Sunday, October 23, 2005 - God cares... do you? : you know, its funny how much the poor and the needy are publicized.

its funny how many times we see the pictures of children roaming around looking for food,

women with unkempt hair and rags for clothes,

men who look so despondent without the surest sign of a fleeting hope in those forlorn eyes.

then we look. then we think.

Then we forget.

its almost as if we never saw it. those starving children. that desperate mother. that forsaken man.

its almost as if we had seen too much of it. so much so our hearts become as dry as bone, our hearts harder than stone, our hearts colder than steel.

its almost as if it was something inevitable. something that was "meant to be".

then i realized. we are monsters.

here we are, Singaporeans, who have everything. every child is so blessed. every child has a handphone. every child has at least some form of education. every child has something.

but the irony; the deepest and almost twisted irony, is that we feel that we don't have enough.

i have seen so many teenagers, so arrogant, so expectant. they expect the sky from their parents and the world to give them all that they desire. they damn those who can't give them what they want. they curse those who disagrees with the way they live.

They don't care about the poor.

and have the audacity to say things like: "too bad lah! it's their fault! who ask them to be so LAZY?"

others pity from afar, then move on as if they hadn't seen anything.

others, couldn't care less.

What good did we do to be born in Singapore where we have everything?

And what evil did that boy in East Timor to be born with nothing?

precisely. Nothing. did we do something in our mother's womb to be blessed as such? hardly.

but yet today, youths in singapore take so much for granted. they expect the world.

here we are, worrying about our PSLEs, our O levels and A levels, our boyfriends and girlfriends, our future and our wives, our jobs and our pay.

did it ever cross our minds, that that boy over there in East Timor, is not worried about his studies, or his girlfriend, or his wife, or his job, or his future?

why?

Because he doesn't know if he will live to see tomorrow.

and here we are. so high up in our lofty chairs, worrying over the most inane things ever.

am i saying that im not guilty of it? absolutely not. i have seen the poor. and i have ignored. i have seen the needy, and i turned the other cheek. here i am fretting over my A levels, while that girl in the Phillipines scavages for food amidst the rubbish; rubbish that is our forsaken, rubbish that is their GOLDMINE.

but indeed i thank God with all of my heart and soul, that my heart has not hardened against the poor and the needy. i thank God that my heart has not come to the point of becoming jaded. i thank God that i am convicted of this.

so many say, "what can i do? eat less rice? buy less stuff?"

it's not how much we deprive ourselves that help. we can throw out all of our affluence and live like the poor, but its to do no good. rather than depriving ourselves, HELP THEM.

GIVE THEM.

give to the poor and the needy, the widows and the orphans, the oppressed and the forsaken. GIVE to them as God has given you.

God is not going to ask our how many rich friends we had, He is going to ask us to how many of the poor that we were friends to.

God is not going to ask us how big our wadrobe is, He is going to ask us how many we had help to clothe.

God is not going to ask us how big is our house, He is going to ask us how much of the poor did we opened our house to.

God is not going to ask us how much we tried to be like the poor.

He is going to ask us how much we tried to help the poor to be free from poverty like us.

i'm taking my steps to helping the poor. it can be simple things, like donating a little more to the students walking around with their tin cans or buying a little more tissue paper from that old lady at the corner.

if there is anything that God is going to measure us by, if there is anything that God is going to judge us by, is by how much we help the poor and the needy.




God cares for the poor and the needy, the widows and orphans, the oppressed and the forsaken.

Do you?



C.K blogged at 6:58 AM