out of our tangled messes.  He tries desperately to get us to hear Him so that we don't have to deal with the pains of sin but more and more His voice is drowned out by constant noise, constant media interruption, constant tv shows to catch up on.

We expect love and happiness and the popular mindset is that when you get more THINGS you will be loved.  When we are comfortable then we can happy.  If there is any discomfort or if anything happens to our things or money, we have every right to complain!

What do we do to ensure that someone else is getting happiness and love?

We see people being abused and used and we do nothing except shout about how wrong it is.  Someone else needs to take care of these wrongs!  I would, but I'm a little busy right now so someone else needs to do it!  Probably the government!  Someone should start a group or something!  We need funding!

How about just visiting those in prison?  Or the homebound?  What about simple acts of kindness to spread a little love?  Words of encouragement to the kid you know is probably considered weird at school?  Offering to babysit for the parents who haven't been on a date in way too long?

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

Yes!

Good little reminder as we go out to change the world ;)